Lenovo Thinkpad 600x LPT doesn't work

It's possible to get an entry in /proc/ioports by loading parport_pc with the parameter io=0x378. But everytime I run parport, parport_pc, lp and ppdev at the same time I get the Error: "Broken Pipe" .

Additional I'm wondering why ppdev isn't load at startup anymore. Even if I disable parport_pc in the /etc/modprobe.d/emc again.

Afraid you may have reached the end of the road.

This is old hardware, never intended to run with Linux and there are lots of references to problems using them with Linux, specifically ports not present which were there under windows, but also problems with modems and sound.
Originally the manufacturer would have supplied windows drivers which enable the ports etc to be detected by windows.

The fact that the ports show up when parport_pc is loaded indicates the problem area, but unfortunately does nothing to solve it.

regards

I'm just wondering because this Laptop was on the "white list" and on the lenovo support page it says "Linux certificated" which includes even the parport ^^. But now I agree that's probably hopeless to solve this problem.

Thanks for helping me!

Old thread, I know, but in case anyone else wants to run the Ubuntu 8.04 LinuxCNC on a Thinkpad 600, I have it running well on mine now (actually a Thinkpad 600e).

To adress a few points earlier in this thread, on mine. latency is 16000 after many tests, there is no printer port entry at all in /proc/ioports, and /proc/modules shows prport_pc, lp, and parport.

In trying out several OS versions of LinuxCNC I did find the parallel port stopped working at one point. I don't know why or exactly when that happened, but it was knocked out also for TirboCNC (which I used to use) and JediCut (also formerly used). So not just Lin op systems but MSDOS and Windosw as well. This suggested to me a BIOS or low level programmble chip problem/corruption.

I re-enabled the printer port by holding the F1 key on boot to boot into bios config, and navigting to Initialize to restore firmware. After that LinuxCNC worked fine under Ubuntu 8.04.and the parallel port was functional to all CNC programs.

Possible clue to what happened: if you read the messages on normal Thinkpad boot-up of 8.04 Ubuntu, one module (piix4_smbus) is refused for loading because the message says it detected an IBM machine and the module "may corrupt the serial EEPROM" -- I do wonder whether that could happen as well to the parallel port on loading a different/later OS, if that problem is not detected.

anyway, hope this helps someone. The TP600e is driving my mill very well under LinuxCNC 2.54 and Ubuntu 8.04.

Thanks for the update, hopefully this will help others with the same computer

regards

Thanks Arceye.

I don't want to exend this thread too much, sorry, but just to increase the parallel port information a litlle more, again in case it helps someone, I just accidentally came across a reference to enabling/disabling in a thread on compiling EMC2:

It's right at the top of the page and it talks about enabling or disabling parallel port modules to meet requirements of different versions of EMC2. Maybe that also might shed some light on the OP's original problem when he was trying to enable or disable modules..

wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?Debian_Lenny_Compile_LinuxCNC