Re: Can't read parallel port

From: Dances With Crows (danSPANceswitTRAPhcrows_at_usa.net)
Date: 02/27/04 

Date: 27 Feb 2004 02:32:26 GMT

On Thu, 26 Feb 2004 16:55:29 -0600, Frank Mitchell staggered into the
Black Sun and said:
> Apologies if this is the wrong newsgroup.

Linux, hardware--this is the right place.

> I'm trying to transfer files from my old Linux laptop to my new one.
> After I hooked them together using a Laplink cable

If you've got Ethernet, use it instead. It's faster and much less of a
pain to set up.

> I tried to use lptransfer to move a test file from one to the other.
> The process on each side hung forever, waiting to connect to the
> other.

lptransfer? Ah. http://lptransfer.sourceforge.net/ , documentation
only available in Italian. Bloody heck.

> The old laptop is a ThinkPad 380ED running RedHat 6.1 (kernel
> 2.2.12-20). Poking a little further, I found that /proc/ioports
> contains no entry for the parallel port. parport modules exist, as do
> the parport* (and lp*) devices.

Are they loaded? You need to have parport, parport_pc, and lp loaded.
You didn't post the output of lsmod, so I can't tell, but usually people
forget to load lp. The kernel module autoloader *should* automagically
modprobe lp whenever any process tries to access /dev/lp0 , but Redhat
doesn't always get things right.

> Unfortunately, I have zero understanding of kernel internals, never
> mind the interface between hardware and software. So, I have no idea
> what to do now. (Apart from pursuing a PCMCIA-USB adaptor to write
> files to my USB external drive, which looks even more involved.)

Well, the ancient kernel you have on that ancient Redhat machine won't
grok your PCMCIA USB card or most USB mass storage devices. Hm...
borrow or buy a PCMCIA Ethernet card? I think you can find 3Com589 or
574 PCMCIA cards on eBay for reasonably cheap... yeah, about $10-15 if
you search there for "3com pcmcia".

[snip /proc/ioports and ls of /lib/modules, /dev/lp* ]

/proc/ioports only shows info for devices that have had their modules
loaded. You need to load parport, parport_pc, and lp for most things
involving the parallel port to work properly. HTH, 

-- 
Matt G|There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see
Brainbench MVP for Linux Admin /    mail: TRAP + SPAN don't belong
http://www.brainbench.com     /                Hire me! 
-----------------------------/ http://crow202.dyndns.org/~mhgraham/resume

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