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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.
By default IRQs are not used even if they _can_ be probed. This is
because there are a lot of people using the same IRQ for their
parallel port and a sound card or network card.
The parport code is split into two parts: generic (which deals with
port-sharing) and architecture-dependent (which deals with actually
using the port).
Parport as modules
==================
If you load the parport code as a module, say
# insmod parport.o
to load the generic parport code. You then must load the
architecture-dependent code with (for example):
# insmod parport_pc.o io=0x3bc,0x378,0x278 irq=none,7,auto
to tell the parport code that you want three PC-style ports, one at
0x3bc with no IRQ, one at 0x378 using IRQ 7, and one at 0x278 with an
auto-detected IRQ. Currently, PC-style (parport_pc), Sun Ultra/AX
(parport_ax), Amiga, Atari, and MFC3 hardware is supported.
KMod
----
If you use kmod, you will find it useful to edit /etc/conf.modules.
Here is an example of the lines that need to be added:
post-install parport modprobe -k parport_pc
options parport_pc io=0x378,0x278 irq=7,auto
KMod will then automatically load parport_pc (with the options
"io=0x378,0x278 irq=7,auto") whenever a parallel port device driver
(such as lp) is loaded.
Parport probe [optional]
-------------
In 2.2 kernels there was a module called parport_probe, which was used
for collecting IEEE 1284 device ID information. This has now been
enhanced and now lives with the IEEE 1284 support. When a parallel
port is detected, the devices that are connected to it are analysed,
and information is logged like this:
parport0: Printer, BJC-210 (Canon)
The probe information is available from files in /proc/sys/dev/parport/.
Parport linked into the kernel statically
=========================================
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=0x3bc parport=0x378,7 parport=0x278,auto
You can have many `parport=...' statements, one for each port you want
to add. Adding `parport=0' to the kernel command-line will disable
parport support entirely. Adding `parport=auto' to the kernel
command-line will make parport use any IRQ lines or DMA channels that
it auto-detects.
Files in /proc
==============
If you have configured the /proc filesystem into your kernel, you will
see a new directory entry: /proc/sys/dev/parport. In there will be a
directory entry for each parallel port for which parport is
configured. In each of those directories are a collection of files
describing that parallel port.
The /proc/sys/dev/parport directory tree looks like:
parport
|-- default
| |-- spintime
| `-- timeslice
|-- parport0
| |-- autoprobe
| |-- autoprobe0
| |-- autoprobe1
| |-- autoprobe2
| |-- autoprobe3
| |-- devices
| | |-- active
| | `-- lp
| | `-- timeslice
| |-- hardware
| `-- spintime
`-- parport1
|-- autoprobe
|-- autoprobe0
|-- autoprobe1
|-- autoprobe2
|-- autoprobe3
|-- devices
| |-- active
| `-- ppa
| `-- timeslice
|-- hardware
`-- spintime
File: Contents:
devices/active A list of the device drivers using that port. A "+"
will appear by the name of the device currently using
the port (it might not appear against any). The
string "none" means that there are no device drivers
using that port.
hardware Parallel port's base address, IRQ line and DMA channel.
autoprobe Any IEEE-1284 device ID information that has been
acquired from the (non-IEEE 1284.3) device.
autoprobe[0-3] IEEE 1284 device ID information retrieved from
daisy-chain devices that conform to IEEE 1284.3.
spintime The number of microseconds to busy-loop while waiting
for the peripheral to respond. You might find that
adjusting this improves performance, depending on your
peripherals. This is a port-wide setting, i.e. it
applies to all devices on a particular port.
timeslice The number of miliseconds that a device driver is
allowed to keep a port claimed for. This is advisory,
and driver can ignore it if it must.
default/* The defaults for spintime and timeslice. When a new
port is registered, it picks up the default spintime.
When a new device is registered, it picks up the
default timeslice.
Device drivers
==============
Once the parport code is initialised, you can attach device drivers to
specific 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 default to being /dev/lp0,
regardless of base address.
Also:
* If you selected the IEEE 1284 support 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.
* IRQ autoprobing works only for a few port types at the moment.
--
Philip.Blundell@pobox.com
tim@cyberelk.demon.co.uk
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