[PARPORT] PCMCIA parallel port (Quatech SPP-100) supported?


Brian T. Schellenberger (babbleon@bigfoot.com)
Sun, 26 Sep 1999 10:52:41 -0400


Ok, I'm not able to get my parallel port working in EPP mode.
It works in SPP mode but I can't write CD-ROMs that way 'cause I
underflow the buffer.

I actually got to the point that I bought a new computer but I
ended up sending it back for other reasons after 20 hours so I'm
back to the original one.

So I'm now wondering if just buying a new parallel port would make
more sense. Of course, with a laptop, that means getting a PCMCIA
parallel port, of which the only one I can find is the Quatech SPP-100.

So . . . does anybody know whether this actually works under Linux?
Does anybody know whether on principle is "should" even if they don't
actually have proof?

Alternatively, I can resume playing with the port I have. I got a
power scrubber and the Sparq drive, which had previously given me
all sorts of trouble, now works fine, except that it's in SPP mode
so it eats up something on the order of 90% of the CPU for more than
an hour to read or write an entire (1G) disk.

I will play around some more post-scrubber, but since the port on the
computer seemed to be the problem, and since it's a laptop, with the
power converted and battery effectively scrubbing power already, I'm not
terribly hopeful.

In the meantime if anybody's had better luck with this chip:

LPT= 0378, C0 00 FF 00 00
Bidirectional
Chipset: SMC FDC37C665IR
Mode: EPP

*please* let me know.

PS: I'm still using a 2.0.36 kernel. Is there any serious reason to
believe
that my problems ("device busy" failure to initialize if I have the BIOS
in EPP mode) would get cleared up if I went through the pain of
upgrading?

(I'm using redhat 5.2, and their web site implies that a 2.2 upgrade is
non-trivial, and my previous experience with a RedHat "upgrade" (eg, to
6.0) was so awful that I swore never to repeat it. So if I upgrade I'll
backup and install from scratch [with something *other* than RedHat this
time], so I don't really want to do it unless I have some reason to
believe that it will make a difference. However, if I can upgrade just
the parport drivers, I'm certainly game for that. I assume, however,
that this is out of the question.)

-- 
Brian T. Schellenberger, "Brian, the man from babble-on"
babbleon@bigfoot.com

-=: It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing :=-

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