The `parport' code provides parallel-port support under Linux.  This
includes the ability to share one port between multiple device
drivers.

You can pass parameters to the parport code to override its automatic
detection of your hardware.  This is particularly useful if you want
to use IRQs, since in general these can't be autoprobed successfully.

If you load the parport code as a module, say

	# insmod parport.o io=0x378,0x278 irq=7,5

to tell the parport code that you want two ports, one at 0x378 using
IRQ 7, and one at 0x278 using IRQ 5. 

If you compile the parport code into the kernel, then you can use
kernel boot parameters to get the same effect.  Add something like the
following to your LILO command line:

	parport=0x378,7 parport=0x278,5

You can have many `parport=...' statements, one for each port you want
to add.  Adding `parport=0' or just `parport=' to the command-line
will disable parport support entirely.

Once the parport code is initialised, you can attach device drivers to
ports.  Normally this happens automatically; if the lp driver is
loaded it will create one lp device for each port found.  You can
override this, though, by using parameters either when you load the lp
driver:

	# insmod lp.o parport=0,2

or on the LILO command line:

	lp=parport0 lp=parport2

Both the above examples would inform lp that you want /dev/lp0 to be
the first parallel port, and /dev/lp1 to be the _third_ parallel port,
with no lp device associated with the second port (parport1).  Note
that this is different to the way older kernels worked; there used to
be a static association between the I/O port address and the device
name, so /dev/lp0 was always the port at 0x3bc.  This is no longer the
case - if you only have one port, it will always be /dev/lp0,
regardless of base address.

Also:

 * If you selected the device autoprobe at compile time, you can say
   `lp=auto' on the kernel command line, and lp will create devices
   only for those ports that seem to have printers attached.

 * If you give PLIP the `timid' parameter, either with `plip=timid' on
   the command line, or with `insmod plip timid=1' when using modules,
   it will avoid any ports that seem to be in use by other devices.

 * If your BIOS allows you to engage "ECP mode", you may find that
   your port's IRQ can be autoprobed, without having to specify any 
   parameters.