PCIe parallel port adapter MSC 9901 not working (disabled)

More
02 Jan 2017 10:34 - 02 Jan 2017 11:43 #85068 by iagate
Hello.
I was starting to set up LinuxCNC but couldn't get my parallel port adapter to work.
The controller is a Moschip MSC9901 on a PCIe card , 1x parallel 2x serial (label on the chip reads MCS9901CV-CC ).

lspci -v gives the following for the parallel controller:
02:00.2 Parallel controller: NetMos Technology PCIe 9912 Multi-I/O Controller (prog-if 03 [IEEE1284])
	Subsystem: Device a000:2000
	Flags: fast devsel, IRQ 16
	I/O ports at d800 [disabled] [size=8]
	I/O ports at d480 [disabled] [size=8]
	[virtual] Memory at fe9fb000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
	[virtual] Memory at fe9fa000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
	Capabilities: [50] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
	Capabilities: [78] Power Management version 3
	Capabilities: [80] Express Legacy Endpoint, MSI 00
	Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
	Kernel driver in use: parport_serial

as suggested in another thread i already tried

sudo modprobe parport_pc
sudo rmmod ppdev
sudo rmmod lp
sudo rmmod parport_pc (this gave an error unless I did rmmod parport_serial first)

but the [disabled] flag was still there.

trying to install the driver downloaded from asix.com according to the included readme also got me nowhere.
Although I thought that the MSC 9901 controller should be working out of the box anyway(?)

I tried to access both 0xd800 and 0xd480 with the parallel port tester and checking with a multimeter and vice-versa pulling the input pins to ground, but there was no reaction at all.

Does anyone have suggestions on how to get this to work or even had the same problem and found a solution?
Theres a winxp iso on my harddrive and I'm starting to feel tempted :)
Last edit: 02 Jan 2017 11:43 by iagate.

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
02 Jan 2017 11:00 #85069 by andypugh
You shouldn't need a driver.

I wonder if the card is disabled in the BIOS? I found a very old (8 years ago) post to the LinuxCNC mailing list that suggested that turning off "plug and play OS" in the BIOS was an answer, but I rather suspect that that isn't the solution now.

Bit, it might well be worth looking in the PCI section of the BIOS for any likely options.

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
02 Jan 2017 11:49 - 02 Jan 2017 12:51 #85070 by iagate
Thanks for your reply.

There is a BIOS option for PCI-PnP which was set to disabled by default.
I tried it both ways but as far as I could tell it didn't make any difference.

[edit]
thought i'd expand a bit on my hardware:

the cpu is an
Athlon II x2 240e running on an ASUS M4A88T-I Deluxe (hence the need for the PCIe card)
The Parallel Port card is a Digitus branded PCIe x1 card sitting in the x16 slot.
Last edit: 02 Jan 2017 12:51 by iagate.

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
02 Jan 2017 20:47 #85117 by iagate
Update: the PCIe card doesn't seem to be the problem.

I put the card in another PC ( Corei5 on Gigabyte Z97M-DS3H), booted up the 2.7.8 Wheezy live cd
and it just worked out of the box.

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
04 Jan 2017 13:14 #85200 by andypugh
It sounds like you might be able to make it work with BIOS tweaks, then, but it is hard to know which tweaks are needed.

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
05 Jan 2017 23:01 #85315 by iagate
Thanks for your help, I have circumvented the problem now.

I dug up an old live-cd image with ubuntu 10.04 + linuxcnc 2.5
as well as set up under lubuntu 12.04;
in both cases there were no problems accessing the port.
(interestingly under 10.04 the latency is ~5000ns, while on both 12.04 and wheezy i get ~25000ns)

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
02 Feb 2017 05:34 #87144 by DocStein99
I think if you try:

sudo lspci -v

it allows you to read the "DISABLED" sections.

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
03 Feb 2017 04:00 #87189 by jmelson
So, the MCS9901 parport card works fine with the linuxcnc 2.5 but does NOT work with the Debian-based LinuxCNC 2.6 or 2.7? Wow, that could be serious. Does anybody have some ideas what could be the cause?
(I'm now selling PCIe cards with the MCS9900/9901 chips, so this is a big concern to me. Anybody else seen this?)

Thanks,

Jon

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
03 Feb 2017 05:15 #87192 by DocStein99
I just got a PCI-e system, and bought a PCI-e parallel port card. Spent entire day/night figuring it out and it won't work. Chip labeled "W382L" on it. Shows up as a SERIAL PORT. Card actually has a parallel port. It's a serial port card, they expect you to use a driver to convert it to parallel output, like you would if you had an external usb-to-parallel converter cable (that also won't work with Linuxcnc).

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
03 Feb 2017 10:55 #87201 by iagate
I don't think the Adapter card itself was the problem.
I tried the following combinations (all with the same adapter card):

Athlon II on an ASUS M4A88T-I + Debian Wheezy + LinuxCNC 2.7 : Did not work
Corei5 on Gigabyte Z97M-DS3H + Debian Wheezy + LinuxCNC 2.7 : Worked

Athlon II on an ASUS M4A88T-I + Ubuntu 10.04 + LinuxCNC 2.5 : Worked
Athlon II on an ASUS M4A88T-I + Ubuntu 12.04 + LinuxCNC 2.7 (or 2.6, not sure) : Worked

So i think the problem was with Debian Wheezy and my mainboard, not with the MCS9901 parport card.

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

Time to create page: 0.131 seconds
Powered by Kunena Forum