Fiery Features on Mac, two way communication, network presets and paper catalog

[dennymingus]

Ok, I was able to determine how to answer my question based on knowing the names of the daemons.

[Joe Arseneau]

From the Fiery forum Mac section:

Two new processes called „fieryd‟ and „fiery_bidi‟ will be seen in the „Activity Monitor‟ when the driver is installed on a Mac OS 10.10 and up. These two processes are the result of the modifications mentioned above.

[dennymingus]

Can you tell me the name of the Fiery daemon?

[Joe Arseneau]

No idea, you would need to ask EFI, Xerox plays no part in their software or hardware.

[dennymingus]

So what is keeping the daemon from communicating with the Fiery server and feeding the information to the Fiery driver, rather than attempting to communicate with the Windows server? 

[Joe Arseneau]

You can, it just isn't supported and won't be expected to be full featured since Apple changed their rules for Bi-Di. As far as I know, no company has bothered to come up with a new way in Windows to match what Apple now requires so you can't just go through Windows with a Mac. The user-base that works that way is probably much too low to invest in developing a Windows driver that translates the SNMP info into something that the Macs would be allowed to use.

But any technical and Official answer will not come from a peer to peer forum like this one, The EFI forum might as their support staff actually reply there..

[dennymingus]

So am I understanding you correctly that I am not able to print to a Windows server using a Mac via LPR with Fiery drivers? 

[Joe Arseneau]

1) I can understand why Fiery can't support just any configuration, but sharing a printer from a print server is standard procedure most places

Because Apple changed what can have bi directional ability so all the print manufacturers had to come up with a new way to do the same old things they always did and still do in Windows, EFI created a Daemon that runs in the background on the Mac that feeds the information back to the driver, this can't work with a Windows Server. So you need a CUPS based server for Mac users, be it Linux/Unix/Mac shouldn't matter, just not Windows.

2) I'm using LPR to connect to the print server. 

3) I'm using the latest Fiery driver for the Versant 2100 from the EFI web site.  However, the panel which is titled, "select Fiery model and version", contains three links, all of which say "EX PS & EX-P PS for Versant 2100 Pres". I assume there is more, but the titles are so long they are cut off by the boundary of the box they are in.  I chose the second one, since it has choices for OSX throught 10.12 and Windows 10.

The problem lies in not being able to specify the IP address for two-way communication.  I can do so on the PC, works great.  Why isn't this an option for the Mac version of this sofware?

Same as I stated above, it is fed by the Daemon now since Apple changed what can have Bi-Di running.

Readme for Mac drivers from EFI.

Fiery forum for Macs.

[dennymingus]

1) I can understand why Fiery can't support just any configuration, but sharing a printer from a print server is standard procedure most places

2) I'm using LPR to connect to the print server. 

3) I'm using the latest Fiery driver for the Versant 2100 from the EFI web site.  However, the panel which is titled, "select Fiery model and version", contains three links, all of which say "EX PS & EX-P PS for Versant 2100 Pres". I assume there is more, but the titles are so long they are cut off by the boundary of the box they are in.  I chose the second one, since it has choices for OSX throught 10.12 and Windows 10.

The problem lies in not being able to specify the IP address for two-way communication.  I can do so on the PC, works great.  Why isn't this an option for the Mac version of this sofware?

[Joe Arseneau]

1. This is completely unsupported by both Xerox and EFI.

2. Try different methods on the Mac side for adding the printer, IPP will definitely not work, but LPD just might, possibly even HP Jet Direct.

3. See if you can do what is needed through CUPS

Now having said all that, there are definitely Bi-Di issues on 10.12.4, the only fix for Mac's right now is to use the Mac driver currently hosted on EFI's web page released April 4 2017.