Re: [Sheflug] Parallel IDE CD-ROM frustrations

[James Wallbank <nospam [at] lowtech.org>]

Yo, ho the witch is dead, the wicked witch is dead!!! ;-)

Just to update everyone who helped me, I have AT LAST successfully 
accessed my parallel port CD-ROM drive. Not only were the parameters 
to pass to pcd a problem, also I found that not one but both CD-ROM 
drives I was using were faulty. I ended up testing everything, 
including the voltage output on the PSU and the power-outs inside the 
IDE-to-parallel box, the CD (disks I was trying to mount, and more...

In fact, the answer(once I had a WORKING CD-ROM in the box) was to 
use the following:

insmod parport
insmod paride
insmod dstr    <-- the CORRECT high-level driver for an SMS 31-144 chipset
insmod pcd drive0=0x378,0    <-- 'dstr' being registered as protocol 0

Not having parport listed in /proc/ioports at the start of the 
process was not a problem. I think it only gets mentioned when the 
port is actually active (like when lp is installed). The parport_pc 
module was a red herring.

Thanks to all for putting up with this tedious stuff, and Will, 
Guennadi and Alex for their invaluable help. Cheers guys!

Now that I'm tooled up, I don't suppose any of you have old laptops 
without CD-ROM drives that you want to give me...

Cheers,

James

P.S. Total cost of drive: 2nd-hand 8 speed CD-ROM: £10, no-name 
parallel IDE box: £30 (old stock). Price of similar new device from 
PC-World: £176+VAT!!! And from Software Warehouse: £ 68+VAT plus 
£25+VAT for a proprietary cable!!! I'm not paying £25 for a cable ON 
PRINCIPAL!
=====
-- 
who: James Wallbank
org: Redundant Technology Initiative
tel: +44 114 2495522
fax: +44 114 2495533
eml: rti [at] lowtech.org
web: www.lowtech.org
loc: Access Space
      1 Sidney Street
      Sheffield
      S1 4RG
      UK
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