Hi all! When I first set up my Debian box, and whenever I've recompiled/upgraded/etc, I've left the support for parallel ports out, because I didn't have a printer.
Now I have a printer. I turned on the parallel port in CMOS (standard irq/io settings). I recompiled my kernel (using "make menuconfig"), and set the following: Under "Loadable Module Support", I set *'d "Enable loadable module support" and "Kernel module loader". Under "General Setup, I M'd "Parallel Port support" and "PC-Style hardware". Under "Plug and Play Support", I left the "Plug and Play" support blank (I only have PCI devices). Under "Block Devices", I only saw one reference to the parallel port, and it referred to IDE support, which didn't sound like anything I needed, so I left it blank. Under "Network Device Support", I left "PLIP..." blank, as I don't believe I need it. Under "Character Devices", I M'd "Parallel Printer Support" and *'d "Support IEEE1284 status readback". I then did a "make dep", then a "make clean", then a "make bzImage", then "make modules", then "make modules_install", then I copied the bzImage to /boot. Since the new kernel image is named the same as the old kernel image, I may not have re-run LILO. Did I need to? I've got my printcap pointing to /dev/lp0. This is one question I have; it seems that when I started with Linux, /dev/lp0 referred to what would be lpt1 in the DOS/Windows world, but that it has changed since then so that /dev/lp1 refers to DOS's lpt1. True or not? (BTW, my kernel is 2.2.14, and my system is mostly (entirely maybe?) a potato system.) On reboot, when I try to print something to the printer (I believe my printcap is set up properly) using "lp Notes" (Notes is a plain text file), and then do an "lpq", I get: Printer: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 'HP LaserJet III' Queue: 1 printable job Server: pid 2026 active Unspooler: pid 2033 active Status: cannot open '/dev/lp0' - 'No such device', attempt 2, sleeping 20 at 18:17:36.195 Rank Owner/ID Class Job Files Size Time active(attempt-2) [EMAIL PROTECTED] A 25 Notes 9619 18:16:55 When I do an "lsmod", I get Module Size Used by vmnet 16160 2 vmmon 17664 1 es1371 22656 0 (unused) soundcore 2340 4 [es1371] 3c59x 18304 1 smbfs 25360 0 (unused) When I do a "ls -l /dev/lp*", I get: crw-rw---- 1 root lp 6, 0 Mar 3 1999 /dev/lp0 crw-rw---- 1 root lp 6, 1 Mar 3 1999 /dev/lp1 crw-rw---- 1 root lp 6, 2 Mar 3 1999 /dev/lp2 When I do a "cat /proc/devices", I get: Character devices: 1 mem 2 pty 3 ttyp 4 ttyS 5 cua 7 vcs 10 misc 14 sound 119 vmnet 128 ptm 136 pts Block devices: 2 fd 3 ide0 22 ide1 (What's "vcs" on # 7? Does this refer to IRQ7? If so, are the numbers above 15 virtual IRQs or something?) An "insmod lp0" gives me a "no module by that name found". Same for "insmod lp1". However, an "insmod lp" gives: /lib/modules/2.2.14/misc/lp.o: unresolved symbol parport_ieee1284_nibble_mode_ok /lib/modules/2.2.14/misc/lp.o: unresolved symbol parport_unregister_device /lib/modules/2.2.14/misc/lp.o: unresolved symbol parport_enumerate /lib/modules/2.2.14/misc/lp.o: unresolved symbol parport_claim_or_block /lib/modules/2.2.14/misc/lp.o: unresolved symbol parport_register_device /lib/modules/2.2.14/misc/lp.o: unresolved symbol parport_wait_peripheral /lib/modules/2.2.14/misc/lp.o: unresolved symbol parport_release A "modprobe lp" gives: /lib/modules/2.2.14/misc/lp.o: invalid parameter parm_io /lib/modules/2.2.14/misc/lp.o: insmod /lib/modules/2.2.14/misc/lp.o failed /lib/modules/2.2.14/misc/lp.o: insmod lp failed I'm without clue. I apparently don't know how to get my parallel port working. Can anyone give me any help here? For some reason I've been bumped from the list, and can't seem to get resubscribed, so please CC me. Thanks!