No input/output on parallel port

Hi everyone,
I am a complete linuxcnc noob. I've installed linuxcnc and tried to get the stepper controller to work. It let me down the path of checking parallel port. I've used ptest.hal (from linuxcnc forum) and my parallel port is opened succesfully (i've looked up the address in lspci -v) however I don't see any signal on the pins. I've connected a volt meter to output pin(s) that show around 4.25 volts, and there's no voltage increase/drop when I activate that output (or any other).
Input ports are all around 0 volts and giving it a signal (3.3 or 5 v) doesn't register.

More details:
Using stock llinuxcnc-2.7-wheezy.iso
Tried with both native parallel port and a sunix card (with the driver that I manually installed).
dmesg looks healthy, no errors/warnings