Testing add on PCI PP, how do I know if it's working properly in test/demo mode?

Ok I guess we have to go back to basics. I have manually created a

parallel.hal

file and put in the line     loadrt hal_parport cfg="d000 out"      exactly like that, with the quotes. I have placed it in 3 different locations...(new address as it's in a different machine now I am testing, and this is what came up in lspci -v.)

paul/linuxcnc/configs
paul/linixcnc/CNC_Machine
paul/linuxcnc/sim.axis-1

I then rebooted the machine and started Linuxcnc and went to all the directories I put the parallel.hal into, and it doesn't show in any of them.

I'm stumped, too many years of windoze I guess.  Some basic guidance I think is needed.

I need to figure out how to get those files to show up before I can even test it, or am I missing something completely not obvious to me?

Cheers

Completely confused now, which command do I believe, I'm getting 2 different ports depending on what command I use. ARG!

paul@CNCMachine:~/Downloads$ sh -e ppdiag.txt

WARNING:
You are not runnig this script as 'root'. Only a few checks will be done.
No configuration update will be done.

S01: parport built as module

S02: parport0:
S02: modes:PCSPP,TRISTATE
S02: ADDR :0xE000
S02: IRQ :5
S02: DMA :5

And then...

paul@CNCMachine:~/Downloads$ lspci -v
01:02.0 Parallel controller: Device 1c00:2170 (rev 0f) (prog-if 01 [BiDir])
Subsystem: Device 1c00:2170
Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 7
I/O ports at d000
I/O ports at d100

And using GREP

paul@CNCMachine:~/Downloads$ dmesg | grep par
[ 0.004044] AppArmor: AppArmor disabled by boot time parameter
[ 0.107027] hpet0: 3 comparators, 64-bit 14.318180 MHz counter
[ 3.895426] ppdev: user-space parallel port driver
[ 3.897221] parport 0xe000 (WARNING): CTR: wrote 0x0c, read 0xff
[ 3.897225] parport 0xe000 (WARNING): DATA: wrote 0xaa, read 0xff
[ 3.897227] parport 0xe000: You gave this address, but there is probably no parallel port there!
[ 3.897239] parport0: PC-style at 0xe000, irq 5 [PCSPP,TRISTATE]
[ 3.992648] lp0: using parport0 (interrupt-driven).

Any help most welcome.

Thank you.

Yeah the Linux parallel port driver will load and try to probe the port and NOT FAIL if the probe fails. I can manually load the linux parallel port driver with arbitrary address and irq, it will load, it will create the device nodes but the probing will give the warning.

I'd be more trusting of the lspci values.

Here's a post with a user using the same PP card as yourself.
forum.linuxcnc.org/18-computer/4743-para...port-tester?start=20

Thank you thank you...I took a break from this for a day and will have some time today to continue with a fresh perspective...there are 19 pages of good info in that link, I hope that will get me going.

This is my first experience with a Linux fault, I'm sure there will be more but I am still enjoying the learning process.

Cheers

I wouldn't bother with all 19 pages at first. I'd just start from the page linked and try the I/O ports you get from lspci. From memory the lower port number (base address) is the one you want, the higher port number is the "control port" where various registers can be set to control modes & such. Tho this maybe arse about.

The biggest problem with some PP add in cards is the PCI ID isn't recognised by the parport driver, so no driver loads and no device nodes are created.

Well I had another go at it yesterday and now I can’t get the parallel port to change or be recognized that I’ve changed it. It keeps loading 0XE000. I moved the hard drive to a motherboard with an onboard parallel port which is 378, reran the halrun command and it’s not picking up the change to 378, lspci -v still reports 0xe000. I tried several times and gave up again. I have deleted all of the parallel.hal files I have made rebooted every time and it’s not changing. When I

loadrt hal_parport cfg="378 out"

I get an error can’t load, file already exists Or something to that effect I’m not at home right now and can’t remember the exact error.

Thanks again for the help with this, I can’t believe how difficult something so simple can be.

Cheers

When you received the error from the above command line, where were you entering it? In a hal file or on the command line of a terminal window? That command will only work in hal either in a hal file or from a halcmd prompt.

You have my sympathy, it can be very frustrating when things don't work the way they should. Especially when you're new and aren't sure what you're doing (been there done that, not fun.)

Also after a failed attempt at using a parallel port driver, it may be nessisary to reboot the computer to clear the failed driver loads.

Thanks Todd appreciate the thoughts. Yes very frustrating indeed, although I’m sure one year I’ll look back and think oh my goodness how could I have not seen that.

Yes was running those commands in terminal after entering halrun. So I assume the commands should be accepted, which I think they were the first time I tried it with the external pci card. I thought I better go back to the basics and use an onboard parallel port to figure out how all these commands and port testers work then I can spend another week working on getting the external PCI card working ha ha.

Thanks!!

ps the error was referring to a parport.ko, I think it was parport, might have been halport but it was for sure a xxx.ko file that already existed and it wouldn’t update it. I tried moving the file but didn’t have permission. I’ll try posting a picture of the error tonight.