Parallel Port Does Not Work in Input Mode

Hello all,

I am using LinuxCNC to make a 3 axis mill. I wanted to add some physical buttons to the machine and have them be read through the parallel port. I have 5 buttons and 3 limit switches so I needed to use the parallel port in input mode. I set that in the hal file as below:

# load parallel port
loadrt probe_parport
loadrt hal_parport cfg="0x378 in"

The pins that are always inputs 10,11,12,13,15 work as expected but pins 2-9 do not work at all. I tried all the buttons and limit switchs on the 10-13,15 pins and they all work, but no buttons or limit switches work on pins 2-9. I am using the Show Hal Configuration option in the GUI to see the pins change state. The hal configuration shows that the pins 2-9 are inputs. I tried setting the parallel port mode in the bios to output only, bi-directional, ECP and EPP, but all of the modes gave the same result. I am using Ubuntu 10.02.

Regards

What motherboard and BIOS?

(I ask this because some Intel motherboard BIOs's are broken and
dont actually allow setup of the parallel port modes even though the BIOS
setup makes it look like you can )

I do have an Intel board, it is a D525MW. The bios string is mwpnt10n.86a.0083.2011.0524.1600. I am going to try to boot from a live CD to make sure I did not mess up any configurations. I will also try to find another computer with a parallel port.

The D525 is one of the Intel MBs that has BIOS bugs
that cause the BIOS parallel port setup to not work, but
linuxcnc _should_ be able to set the port modes.

Maybe someone else with a D525 can offer some guidance

A possible last ditch workaround is to install a PCI parallel port for more I/O

I ran the live cd with Ubuntu 10.04 and LinuxCNC 2.5. I had the same problem where only the default input pin work. I have the buttons wired to pins 6-9 and to ground pins 24 and 25. At this point I am stumped and will probably get a Mesa card that has I/O. I would get another computer, but this is the one I was given to work with. If anyone else has any other ideas, let me know.

I just looked on Intel's website and there about 19 bios updates for the motherboard. I do not think the bios has ever been updated for the computer I am using, I will try updating next week to see if that fixes the problem. Thank you for all the help today I will update this thread with my findings next week.

This must have been a looooong week....

I have the same problem. is there a possibility that there could be different cable types? the problem is that i have tried the onboard parallel too and it is the same thing. I have the one onboard out and two others as in. the in card behave as the other guy mentioned. from where i bought the cards he said they are Moschip MCS9901 but in lspci -vv says :
MosChip Semiconductor Technology Ltd. PCIe 9912 Multi-I/O Controller (prog-if 03 [IEEE1284]).
i am running linuxcnc 2.7.8.

any help appreciated

Found the problem... i have this chinese break out board with the 17 optocouplers(one on each pin). They are onedirectional... so... 60 euros wasted... Another question. Does anyone know what is the logic level of the parallel port and how safe is to connect direct all my input to the parallel port without breakout board?
i have only switches and one encoder. no motors relays etc. Thank you..