Printing from FrameMaker in SheepShaver

[sanibelfl]

I am running Yosemite on a Mac and am having some trouble with FrameMaker 7 running in SheepShaver. Mostly, it works acceptably, but I am unable to print. I have set up my "printer" as per Setup 2 according to

http://www.emaculation.com/doku.php/she ... k_printing

I try to print using Save as File to obtain a .ps file. I get the option of where to safe the file, but when I click to proceed, SheepShaver crashes. Any ideas? Thanks!

[Ronald P. Regensburg]

Does this happen while setting up the printer or while printing? (If the printer is set up correctly, there is no "Proceed" button while printing.)

[sanibelfl]

This happens while printing. There is no "Proceed" button. This problem did not occur with OS10.9. But has appeared after I upgraded to OS10.10.

[Ronald P. Regensburg]

I had printing with MacOS desktop printers in SheepShaver that saved a file to the OSX side fail in various ways after upgrading OSX. Trashing the existing desktop printer and creating a new one solved the issues.

[sanibelfl]

Thanks for the suggestion. Full story: I had no trouble printing when running Mavericks. When I upgraded to Yosemite, the first job did not print. So, I trashed the desktop printer and set up a new one. This worked. The next day, I started up SheepShaver again and tried to print from FrameMaker as before. This crashed again. So I trashed the printer and set up a new one. I was able to print. After a few days I came back and edited a FrameMaker that I wanted to print. Again, the printing failed. Since then, I have trashed and set up a number of printers but have not been able to get anything to print. I have tried printing one page or the whole file and have no success. So, trashing existing desktop printers and creating a new one has not worked. By the way, when I say I try to "print" a job, I am just trying to save the .ps file that printing should produce. I am still stuck.

[Ronald P. Regensburg]

1. Maybe setting up a new desktop printer does not work anymore because the related preferences file got corrupted. I do not know its name in an English system. In Dutch it is "BBP-beheer voorkeuren", short for "Bureaubladprinterbeheer voorkeuren". In the "Kind" column in the Preferences folder window it could be called something like "Desktop Printer Manager document" in the English version. Trash it before you set up a new desktop printer.

2. Try setting the destination to root level in "Unix" rather than a to separate folder in the shared folder.

3. Where did you set up your shared folder for SheepShaver? Maybe the location is more critical in OSX 10.10 than it is in 10.9.

[sanibelfl]

Thank you for your help. I can report the following with respect to your three suggestions.

1. There was a file in the Preferences folder called DTP Utility Preferences with "Kind"
designated as Desktop Printer Utility Document. I trashed this file and emptied the trash.
I then set up a new desktop printer to safe a .ps file.

2. I tried setting the destination to the Desktop, to a folder on the desktop, to the root
level in "Unix" and to a folder in "Unix". In all cases, Sheepshaver crashed right after
clicking the "Save" button.

3. Besides choosing the destination in the "Save" step, I also set up the printer with
different default locations including the destinations mentioned in item 2. In all cases
I was not successful as the system crashed.

Any other ideas? I sure appreciate your thoughts.

[sanibelfl]

Further news:
I found that on my system in addition to LaserWriter 8, I had an extension named AdobePS. I decided to set up a printer using this extension. I named the new default printer "Adobe PS printer." I opened a FrameMaker document. When I tried to print from FrameMaker, there was a pause and then three additional printers appeared on the desktop that I did not generate. These were given the default names: "FrameMakerPDFWriter", "Virtual Printer", and "Create Adobe PDF". I ignored them and continued to try to print using "Adobe PS printer." I got the usual crash. I restarted and found that the three new printers were still on the desktop. I made "FrameMakerPDFWriter" the default printer. I proceeded as usual and tried to save the file using this printer, presuming that I would get a .pdf file if all went well. The system crashed as usual. I restarted and made "Virtual Printer" my default printer. This time, when I tried to print, I was successful. A .ps file of my document was created and placed where I had sent it. So at this point, I have 5 printers on my desktop, the one created using LaserWriter 8, the one created using AdobePS, and the three created while I was printing from FrameMaker. I do not know if continuing use of "Virtual Printer" will proceed without any glitches, but I will continue to try this. I do not know why things have worked. Any ideas?

[Ronald P. Regensburg]

Frankly, no ideas.

I needed to set up printers in SheepShaver again after upgrading to OSX 10.10, but all setups as described in the Printing from SheepShaver and BasiliskII manual work fine here since. I do not use FrameMaker, though.

[sanibelfl]

Thanks for your efforts and assistance. I will update on what happens as I keep trying to print. I do not want to lose the ability to use FrameMaker with SheepShaver! Tot ziens!

[sanibelfl]

System again crashes when trying to print. The fix was apparently temporary. For unknown reasons,
when I started up sheepshaver and opened a framemaker document, sheepshaver crashes when
trying to save a .pdf file by printing. Don't know what to try next except run an older version of
MacOS on VirtualBox and see if that works.

[Ronald P. Regensburg]

Is this an issue specifically with printing from FrameMaker or with printing from any application?

[sanibelfl]

Greetings,
I do not know if this is a FrameMaker specific problem. FrameMaker is the only application I run with SheepShaver.
Thanks. Sorry for the slow response.

[adespoton]

If you try printing a Finder window, do you have the same issues?

[Ronald P. Regensburg]

... or with printing from SimpleText. Isn't SimpleText available in your setup?

[sanibelfl]

Printing the simpletext file to a .ps file worked fine. Then I went to FrameMaker and tried the same printing to a .ps file and the system crashed. I guess this suggests a FrameMaker issue. I do not know what to do about that.

[NucAr]

There was a discussion about FrameMaker 7.0 compatibility in SheepShaver:

http://www.emaculation.com/forum/viewto ... =20&t=8262

Specifically, running in "Structured FrameMaker mode" helps compatibility.

[Ronald P. Regensburg]

FrameMaker print jobs will be larger and/or more complex than SimpleText print jobs. Maybe giving Desktop PrintMonitor more memory will help.

Desktop PrintMonitor is an application that resides in the Extensions folder in the System Folder. Select the application's icon, hit command-I to show the Finder Info panel, choose Memory from the "Show" drop-down menu in the panel. Increase both minimum and preferred memory size (preferred size first) to 300K and close the Info panel.

[sanibelfl]

I have previously seen the post concerning structured FrameMaker. That makes no difference to this issue.
I changed Desktop Print Monitor to 300K minimum and preferred. The system crashes. I would have been
surprised if that had worked because I have saved .ps files of documents that are over 100 pages long
and mostly equations without incident until I updated my OS to Yosemite. Thanks for the suggestions.

[Mr. Tamarin]

I have good news and bad news.

The good news is that I was just able to generate a 426 page book from FrameMaker 7.0p577 running in Mac OS 9.0.4 using the latest SheepShaver build running on Mac OSX 10.10.5. So it does work.

The bad news is that the crashing you are experiencing appears to be an issue that is particular to your setup.

Here are a few more details about my setup.

I allocate 512 MB of RAM in the SheepShaver preferences. I also select the following checkboxes under Miscellaneous:
Enable JIT Compiler
Allow Emulated CPU to Idle
Ignore Illegal Instructions
Ignore Illegal Memory Accesses

I allocated a lot of RAM to FrameMaker within Mac OS. I set the Minimum Size = 32196 K and Preferred Size = 73156 K. Don't ask how I arrived at those numbers because I don't remember. I don't think they're significant other than give FrameMaker lots of RAM.

Make sure you are running in Structured FrameMaker mode. This requires restarting FrameMaker after setting the preference.

I am using AdobePS 8.8.0(301) as the chooser extension.

Make sure the Virtual printer is mapped to the "Acrobat Distiller" PPD as described in this topic:
http://www.emaculation.com/forum/viewto ... PPD#p40328

If you are using a book file containing a number of separate chapter files, I find I have better success if I have all the chapters open in FrameMaker while printing. With the bookfile open, you can hold down the Shift key and choose File > Open All Files in Book. You can dismiss any messages about missing fonts, etc while opening the files.

I chose the "Virtual" desktop printer in Page Setup in FrameMaker before printing the PostScript file which I later distilled on the Mac OSX side.

The last thing to do is close your eyes, click your heels together three times, and say "I want it to print; I want it to Print; I want it to Print..."

[sanibelfl]

Thank you! I am away from my SheepShaver machine until Dec 19. I will try your tip then.
I have mentioned that I did not have any trouble with Sheepshaver on OS 10.9. When I
went to 10.10, there was trouble. I had success after the first installation of the printer, even with large files. My trouble has been an inability to reliably print. I am wondering if you have had only initial success printing or if your printing situation is stable. In any event, I will check my settings and try yours after I get back to my machine. Again, thanks!

[Mr. Tamarin]

Seems to be totally stable for me. I opened up the same book source files, and I saved a PostScript file eight more times using the various PostScript options available in the print dialog.

I saved in the following PostScript levels:
Level 1, 2 and 3 Compatible
Level 2 Only
Level 3 Only

I saved it in ASCII and in Binary data formats at each of the PostScript levels. Saving in ASCII format nearly doubles the size of the PostScript file. I typically use Binary format.

I saved it with Font Inclusion set to All and to None.

I haven't found a setting yet that makes it crash.

[sanibelfl]

Thanks for your trouble. I will work at this when I get back. Perhaps I just need to do
a reinstall. Your help is much appreciated.

[sanibelfl]

Greetings! I set things up as you suggested and have had success! I have printed multiple documents, restarted SheepShaver, and saved postscript files with success. I am not sure what the problem was, but I am in business. Thanks to those who spent time helping me out with their wisdom.