paride.rst 18 KB

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  1. ===================================
  2. Linux and parallel port IDE devices
  3. ===================================
  4. PARIDE v1.03 (c) 1997-8 Grant Guenther <grant@torque.net>
  5. 1. Introduction
  6. ===============
  7. Owing to the simplicity and near universality of the parallel port interface
  8. to personal computers, many external devices such as portable hard-disk,
  9. CD-ROM, LS-120 and tape drives use the parallel port to connect to their
  10. host computer. While some devices (notably scanners) use ad-hoc methods
  11. to pass commands and data through the parallel port interface, most
  12. external devices are actually identical to an internal model, but with
  13. a parallel-port adapter chip added in. Some of the original parallel port
  14. adapters were little more than mechanisms for multiplexing a SCSI bus.
  15. (The Iomega PPA-3 adapter used in the ZIP drives is an example of this
  16. approach). Most current designs, however, take a different approach.
  17. The adapter chip reproduces a small ISA or IDE bus in the external device
  18. and the communication protocol provides operations for reading and writing
  19. device registers, as well as data block transfer functions. Sometimes,
  20. the device being addressed via the parallel cable is a standard SCSI
  21. controller like an NCR 5380. The "ditto" family of external tape
  22. drives use the ISA replicator to interface a floppy disk controller,
  23. which is then connected to a floppy-tape mechanism. The vast majority
  24. of external parallel port devices, however, are now based on standard
  25. IDE type devices, which require no intermediate controller. If one
  26. were to open up a parallel port CD-ROM drive, for instance, one would
  27. find a standard ATAPI CD-ROM drive, a power supply, and a single adapter
  28. that interconnected a standard PC parallel port cable and a standard
  29. IDE cable. It is usually possible to exchange the CD-ROM device with
  30. any other device using the IDE interface.
  31. The document describes the support in Linux for parallel port IDE
  32. devices. It does not cover parallel port SCSI devices, "ditto" tape
  33. drives or scanners. Many different devices are supported by the
  34. parallel port IDE subsystem, including:
  35. - MicroSolutions backpack CD-ROM
  36. - MicroSolutions backpack PD/CD
  37. - MicroSolutions backpack hard-drives
  38. - MicroSolutions backpack 8000t tape drive
  39. - SyQuest EZ-135, EZ-230 & SparQ drives
  40. - Avatar Shark
  41. - Imation Superdisk LS-120
  42. - Maxell Superdisk LS-120
  43. - FreeCom Power CD
  44. - Hewlett-Packard 5GB and 8GB tape drives
  45. - Hewlett-Packard 7100 and 7200 CD-RW drives
  46. as well as most of the clone and no-name products on the market.
  47. To support such a wide range of devices, PARIDE, the parallel port IDE
  48. subsystem, is actually structured in three parts. There is a base
  49. paride module which provides a registry and some common methods for
  50. accessing the parallel ports. The second component is a set of
  51. high-level drivers for each of the different types of supported devices:
  52. === =============
  53. pd IDE disk
  54. pcd ATAPI CD-ROM
  55. pf ATAPI disk
  56. pt ATAPI tape
  57. pg ATAPI generic
  58. === =============
  59. (Currently, the pg driver is only used with CD-R drives).
  60. The high-level drivers function according to the relevant standards.
  61. The third component of PARIDE is a set of low-level protocol drivers
  62. for each of the parallel port IDE adapter chips. Thanks to the interest
  63. and encouragement of Linux users from many parts of the world,
  64. support is available for almost all known adapter protocols:
  65. ==== ====================================== ====
  66. aten ATEN EH-100 (HK)
  67. bpck Microsolutions backpack (US)
  68. comm DataStor (old-type) "commuter" adapter (TW)
  69. dstr DataStor EP-2000 (TW)
  70. epat Shuttle EPAT (UK)
  71. epia Shuttle EPIA (UK)
  72. fit2 FIT TD-2000 (US)
  73. fit3 FIT TD-3000 (US)
  74. friq Freecom IQ cable (DE)
  75. frpw Freecom Power (DE)
  76. kbic KingByte KBIC-951A and KBIC-971A (TW)
  77. ktti KT Technology PHd adapter (SG)
  78. on20 OnSpec 90c20 (US)
  79. on26 OnSpec 90c26 (US)
  80. ==== ====================================== ====
  81. 2. Using the PARIDE subsystem
  82. =============================
  83. While configuring the Linux kernel, you may choose either to build
  84. the PARIDE drivers into your kernel, or to build them as modules.
  85. In either case, you will need to select "Parallel port IDE device support"
  86. as well as at least one of the high-level drivers and at least one
  87. of the parallel port communication protocols. If you do not know
  88. what kind of parallel port adapter is used in your drive, you could
  89. begin by checking the file names and any text files on your DOS
  90. installation floppy. Alternatively, you can look at the markings on
  91. the adapter chip itself. That's usually sufficient to identify the
  92. correct device.
  93. You can actually select all the protocol modules, and allow the PARIDE
  94. subsystem to try them all for you.
  95. For the "brand-name" products listed above, here are the protocol
  96. and high-level drivers that you would use:
  97. ================ ============ ====== ========
  98. Manufacturer Model Driver Protocol
  99. ================ ============ ====== ========
  100. MicroSolutions CD-ROM pcd bpck
  101. MicroSolutions PD drive pf bpck
  102. MicroSolutions hard-drive pd bpck
  103. MicroSolutions 8000t tape pt bpck
  104. SyQuest EZ, SparQ pd epat
  105. Imation Superdisk pf epat
  106. Maxell Superdisk pf friq
  107. Avatar Shark pd epat
  108. FreeCom CD-ROM pcd frpw
  109. Hewlett-Packard 5GB Tape pt epat
  110. Hewlett-Packard 7200e (CD) pcd epat
  111. Hewlett-Packard 7200e (CD-R) pg epat
  112. ================ ============ ====== ========
  113. 2.1 Configuring built-in drivers
  114. ---------------------------------
  115. We recommend that you get to know how the drivers work and how to
  116. configure them as loadable modules, before attempting to compile a
  117. kernel with the drivers built-in.
  118. If you built all of your PARIDE support directly into your kernel,
  119. and you have just a single parallel port IDE device, your kernel should
  120. locate it automatically for you. If you have more than one device,
  121. you may need to give some command line options to your bootloader
  122. (eg: LILO), how to do that is beyond the scope of this document.
  123. The high-level drivers accept a number of command line parameters, all
  124. of which are documented in the source files in linux/drivers/block/paride.
  125. By default, each driver will automatically try all parallel ports it
  126. can find, and all protocol types that have been installed, until it finds
  127. a parallel port IDE adapter. Once it finds one, the probe stops. So,
  128. if you have more than one device, you will need to tell the drivers
  129. how to identify them. This requires specifying the port address, the
  130. protocol identification number and, for some devices, the drive's
  131. chain ID. While your system is booting, a number of messages are
  132. displayed on the console. Like all such messages, they can be
  133. reviewed with the 'dmesg' command. Among those messages will be
  134. some lines like::
  135. paride: bpck registered as protocol 0
  136. paride: epat registered as protocol 1
  137. The numbers will always be the same until you build a new kernel with
  138. different protocol selections. You should note these numbers as you
  139. will need them to identify the devices.
  140. If you happen to be using a MicroSolutions backpack device, you will
  141. also need to know the unit ID number for each drive. This is usually
  142. the last two digits of the drive's serial number (but read MicroSolutions'
  143. documentation about this).
  144. As an example, let's assume that you have a MicroSolutions PD/CD drive
  145. with unit ID number 36 connected to the parallel port at 0x378, a SyQuest
  146. EZ-135 connected to the chained port on the PD/CD drive and also an
  147. Imation Superdisk connected to port 0x278. You could give the following
  148. options on your boot command::
  149. pd.drive0=0x378,1 pf.drive0=0x278,1 pf.drive1=0x378,0,36
  150. In the last option, pf.drive1 configures device /dev/pf1, the 0x378
  151. is the parallel port base address, the 0 is the protocol registration
  152. number and 36 is the chain ID.
  153. Please note: while PARIDE will work both with and without the
  154. PARPORT parallel port sharing system that is included by the
  155. "Parallel port support" option, PARPORT must be included and enabled
  156. if you want to use chains of devices on the same parallel port.
  157. 2.2 Loading and configuring PARIDE as modules
  158. ----------------------------------------------
  159. It is much faster and simpler to get to understand the PARIDE drivers
  160. if you use them as loadable kernel modules.
  161. Note 1:
  162. using these drivers with the "kerneld" automatic module loading
  163. system is not recommended for beginners, and is not documented here.
  164. Note 2:
  165. if you build PARPORT support as a loadable module, PARIDE must
  166. also be built as loadable modules, and PARPORT must be loaded before
  167. the PARIDE modules.
  168. To use PARIDE, you must begin by::
  169. insmod paride
  170. this loads a base module which provides a registry for the protocols,
  171. among other tasks.
  172. Then, load as many of the protocol modules as you think you might need.
  173. As you load each module, it will register the protocols that it supports,
  174. and print a log message to your kernel log file and your console. For
  175. example::
  176. # insmod epat
  177. paride: epat registered as protocol 0
  178. # insmod kbic
  179. paride: k951 registered as protocol 1
  180. paride: k971 registered as protocol 2
  181. Finally, you can load high-level drivers for each kind of device that
  182. you have connected. By default, each driver will autoprobe for a single
  183. device, but you can support up to four similar devices by giving their
  184. individual co-ordinates when you load the driver.
  185. For example, if you had two no-name CD-ROM drives both using the
  186. KingByte KBIC-951A adapter, one on port 0x378 and the other on 0x3bc
  187. you could give the following command::
  188. # insmod pcd drive0=0x378,1 drive1=0x3bc,1
  189. For most adapters, giving a port address and protocol number is sufficient,
  190. but check the source files in linux/drivers/block/paride for more
  191. information. (Hopefully someone will write some man pages one day !).
  192. As another example, here's what happens when PARPORT is installed, and
  193. a SyQuest EZ-135 is attached to port 0x378::
  194. # insmod paride
  195. paride: version 1.0 installed
  196. # insmod epat
  197. paride: epat registered as protocol 0
  198. # insmod pd
  199. pd: pd version 1.0, major 45, cluster 64, nice 0
  200. pda: Sharing parport1 at 0x378
  201. pda: epat 1.0, Shuttle EPAT chip c3 at 0x378, mode 5 (EPP-32), delay 1
  202. pda: SyQuest EZ135A, 262144 blocks [128M], (512/16/32), removable media
  203. pda: pda1
  204. Note that the last line is the output from the generic partition table
  205. scanner - in this case it reports that it has found a disk with one partition.
  206. 2.3 Using a PARIDE device
  207. --------------------------
  208. Once the drivers have been loaded, you can access PARIDE devices in the
  209. same way as their traditional counterparts. You will probably need to
  210. create the device "special files". Here is a simple script that you can
  211. cut to a file and execute::
  212. #!/bin/bash
  213. #
  214. # mkd -- a script to create the device special files for the PARIDE subsystem
  215. #
  216. function mkdev {
  217. mknod $1 $2 $3 $4 ; chmod 0660 $1 ; chown root:disk $1
  218. }
  219. #
  220. function pd {
  221. D=$( printf \\$( printf "x%03x" $[ $1 + 97 ] ) )
  222. mkdev pd$D b 45 $[ $1 * 16 ]
  223. for P in 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
  224. do mkdev pd$D$P b 45 $[ $1 * 16 + $P ]
  225. done
  226. }
  227. #
  228. cd /dev
  229. #
  230. for u in 0 1 2 3 ; do pd $u ; done
  231. for u in 0 1 2 3 ; do mkdev pcd$u b 46 $u ; done
  232. for u in 0 1 2 3 ; do mkdev pf$u b 47 $u ; done
  233. for u in 0 1 2 3 ; do mkdev pt$u c 96 $u ; done
  234. for u in 0 1 2 3 ; do mkdev npt$u c 96 $[ $u + 128 ] ; done
  235. for u in 0 1 2 3 ; do mkdev pg$u c 97 $u ; done
  236. #
  237. # end of mkd
  238. With the device files and drivers in place, you can access PARIDE devices
  239. like any other Linux device. For example, to mount a CD-ROM in pcd0, use::
  240. mount /dev/pcd0 /cdrom
  241. If you have a fresh Avatar Shark cartridge, and the drive is pda, you
  242. might do something like::
  243. fdisk /dev/pda -- make a new partition table with
  244. partition 1 of type 83
  245. mke2fs /dev/pda1 -- to build the file system
  246. mkdir /shark -- make a place to mount the disk
  247. mount /dev/pda1 /shark
  248. Devices like the Imation superdisk work in the same way, except that
  249. they do not have a partition table. For example to make a 120MB
  250. floppy that you could share with a DOS system::
  251. mkdosfs /dev/pf0
  252. mount /dev/pf0 /mnt
  253. 2.4 The pf driver
  254. ------------------
  255. The pf driver is intended for use with parallel port ATAPI disk
  256. devices. The most common devices in this category are PD drives
  257. and LS-120 drives. Traditionally, media for these devices are not
  258. partitioned. Consequently, the pf driver does not support partitioned
  259. media. This may be changed in a future version of the driver.
  260. 2.5 Using the pt driver
  261. ------------------------
  262. The pt driver for parallel port ATAPI tape drives is a minimal driver.
  263. It does not yet support many of the standard tape ioctl operations.
  264. For best performance, a block size of 32KB should be used. You will
  265. probably want to set the parallel port delay to 0, if you can.
  266. 2.6 Using the pg driver
  267. ------------------------
  268. The pg driver can be used in conjunction with the cdrecord program
  269. to create CD-ROMs. Please get cdrecord version 1.6.1 or later
  270. from ftp://ftp.fokus.gmd.de/pub/unix/cdrecord/ . To record CD-R media
  271. your parallel port should ideally be set to EPP mode, and the "port delay"
  272. should be set to 0. With those settings it is possible to record at 2x
  273. speed without any buffer underruns. If you cannot get the driver to work
  274. in EPP mode, try to use "bidirectional" or "PS/2" mode and 1x speeds only.
  275. 3. Troubleshooting
  276. ==================
  277. 3.1 Use EPP mode if you can
  278. ----------------------------
  279. The most common problems that people report with the PARIDE drivers
  280. concern the parallel port CMOS settings. At this time, none of the
  281. PARIDE protocol modules support ECP mode, or any ECP combination modes.
  282. If you are able to do so, please set your parallel port into EPP mode
  283. using your CMOS setup procedure.
  284. 3.2 Check the port delay
  285. -------------------------
  286. Some parallel ports cannot reliably transfer data at full speed. To
  287. offset the errors, the PARIDE protocol modules introduce a "port
  288. delay" between each access to the i/o ports. Each protocol sets
  289. a default value for this delay. In most cases, the user can override
  290. the default and set it to 0 - resulting in somewhat higher transfer
  291. rates. In some rare cases (especially with older 486 systems) the
  292. default delays are not long enough. if you experience corrupt data
  293. transfers, or unexpected failures, you may wish to increase the
  294. port delay. The delay can be programmed using the "driveN" parameters
  295. to each of the high-level drivers. Please see the notes above, or
  296. read the comments at the beginning of the driver source files in
  297. linux/drivers/block/paride.
  298. 3.3 Some drives need a printer reset
  299. -------------------------------------
  300. There appear to be a number of "noname" external drives on the market
  301. that do not always power up correctly. We have noticed this with some
  302. drives based on OnSpec and older Freecom adapters. In these rare cases,
  303. the adapter can often be reinitialised by issuing a "printer reset" on
  304. the parallel port. As the reset operation is potentially disruptive in
  305. multiple device environments, the PARIDE drivers will not do it
  306. automatically. You can however, force a printer reset by doing::
  307. insmod lp reset=1
  308. rmmod lp
  309. If you have one of these marginal cases, you should probably build
  310. your paride drivers as modules, and arrange to do the printer reset
  311. before loading the PARIDE drivers.
  312. 3.4 Use the verbose option and dmesg if you need help
  313. ------------------------------------------------------
  314. While a lot of testing has gone into these drivers to make them work
  315. as smoothly as possible, problems will arise. If you do have problems,
  316. please check all the obvious things first: does the drive work in
  317. DOS with the manufacturer's drivers ? If that doesn't yield any useful
  318. clues, then please make sure that only one drive is hooked to your system,
  319. and that either (a) PARPORT is enabled or (b) no other device driver
  320. is using your parallel port (check in /proc/ioports). Then, load the
  321. appropriate drivers (you can load several protocol modules if you want)
  322. as in::
  323. # insmod paride
  324. # insmod epat
  325. # insmod bpck
  326. # insmod kbic
  327. ...
  328. # insmod pd verbose=1
  329. (using the correct driver for the type of device you have, of course).
  330. The verbose=1 parameter will cause the drivers to log a trace of their
  331. activity as they attempt to locate your drive.
  332. Use 'dmesg' to capture a log of all the PARIDE messages (any messages
  333. beginning with paride:, a protocol module's name or a driver's name) and
  334. include that with your bug report. You can submit a bug report in one
  335. of two ways. Either send it directly to the author of the PARIDE suite,
  336. by e-mail to grant@torque.net, or join the linux-parport mailing list
  337. and post your report there.
  338. 3.5 For more information or help
  339. ---------------------------------
  340. You can join the linux-parport mailing list by sending a mail message
  341. to:
  342. linux-parport-request@torque.net
  343. with the single word::
  344. subscribe
  345. in the body of the mail message (not in the subject line). Please be
  346. sure that your mail program is correctly set up when you do this, as
  347. the list manager is a robot that will subscribe you using the reply
  348. address in your mail headers. REMOVE any anti-spam gimmicks you may
  349. have in your mail headers, when sending mail to the list server.
  350. You might also find some useful information on the linux-parport
  351. web pages (although they are not always up to date) at
  352. http://web.archive.org/web/%2E/http://www.torque.net/parport/