Errors at boot time, can't print

[root]

Hi all,
        I have YDL 2.2 installed on an old PowerComputing clone, and 
I can't print. The printer in question (an Epson Stylus Photo 750, 
serial connection) works fine under MacOS 9.1, so there's no hardware 
problem.
        At boot time, I get the message

        lpd:    Get_local_host: Hostname 'localhost' bad

along with

        xfs: chmod: getting permissions on 'fonts.dir': file missing or
        damaged

(I don't know whether this is related to print problems, but all the 
menus, dialogs, etc. in KDE are stuck in Courier.)
        Running lpc yields the same "hostname 'localhost' bad" 
message, no matter what arguments are passed.
        The device (/dev/ttyS1) is correct; when I redirect output 
directly to it (e.g., with something like "man lpr > /dev/ttyS1") the 
printer light blinks, indicating it's recieving data, though it can't 
make sense of it...I end up having to kill the task to unlock the 
console.
        The /etc/hosts.allow file includes the single line

        localhost       127.0.0.1

and hosts.deny is empty. lpd.conf and lpd.perms appear to be set to 
their defaults. As for printcap.local, I have added the line

        :br#1843200:sync:ixon:-parity:-cstopb:\

to comply with Epson's weird serial spec; the following is taken more 
or less verbatim from the Photo 750 user manual:

        Interface:      Apple RS-423 Extended (backward compatible with 
RS-232)
        Protocols:      XON-XOFF and DTR
                        (this is the weird part; why don't they use RTS/CTS?)
        Mode:           Synchronous
        Bits:           8 data, no parity, 1 start, 1 stop (huh?)
        Baud:           Approximately 1.8 Mbps
        Buffer size:    256 kB

Any suggestions? I don't have CUPS, and printconfig-gui appears 
normal; there's even several filters for the Photo 750/Color 
740...until I actually try to print something.
        TIA
        Mark L. Alexander
        alexander750@earthlink.net