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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 | |||
6 | 1. Introduction | ||
7 | |||
8 | Owing to the simplicity and near universality of the parallel port interface | ||
9 | to personal computers, many external devices such as portable hard-disk, | ||
10 | CD-ROM, LS-120 and tape drives use the parallel port to connect to their | ||
11 | host computer. While some devices (notably scanners) use ad-hoc methods | ||
12 | to pass commands and data through the parallel port interface, most | ||
13 | external devices are actually identical to an internal model, but with | ||
14 | a parallel-port adapter chip added in. Some of the original parallel port | ||
15 | adapters were little more than mechanisms for multiplexing a SCSI bus. | ||
16 | (The Iomega PPA-3 adapter used in the ZIP drives is an example of this | ||
17 | approach). Most current designs, however, take a different approach. | ||
18 | The adapter chip reproduces a small ISA or IDE bus in the external device | ||
19 | and the communication protocol provides operations for reading and writing | ||
20 | device registers, as well as data block transfer functions. Sometimes, | ||
21 | the device being addressed via the parallel cable is a standard SCSI | ||
22 | controller like an NCR 5380. The "ditto" family of external tape | ||
23 | drives use the ISA replicator to interface a floppy disk controller, | ||
24 | which is then connected to a floppy-tape mechanism. The vast majority | ||
25 | of external parallel port devices, however, are now based on standard | ||
26 | IDE type devices, which require no intermediate controller. If one | ||
27 | were to open up a parallel port CD-ROM drive, for instance, one would | ||
28 | find a standard ATAPI CD-ROM drive, a power supply, and a single adapter | ||
29 | that interconnected a standard PC parallel port cable and a standard | ||
30 | IDE cable. It is usually possible to exchange the CD-ROM device with | ||
31 | any other device using the IDE interface. | ||
32 | |||
33 | The document describes the support in Linux for parallel port IDE | ||
34 | devices. It does not cover parallel port SCSI devices, "ditto" tape | ||
35 | drives or scanners. Many different devices are supported by the | ||
36 | parallel port IDE subsystem, including: | ||
37 | |||
38 | MicroSolutions backpack CD-ROM | ||
39 | MicroSolutions backpack PD/CD | ||
40 | MicroSolutions backpack hard-drives | ||
41 | MicroSolutions backpack 8000t tape drive | ||
42 | SyQuest EZ-135, EZ-230 & SparQ drives | ||
43 | Avatar Shark | ||
44 | Imation Superdisk LS-120 | ||
45 | Maxell Superdisk LS-120 | ||
46 | FreeCom Power CD | ||
47 | Hewlett-Packard 5GB and 8GB tape drives | ||
48 | Hewlett-Packard 7100 and 7200 CD-RW drives | ||
49 | |||
50 | as well as most of the clone and no-name products on the market. | ||
51 | |||
52 | To support such a wide range of devices, PARIDE, the parallel port IDE | ||
53 | subsystem, is actually structured in three parts. There is a base | ||
54 | paride module which provides a registry and some common methods for | ||
55 | accessing the parallel ports. The second component is a set of | ||
56 | high-level drivers for each of the different types of supported devices: | ||
57 | |||
58 | pd IDE disk | ||
59 | pcd ATAPI CD-ROM | ||
60 | pf ATAPI disk | ||
61 | pt ATAPI tape | ||
62 | pg ATAPI generic | ||
63 | |||
64 | (Currently, the pg driver is only used with CD-R drives). | ||
65 | |||
66 | The high-level drivers function according to the relevant standards. | ||
67 | The third component of PARIDE is a set of low-level protocol drivers | ||
68 | for each of the parallel port IDE adapter chips. Thanks to the interest | ||
69 | and encouragement of Linux users from many parts of the world, | ||
70 | support is available for almost all known adapter protocols: | ||
71 | |||
72 | aten ATEN EH-100 (HK) | ||
73 | bpck Microsolutions backpack (US) | ||
74 | comm DataStor (old-type) "commuter" adapter (TW) | ||
75 | dstr DataStor EP-2000 (TW) | ||
76 | epat Shuttle EPAT (UK) | ||
77 | epia Shuttle EPIA (UK) | ||
78 | fit2 FIT TD-2000 (US) | ||
79 | fit3 FIT TD-3000 (US) | ||
80 | friq Freecom IQ cable (DE) | ||
81 | frpw Freecom Power (DE) | ||
82 | kbic KingByte KBIC-951A and KBIC-971A (TW) | ||
83 | ktti KT Technology PHd adapter (SG) | ||
84 | on20 OnSpec 90c20 (US) | ||
85 | on26 OnSpec 90c26 (US) | ||
86 | |||
87 | |||
88 | 2. Using the PARIDE subsystem | ||
89 | |||
90 | While configuring the Linux kernel, you may choose either to build | ||
91 | the PARIDE drivers into your kernel, or to build them as modules. | ||
92 | |||
93 | In either case, you will need to select "Parallel port IDE device support" | ||
94 | as well as at least one of the high-level drivers and at least one | ||
95 | of the parallel port communication protocols. If you do not know | ||
96 | what kind of parallel port adapter is used in your drive, you could | ||
97 | begin by checking the file names and any text files on your DOS | ||
98 | installation floppy. Alternatively, you can look at the markings on | ||
99 | the adapter chip itself. That's usually sufficient to identify the | ||
100 | correct device. | ||
101 | |||
102 | You can actually select all the protocol modules, and allow the PARIDE | ||
103 | subsystem to try them all for you. | ||
104 | |||
105 | For the "brand-name" products listed above, here are the protocol | ||
106 | and high-level drivers that you would use: | ||
107 | |||
108 | Manufacturer Model Driver Protocol | ||
109 | |||
110 | MicroSolutions CD-ROM pcd bpck | ||
111 | MicroSolutions PD drive pf bpck | ||
112 | MicroSolutions hard-drive pd bpck | ||
113 | MicroSolutions 8000t tape pt bpck | ||
114 | SyQuest EZ, SparQ pd epat | ||
115 | Imation Superdisk pf epat | ||
116 | Maxell Superdisk pf friq | ||
117 | Avatar Shark pd epat | ||
118 | FreeCom CD-ROM pcd frpw | ||
119 | Hewlett-Packard 5GB Tape pt epat | ||
120 | Hewlett-Packard 7200e (CD) pcd epat | ||
121 | Hewlett-Packard 7200e (CD-R) pg epat | ||
122 | |||
123 | 2.1 Configuring built-in drivers | ||
124 | |||
125 | We recommend that you get to know how the drivers work and how to | ||
126 | configure them as loadable modules, before attempting to compile a | ||
127 | kernel with the drivers built-in. | ||
128 | |||
129 | If you built all of your PARIDE support directly into your kernel, | ||
130 | and you have just a single parallel port IDE device, your kernel should | ||
131 | locate it automatically for you. If you have more than one device, | ||
132 | you may need to give some command line options to your bootloader | ||
133 | (eg: LILO), how to do that is beyond the scope of this document. | ||
134 | |||
135 | The high-level drivers accept a number of command line parameters, all | ||
136 | of which are documented in the source files in linux/drivers/block/paride. | ||
137 | By default, each driver will automatically try all parallel ports it | ||
138 | can find, and all protocol types that have been installed, until it finds | ||
139 | a parallel port IDE adapter. Once it finds one, the probe stops. So, | ||
140 | if you have more than one device, you will need to tell the drivers | ||
141 | how to identify them. This requires specifying the port address, the | ||
142 | protocol identification number and, for some devices, the drive's | ||
143 | chain ID. While your system is booting, a number of messages are | ||
144 | displayed on the console. Like all such messages, they can be | ||
145 | reviewed with the 'dmesg' command. Among those messages will be | ||
146 | some lines like: | ||
147 | |||
148 | paride: bpck registered as protocol 0 | ||
149 | paride: epat registered as protocol 1 | ||
150 | |||
151 | The numbers will always be the same until you build a new kernel with | ||
152 | different protocol selections. You should note these numbers as you | ||
153 | will need them to identify the devices. | ||
154 | |||
155 | If you happen to be using a MicroSolutions backpack device, you will | ||
156 | also need to know the unit ID number for each drive. This is usually | ||
157 | the last two digits of the drive's serial number (but read MicroSolutions' | ||
158 | documentation about this). | ||
159 | |||
160 | As an example, let's assume that you have a MicroSolutions PD/CD drive | ||
161 | with unit ID number 36 connected to the parallel port at 0x378, a SyQuest | ||
162 | EZ-135 connected to the chained port on the PD/CD drive and also an | ||
163 | Imation Superdisk connected to port 0x278. You could give the following | ||
164 | options on your boot command: | ||
165 | |||
166 | pd.drive0=0x378,1 pf.drive0=0x278,1 pf.drive1=0x378,0,36 | ||
167 | |||
168 | In the last option, pf.drive1 configures device /dev/pf1, the 0x378 | ||
169 | is the parallel port base address, the 0 is the protocol registration | ||
170 | number and 36 is the chain ID. | ||
171 | |||
172 | Please note: while PARIDE will work both with and without the | ||
173 | PARPORT parallel port sharing system that is included by the | ||
174 | "Parallel port support" option, PARPORT must be included and enabled | ||
175 | if you want to use chains of devices on the same parallel port. | ||
176 | |||
177 | 2.2 Loading and configuring PARIDE as modules | ||
178 | |||
179 | It is much faster and simpler to get to understand the PARIDE drivers | ||
180 | if you use them as loadable kernel modules. | ||
181 | |||
182 | Note 1: using these drivers with the "kerneld" automatic module loading | ||
183 | system is not recommended for beginners, and is not documented here. | ||
184 | |||
185 | Note 2: if you build PARPORT support as a loadable module, PARIDE must | ||
186 | also be built as loadable modules, and PARPORT must be loaded before the | ||
187 | PARIDE modules. | ||
188 | |||
189 | To use PARIDE, you must begin by | ||
190 | |||
191 | insmod paride | ||
192 | |||
193 | this loads a base module which provides a registry for the protocols, | ||
194 | among other tasks. | ||
195 | |||
196 | Then, load as many of the protocol modules as you think you might need. | ||
197 | As you load each module, it will register the protocols that it supports, | ||
198 | and print a log message to your kernel log file and your console. For | ||
199 | example: | ||
200 | |||
201 | # insmod epat | ||
202 | paride: epat registered as protocol 0 | ||
203 | # insmod kbic | ||
204 | paride: k951 registered as protocol 1 | ||
205 | paride: k971 registered as protocol 2 | ||
206 | |||
207 | Finally, you can load high-level drivers for each kind of device that | ||
208 | you have connected. By default, each driver will autoprobe for a single | ||
209 | device, but you can support up to four similar devices by giving their | ||
210 | individual co-ordinates when you load the driver. | ||
211 | |||
212 | For example, if you had two no-name CD-ROM drives both using the | ||
213 | KingByte KBIC-951A adapter, one on port 0x378 and the other on 0x3bc | ||
214 | you could give the following command: | ||
215 | |||
216 | # insmod pcd drive0=0x378,1 drive1=0x3bc,1 | ||
217 | |||
218 | For most adapters, giving a port address and protocol number is sufficient, | ||
219 | but check the source files in linux/drivers/block/paride for more | ||
220 | information. (Hopefully someone will write some man pages one day !). | ||
221 | |||
222 | As another example, here's what happens when PARPORT is installed, and | ||
223 | a SyQuest EZ-135 is attached to port 0x378: | ||
224 | |||
225 | # insmod paride | ||
226 | paride: version 1.0 installed | ||
227 | # insmod epat | ||
228 | paride: epat registered as protocol 0 | ||
229 | # insmod pd | ||
230 | pd: pd version 1.0, major 45, cluster 64, nice 0 | ||
231 | pda: Sharing parport1 at 0x378 | ||
232 | pda: epat 1.0, Shuttle EPAT chip c3 at 0x378, mode 5 (EPP-32), delay 1 | ||
233 | pda: SyQuest EZ135A, 262144 blocks [128M], (512/16/32), removable media | ||
234 | pda: pda1 | ||
235 | |||
236 | Note that the last line is the output from the generic partition table | ||
237 | scanner - in this case it reports that it has found a disk with one partition. | ||
238 | |||
239 | 2.3 Using a PARIDE device | ||
240 | |||
241 | Once the drivers have been loaded, you can access PARIDE devices in the | ||
242 | same way as their traditional counterparts. You will probably need to | ||
243 | create the device "special files". Here is a simple script that you can | ||
244 | cut to a file and execute: | ||
245 | |||
246 | #!/bin/bash | ||
247 | # | ||
248 | # mkd -- a script to create the device special files for the PARIDE subsystem | ||
249 | # | ||
250 | function mkdev { | ||
251 | mknod $1 $2 $3 $4 ; chmod 0660 $1 ; chown root:disk $1 | ||
252 | } | ||
253 | # | ||
254 | function pd { | ||
255 | D=$( printf \\$( printf "x%03x" $[ $1 + 97 ] ) ) | ||
256 | mkdev pd$D b 45 $[ $1 * 16 ] | ||
257 | for P in 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 | ||
258 | do mkdev pd$D$P b 45 $[ $1 * 16 + $P ] | ||
259 | done | ||
260 | } | ||
261 | # | ||
262 | cd /dev | ||
263 | # | ||
264 | for u in 0 1 2 3 ; do pd $u ; done | ||
265 | for u in 0 1 2 3 ; do mkdev pcd$u b 46 $u ; done | ||
266 | for u in 0 1 2 3 ; do mkdev pf$u b 47 $u ; done | ||
267 | for u in 0 1 2 3 ; do mkdev pt$u c 96 $u ; done | ||
268 | for u in 0 1 2 3 ; do mkdev npt$u c 96 $[ $u + 128 ] ; done | ||
269 | for u in 0 1 2 3 ; do mkdev pg$u c 97 $u ; done | ||
270 | # | ||
271 | # end of mkd | ||
272 | |||
273 | With the device files and drivers in place, you can access PARIDE devices | ||
274 | like any other Linux device. For example, to mount a CD-ROM in pcd0, use: | ||
275 | |||
276 | mount /dev/pcd0 /cdrom | ||
277 | |||
278 | If you have a fresh Avatar Shark cartridge, and the drive is pda, you | ||
279 | might do something like: | ||
280 | |||
281 | fdisk /dev/pda -- make a new partition table with | ||
282 | partition 1 of type 83 | ||
283 | |||
284 | mke2fs /dev/pda1 -- to build the file system | ||
285 | |||
286 | mkdir /shark -- make a place to mount the disk | ||
287 | |||
288 | mount /dev/pda1 /shark | ||
289 | |||
290 | Devices like the Imation superdisk work in the same way, except that | ||
291 | they do not have a partition table. For example to make a 120MB | ||
292 | floppy that you could share with a DOS system: | ||
293 | |||
294 | mkdosfs /dev/pf0 | ||
295 | mount /dev/pf0 /mnt | ||
296 | |||
297 | |||
298 | 2.4 The pf driver | ||
299 | |||
300 | The pf driver is intended for use with parallel port ATAPI disk | ||
301 | devices. The most common devices in this category are PD drives | ||
302 | and LS-120 drives. Traditionally, media for these devices are not | ||
303 | partitioned. Consequently, the pf driver does not support partitioned | ||
304 | media. This may be changed in a future version of the driver. | ||
305 | |||
306 | 2.5 Using the pt driver | ||
307 | |||
308 | The pt driver for parallel port ATAPI tape drives is a minimal driver. | ||
309 | It does not yet support many of the standard tape ioctl operations. | ||
310 | For best performance, a block size of 32KB should be used. You will | ||
311 | probably want to set the parallel port delay to 0, if you can. | ||
312 | |||
313 | 2.6 Using the pg driver | ||
314 | |||
315 | The pg driver can be used in conjunction with the cdrecord program | ||
316 | to create CD-ROMs. Please get cdrecord version 1.6.1 or later | ||
317 | from ftp://ftp.fokus.gmd.de/pub/unix/cdrecord/ . To record CD-R media | ||
318 | your parallel port should ideally be set to EPP mode, and the "port delay" | ||
319 | should be set to 0. With those settings it is possible to record at 2x | ||
320 | speed without any buffer underruns. If you cannot get the driver to work | ||
321 | in EPP mode, try to use "bidirectional" or "PS/2" mode and 1x speeds only. | ||
322 | |||
323 | |||
324 | 3. Troubleshooting | ||
325 | |||
326 | 3.1 Use EPP mode if you can | ||
327 | |||
328 | The most common problems that people report with the PARIDE drivers | ||
329 | concern the parallel port CMOS settings. At this time, none of the | ||
330 | PARIDE protocol modules support ECP mode, or any ECP combination modes. | ||
331 | If you are able to do so, please set your parallel port into EPP mode | ||
332 | using your CMOS setup procedure. | ||
333 | |||
334 | 3.2 Check the port delay | ||
335 | |||
336 | Some parallel ports cannot reliably transfer data at full speed. To | ||
337 | offset the errors, the PARIDE protocol modules introduce a "port | ||
338 | delay" between each access to the i/o ports. Each protocol sets | ||
339 | a default value for this delay. In most cases, the user can override | ||
340 | the default and set it to 0 - resulting in somewhat higher transfer | ||
341 | rates. In some rare cases (especially with older 486 systems) the | ||
342 | default delays are not long enough. if you experience corrupt data | ||
343 | transfers, or unexpected failures, you may wish to increase the | ||
344 | port delay. The delay can be programmed using the "driveN" parameters | ||
345 | to each of the high-level drivers. Please see the notes above, or | ||
346 | read the comments at the beginning of the driver source files in | ||
347 | linux/drivers/block/paride. | ||
348 | |||
349 | 3.3 Some drives need a printer reset | ||
350 | |||
351 | There appear to be a number of "noname" external drives on the market | ||
352 | that do not always power up correctly. We have noticed this with some | ||
353 | drives based on OnSpec and older Freecom adapters. In these rare cases, | ||
354 | the adapter can often be reinitialised by issuing a "printer reset" on | ||
355 | the parallel port. As the reset operation is potentially disruptive in | ||
356 | multiple device environments, the PARIDE drivers will not do it | ||
357 | automatically. You can however, force a printer reset by doing: | ||
358 | |||
359 | insmod lp reset=1 | ||
360 | rmmod lp | ||
361 | |||
362 | If you have one of these marginal cases, you should probably build | ||
363 | your paride drivers as modules, and arrange to do the printer reset | ||
364 | before loading the PARIDE drivers. | ||
365 | |||
366 | 3.4 Use the verbose option and dmesg if you need help | ||
367 | |||
368 | While a lot of testing has gone into these drivers to make them work | ||
369 | as smoothly as possible, problems will arise. If you do have problems, | ||
370 | please check all the obvious things first: does the drive work in | ||
371 | DOS with the manufacturer's drivers ? If that doesn't yield any useful | ||
372 | clues, then please make sure that only one drive is hooked to your system, | ||
373 | and that either (a) PARPORT is enabled or (b) no other device driver | ||
374 | is using your parallel port (check in /proc/ioports). Then, load the | ||
375 | appropriate drivers (you can load several protocol modules if you want) | ||
376 | as in: | ||
377 | |||
378 | # insmod paride | ||
379 | # insmod epat | ||
380 | # insmod bpck | ||
381 | # insmod kbic | ||
382 | ... | ||
383 | # insmod pd verbose=1 | ||
384 | |||
385 | (using the correct driver for the type of device you have, of course). | ||
386 | The verbose=1 parameter will cause the drivers to log a trace of their | ||
387 | activity as they attempt to locate your drive. | ||
388 | |||
389 | Use 'dmesg' to capture a log of all the PARIDE messages (any messages | ||
390 | beginning with paride:, a protocol module's name or a driver's name) and | ||
391 | include that with your bug report. You can submit a bug report in one | ||
392 | of two ways. Either send it directly to the author of the PARIDE suite, | ||
393 | by e-mail to grant@torque.net, or join the linux-parport mailing list | ||
394 | and post your report there. | ||
395 | |||
396 | 3.5 For more information or help | ||
397 | |||
398 | You can join the linux-parport mailing list by sending a mail message | ||
399 | to | ||
400 | linux-parport-request@torque.net | ||
401 | |||
402 | with the single word | ||
403 | |||
404 | subscribe | ||
405 | |||
406 | in the body of the mail message (not in the subject line). Please be | ||
407 | sure that your mail program is correctly set up when you do this, as | ||
408 | the list manager is a robot that will subscribe you using the reply | ||
409 | address in your mail headers. REMOVE any anti-spam gimmicks you may | ||
410 | have in your mail headers, when sending mail to the list server. | ||
411 | |||
412 | You might also find some useful information on the linux-parport | ||
413 | web pages (although they are not always up to date) at | ||
414 | |||
415 | http://www.torque.net/parport/ | ||
416 | |||
417 | |||