admin-guide/blockdev/paride.rst

2 Linux and parallel port IDE devices
5 PARIDE v1.03   (c) 1997-8  Grant Guenther <grant@torque.net>
11 Owing to the simplicity and near universality of the parallel port interface
12 to personal computers, many external devices such as portable hard-disk,
13 CD-ROM, LS-120 and tape drives use the parallel port to connect to their
14 host computer.  While some devices (notably scanners) use ad-hoc methods
15 to pass commands and data through the parallel port interface, most
17 a parallel-port adapter chip added in.  Some of the original parallel port
19 (The Iomega PPA-3 adapter used in the ZIP drives is an example of this
21 The adapter chip reproduces a small ISA or IDE bus in the external device
24 the device being addressed via the parallel cable is a standard SCSI
27 which is then connected to a floppy-tape mechanism.  The vast majority
28 of external parallel port devices, however, are now based on standard
30 were to open up a parallel port CD-ROM drive, for instance, one would
31 find a standard ATAPI CD-ROM drive, a power supply, and a single adapter
32 that interconnected a standard PC parallel port cable and a standard
33 IDE cable.  It is usually possible to exchange the CD-ROM device with
36 The document describes the support in Linux for parallel port IDE
37 devices.  It does not cover parallel port SCSI devices, "ditto" tape
39 parallel port IDE subsystem, including:
41 	- MicroSolutions backpack CD-ROM
42 	- MicroSolutions backpack PD/CD
43 	- MicroSolutions backpack hard-drives
44 	- MicroSolutions backpack 8000t tape drive
45 	- SyQuest EZ-135, EZ-230 & SparQ drives
46 	- Avatar Shark
47 	- Imation Superdisk LS-120
48 	- Maxell Superdisk LS-120
49 	- FreeCom Power CD
50 	- Hewlett-Packard 5GB and 8GB tape drives
51 	- Hewlett-Packard 7100 and 7200 CD-RW drives
53 as well as most of the clone and no-name products on the market.
56 in two parts. There is a base pata_parport module which provides an interface
58 the parallel ports.
60 The second component is a set of low-level protocol drivers for each of the
61 parallel port IDE adapter chips.  Thanks to the interest and encouragement of
66         aten    ATEN EH-100                            (HK)
68         comm    DataStor (old-type) "commuter" adapter (TW)
69         dstr    DataStor EP-2000                       (TW)
72 	fit2    FIT TD-2000			       (US)
73 	fit3    FIT TD-3000			       (US)
76         kbic    KingByte KBIC-951A and KBIC-971A       (TW)
89 In either case, you will need to select "Parallel port IDE device support"
90 and at least one of the parallel port communication protocols.
91 If you do not know what kind of parallel port adapter is used in your drive,
100 For the "brand-name" products listed above, here are the protocol
101 and high-level drivers that you would use:
106 	MicroSolutions		CD-ROM		bpck
108 	MicroSolutions		hard-drive	bpck
114 	FreeCom			CD-ROM		frpw
115 	Hewlett-Packard		5GB Tape	epat
116 	Hewlett-Packard		7200e (CD)	epat
117 	Hewlett-Packard		7200e (CD-R)	epat
133 	mode	 mode number (protocol-specific) or -1 for probe
149 Probe parport0 using protocol epat and mode 4 (EPP-16)::
170 ----------------------------
173 concern the parallel port CMOS settings.  At this time, none of the
175 If you are able to do so, please set your parallel port into EPP mode
179 -------------------------
181 Some parallel ports cannot reliably transfer data at full speed.  To
184 a default value for this delay.  In most cases, the user can override
185 the default and set it to 0 - resulting in somewhat higher transfer
186 rates.  In some rare cases (especially with older 486 systems) the
192 -------------------------------------
196 drives based on OnSpec and older Freecom adapters.  In these rare cases,
198 the parallel port.  As the reset operation is potentially disruptive in