No input/output on parallel port

Hi everyone,
I'm a complete linuxcnc noob. I have installed linuxcnc and tried to make the stepper controller work and that led me to debug my parallel port. After some digging around on the forum I found a ptest.hal script to test the parallel port and there seems to be no output on it. Parallel port address has been looked up in lspci -v and ptest opens it successfully, however, all output pins show around 4.25 volts and pressing on the Out button doesn't change the voltage. Input ports are around 0 volts. giving it +3.3v or +5 volts doesn't register.

More info:
vanilla linuxcnc-2.7-wheezy (i686-rtai kernel)
Sunix pci card. Native parallel port is disabled in bios

Thank you for your reply, I have tried it and it didn't work at all. I get the following error:
Error: could not insert module /usr/realtime-3.4.9-rtai-686-pae/modules/linuxcnc/hal_parport.ko: No Such device

Ratamahatta wrote:

Error: could not insert module /usr/realtime-3.4.9-rtai-686-pae/modules/linuxcnc/hal_parport.ko: No Such device

maybe, you have blocked the the parport in BIOS?
or your LPT is defective ?
are you able to use a printer ?

take a look at the output of "lswh" - is there a port listed?

I have disabled native motherboard port in bios, but there's no option to block/disable the port itself (I'm not sure if native motherboard port is working)
lshw shows the sunix card but no parallel port device, see output at the end of the post.
Also snx module is not in use (according to lsmod) even when I run ptest or stepper conf.

---

lshw output

---

*-pci:0
description: PCI bridge
product: MCP55 PCI bridge
vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
physical id: 100
bus info: pci@0000:00:06.0
version: a2
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: pci ht subtractive_decode bus_master cap_list
resources: ioport:b000(size=4096) memory:fdd00000-fddfffff memory:fde00000-fdefffff
*-communication
description: Parallel controller
product: Multiport serial controller
vendor: SUNIX Co., Ltd.
physical id: a
bus info: pci@0000:01:0a.0
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm ieee1284 cap_list
configuration: driver=snx latency=0
resources: irq:18 ioport:bc00(size=8) ioport:b800(size=8) ioport:b400(size=16)

is it listed in /proc/interrupts ?


cat /proc/interrupts
CPU0 CPU1 CPU2 CPU3
0: 33 0 0 0 XT-PIC-XT-PIC timer
1: 2 0 0 0 XT-PIC-XT-PIC i8042
2: 0 0 0 0 XT-PIC-XT-PIC cascade
7: 0 0 0 0 XT-PIC-XT-PIC parport0


are you able to print?

I have a single core CPU:
CPU0
7: 1 IO-APIC-edge parport0

however, I see this line as well (snx is the module for the parallel port card):

18: 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi snx

Ratamahatta wrote:

I
however, I see this line as well (snx is the module for the parallel port card):

ok, then again: are you able to print?

or tu use ptest: forum.linuxcnc.org/18-computer/4743-parallel-port-tester

and check the port-adress with cat /proc/ioports

0000-0cf7 : PCI Bus 0000:00
0000-001f : dma1
.....
02f8-02ff : serial
0378-037a : parport0 <----!

use a terminal
and enterthis gives you somthing like

[ 7.710503] parport_pc 00:02: reported by Plug and Play ACPI
[ 7.710600] parport0: PC-style at 0x378 (0x778), irq 7 [PCSPP,TRISTATE]
[ 7.804114] lp0: using parport0 (interrupt-driven).

the Adress is becor the (xxx)
so here standard 0x378