Thanks for the advice. In the end, I selected the upgrade option on my reinstall and didn't reformat as I didn't fancy going to the trouble of re-installing all the extra stuff I'd added since the original installation. This took about ten minutes and when I rebooted, the drive was detected, even down to there being an icon for it on the desktop. I set up a mount point using Control Centre and eventually got the permissions right. It's working fine now with no printing conflicts so far.
Technoslick wrote:
Sorry for the very late reply, Graham, but this is the best that I can do--
when I 'get' your post 'four days' after you made it. <sigh>
I am going to cover a lot of ground in this post to make sure that whatever
results you get are not because of any neglected set-up issues.
If this is not a multi-boot installation, just MDK Linux, I would say it
isn't that much extra work to wipe everything off and start as if the drive
was being first baptized with Linux. I have this thing for removing all
possible variables when I do something like this. It's up to you whether you
want to keep your current installation and just load new over it.
If you do decided to start over 'clean', use the Linux 'fdisk' to remove all
your Linux partitions. After writing the deletion to the drive, insert your
MDK CD #1 in the primary CD-ROM drive and turn the box off. You didn't
mention whether this was a dual-boot/multi-boot set-up. I am going to assume
is not. you can adjust all of this accordingly.
When you next boot-up, on starting your install, you need to go into the
BIOS and check two settings before installing Linux. The first is that 'PNP
O/S' is set to 'No'. the second is that your printer port is set to whatever
your drive and/or printer needs. ECP is generally required for all modern
printers. ECP-EPP is also good. SPP is uni-directional printing, generally
for the older, dumber lasers, very old ink-jets and dot-matrix printers. You
did not say whether you plan on daisy-chaining a printer to the back of the
Zip drive. I strongly recommend that you don't, if the printer is a
relatively new ink-jet or laser. If you still have the documentation for
your printer, see if there is a reference to this. I have seen it stated
before. Check the documentation for the Zip drive (you probably don't have
any, right?) to see whether it can work under ECP or must have SPP. Iomega
has stated that some of the earlier models 'must' run under SPP. If this is
true for yours (and you probably won't know until after all is said and
done), you will have to make some compromise or buy another printer port
card. If you can afford to, have space in the computer for it, and are
inclined to open your computer to put one in, get a high-speed printer port
card. You will always have the best performance and 'luck' when each of
these devices are on its own printer port.
Connect your Zip drive up to the parallel port, daisy-chain your printer, if
you must, and make sure that both are on before starting the install of MDK.
Boot-up, check your BIOS as I mentioned earlier, make your adjustments if
necessary, save and re-boot into your MDK installation. During the initial
stages of the install, your Zip drive will be recognized and the appropriate
parallel port/SCSI configuration made. MDK may also recognize your printer,
too. Even then, you will have to see in the end if you can use the Zip drive
and the printer, alternately at first, then together (like printing from a
file on the Zip drive) to see what you can do or not do.
I apologize for the very technical, and lengthy post on what should be a
simple answer. My experience has shown that the only way to be insure that
software works correctly is to make sure that the hardware it drives is set
appropriately. A little patience and prep in the beginning assures you that
any problems you encounter later on will more likely be software issues, not
hardware related. Zip drives are notoriously testy by their very nature and
cause more printer-related problems than any others I have seen out in the
field. As the externals have gone to USB, these problems are almost
non-existent. But, you and I are trying to apply old technology to a modern
world of software driven printers that communicate back to the computer
through that very same port. Here's where the two conflict, both polling and
wanting control of that same port simultaneously. I am very ignorant of how
Linux manages the two here, compared to the Windows environment, so the
settings and prep here will make sure that Linux gets he best chance to
makes things work right.
Good luck to you. Let me know if you have any problems, either here or by
direct email. If you decide to repost, give me a week at least, to be sure
that I get your post. ;-)
T
----- Original Message -----
From: "Graham Watkins" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Tuesday, October 29, 2002 2:45 PM
Subject: Re: [newbie] how to mount zip drive, post install, Dell laptop
Technoslick wrote:
I finally got around to installing my external Zip 100 drive to one ofIf you don't mind me asking, how did you go about the re-install? Did
my MDK boxes...
Before I tried to manually install it on my MDK 8.2 computer, I looked
at several references, one of which from Iomega's own Web site (you
pointed me there, indirectly.) Those instructions conflicted a bit
with another set that came up as a high score in Google for what I was
looking for. I tried it both ways, neither of which helped me get the
drive to be recognized. I eventually ended up reinstalling 8.2 because
I think I may have messed up my symlinks and got so terribly confused.
On install, 8.2 found the drive and took care of everything for me. Phew!
you reformat the partitions or just install over what was already there?
Someone's just lent me an external zip drive and Ifind the prospect of
re-compiling the kernel too daunting to contemplate.
--
Graham Watkins
For me, morning begins when I realize that the soft warm body curled up next
to me is a cat. (Kinky Friedman - Frequent Flyer)
Registered Linux user number 265254 http://counter.li.org
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft?
Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Graham Watkins
For me, morning begins when I realize that the soft warm body curled up next to me is a cat. (Kinky Friedman - Frequent Flyer)
Registered Linux user number 265254 http://counter.li.org
Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
