Robert Heller writes:
>
>
> In message <16041.28100.412845.726694@ke1g.mv.com>, Bill Freeman writes:
> > I have an external prallel port generic IDE drive box that
> >works with on26. Using a normal IDE disk and pd things are just fine.
> >
> > I'd like to use it with an ATAPI Zip drive. Using pf, fdisk
> >can see it just fine, and I can, for example, eject the disk with
> >eject.
> >
> > But, since pf was apparently written with non-partitioned
> >disks (LS-120, CDs) in mind. Zip disks, however, are partitioned.
>
> *Normal* (internal) IDE Zip drives, show up like 'regular' IDE disks --
> /dev/hdX, which can be partitioned (or not). Same is true of SCSI Zip
> drives, both as true SCSI Zip drives (yes, these do exist) and as
> parallel port types (which have a built-in parallel port SCSI
> interface) -- they show up as 'regular' SCSI disks, eg /dev/sdX.
> Shouldn't the IDE (ATAPI) Zip drive connected via your parallel-port
> IDE controller also show up as just another IDE disk?
By this do you mean that when the pf module recognizes the
drive that it should then show up as hdX? I'll have to look closer,
but I don't think so. (The box is home, I'm at work, so I won't get a
chance to try for a while). Certainly, when I stick an IDE hard drive
in this box and use the pd module, it shows up as pda\d*, not, for
example, hde\d*. As a point of interest, fdisk labels the partition
pf0p1, which, of course, is not an existing node.
> > Is there something short of reworking the pf driver to support
> >partitioning that will get me around this?
>
> Can you see the Zip drive as a 'regular' IDE disk via your parallel
> port IDE interface (I'm guessing /dev/pdXn)? If so, that is your
> solution.
No. The pd module doesn't recognize the drive. pf does and
correctly reports the identity string, after which /dev/pf0 is a working
argument for fdisk and eject. mount claims not to recognize the file
system, since, of course, the master record with the partition table
is not a valid superblock, etc.
> Note: you don't *have* to partition Zip carts, although it is a normal
> thing to do.
True, I wouldn't have to partition a Zip disk for internal use,
but when someone hands me a Zip disk as a sneaker-net transfer, and her
system (not Linux) uses partitioning, I need to deal with it. (Not that
there aren't workarounds. Use the Zip drive on the desktop and the
ethernet, for example. But it would be nice to be able to keep this
box in the trunk of the car for use with the laptop.)
Bill
-- To unsubscribe, send mail to: linux-parport-request@torque.net --
-- with the single word "unsubscribe" in the body of the message. --
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Apr 25 2003 - 16:11:15 EDT