emacs does not recognize my printer (or the print commands)

["Suresh" <Jeyaraman.Suresh@gmail.com>]

Hello all,

  I greatly appreciate any input, anyone can give me on this matter.

  Currently, I use emacs 21.3.1 on RedHat Enterprise 4. Previously, I
had used emacs 21 before, on SuSE 8. Emacs could detect the printer and
pretty-print on SuSE, but cannot do so at the moment. On SuSE, the
.emacs file had the option
(custom-set-variables
  ;; custom-set-vari .......
  ;; .........
 '(lpr-command "lpr")
 '(lpr-printer-switch "-P")
 '(lpr-switches (quote ("")))
 '(make-backup-files nil)
 '(printer-name "proust")

On RedHat this did not work at all. So, I tried adding these vales at
the end of my .emacs file (did not work, either. So, I have commented
them out now).

;; (setq ps-printer-name '("proust"))
;; (setq printer-name '("proust"))

Last but not least, I have also "set" the following values using the
Customize Emacs menu option.

Lpr group
Printer Name:  proust
Lpr Printer switch: -P
lpr command: lpr

Ps Print --> Printer Group
Ps printer name:  Same as printer-name
Ps printer name option: -P
Ps lpr command: lpr

None of this will make emacs print! I can print from the command line
as follows:
   pr co_ordsys.h | lpr

So, I need to do something in emacs, that I do not know. I greatly
appreciate the pretty-print feature and the print selection feature in
emacs (no other editor I know can match these features) and this is
proving to be a handicap.

Lastly, I check the messages buffer, and every time I give the print
buffer command, I get the same message.
;;
;; Emacs message buffer
Loading pp...done
Creating group members... 88%
Creating group magic...
Creating group state...
Creating group... done
Creating customization items ...done
Creating customization setup...
Creating customization buffer...done
Formatting...  0%
Loading ps-mule...done
Formatting...done
Printing...done
GNU Emacs 21.3.1 (i386-redhat-linux-gnu, X toolkit, Xaw3d scroll bars)
of 2005-02-04 on porky.build.redhat.com
Selecting a region with the mouse does `copy' automatically [7 times]
Creating customization buffer...
Creating customization buttons...
Creating customization items...
Creating group...
Creating group members... 91%
Creating group magic...
Creating group state...
Creating group... done
Creating customization items ...done
Creating customization setup...
Creating customization buffer...done
Creating customization buffer...
Creating customization buttons...
Creating customization items...
Creating group...
Creating group members... 85%
Creating group magic...
Creating group state...
Creating group... done
Creating customization items ...done
Creating customization setup...
Creating customization buffer...done
To install your edits, invoke [State] and choose the Set operation [2
times]
Wrote ~.emacs [2 times]
Formatting...done
Printing...done
Beginning of buffer [8 times]
;;
;; End buffer

Any help on the matter is appreciated. Thanks in advance for your help.

And, thank you for reading through this at least.

Sincerely,
Suresh.