Re: [PARPORT] Difference between BPCD and BPCK


grant@torque.net
Thu, 3 Dec 1998 10:42:33 -0500 (EST)


> Probably been asked before, but what is the difference between bpcd and
> bpck? The Linux CD-ROM HOWTO recommends using bpcd, while PARIDE.TXT
> suggests bpck. When RH Linux v5.2 installs what does it use and when I
> selected "AutoProbe" what did it do?

It's probably a good idea to look at the dates on the various documents.

bpcd is obsolete.

bpcd was a simple driver that supported only certain models of the backpack
family. It was replaced about a year ago by the PARIDE suite of drivers
and protocol modules. It was only ever an official part of the 2.1
kernels between about 2.1.30 and 2.1.80 ...

bpcd was roughly equivalent to pcd+bpck+paride.

PARIDE is easier to maintain, and contains a lot more functionality.

Now, to the RedHat story.

Long ago, back in the 1.3 days when bpcd was first developed, Donny and
Erik at RedHat agreed to put support for backpacks into the installer.

The "Microsolutions backpack" option in the installer still uses
an old version of the bpcd driver. The installed system, however,
has full support for pcd, bpck, etc.

The next version of RedHat will probably have the current pcd+bpck+paride
driver on it, but we are still looking for a better solution.

Frankly, SuSE and Slackware are both ahead of RedHat on support for
the PARIDE CD-ROMs for installation.

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Grant R. Guenther grant@torque.net
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