hal.parport_ko : Device or Resource busy error

I'm also new to the inner workings of LinuxCNC (and Linux in general) and trying to get a system up and running on a new computer.

lspci -v gives my two parallel ports at 0xe010 and 0xd010, so the system seems to recognize them.
But regardless of the Hal_Parport settings, I still get the same error message when LinuxCNC tries to load:
hal.parport_ko : Device or Resource busy error
the Hal file generated by stepconf (even tho I specified two parallel ports) contains:
loadrt hal _parport cfg "0xe010 out 0 out"
I've tried a number of variations such as:
loadrt hal _parport cfg "0xe010 out"
loadrt hal _parport cfg "0xe010 out 0xde010" etc
wit the the same results.

After playing a bit, I tried a new load of LinuxCNC with the hal file containing loadrt hal_parport cfg "0xe010" and got a different error:
HAL: ERROR: 'parport 1 read' not found

it seams that the parport card is not set to ECP
can you please post the output of
terminal command
dmesg | grep parpo*

I tried your command on the terminal, but got no response.
lspci -v shows two parallel ports: e010 and d010.

After much playing around and reboots, I am able to talk to a BOB on the first port, and can turn the spindle on and off, and control other functions (and perhaps most importantly) it also responds to the EStop command.
I'll be trying the second port shortly.
Thanks for the quick response.
kelly

Its taken several tries, but I think the computer is now talking to the BOB's.
Thanks