Parallel port missing in 1.2.3-release
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Hi stephenw10
Posted on: Today at 08:40:20 am Posted by: stephenw10
Insert QuoteI think in that thread we concluded that it's included in 2.0beta only.
It is recognised as a device in 1.2.3 but no usable /dev/lpt0 appears.Steve
Do you know if it can work in the 1.2.3-release ? And how to get it to work ?
Best regards
WolfieDK -
Hi Cry Havok
@Cry:
As one of the developers confirmed in another thread, 1.2.x doesn't include parallel port support. You should be able to copy in the module from a FreeBSD 7.2 kernel and then have it loaded on boot - you'll find many other threads on the subject if you search.
Okay, thanks a lot, can you please send me link to how I can do this?
Best Regards
WolfieDK -
Take a look at this post, which covers some of the steps required.
In short:
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Install FreeBSD 7.2 somewhere (virtual host?)
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Extract the required kernel module (possibly named with ppc or lpt in the name)
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Configure the module to be loaded on boot
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Test
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Hi Cry Havok
@Cry:
Take a look at this post, which covers some of the steps required.
In short:
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Install FreeBSD 7.2 somewhere (virtual host?)
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Extract the required kernel module (possibly named with ppc or lpt in the name)
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Configure the module to be loaded on boot
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Test
Okay, I will give it a go later todag. Sorry, but i´m no good at installing drivers on linux, but i will try.
Best regards
WolfieDK -
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Reading back through this thread and the other one. I see that on my 1.2.3 box the chipset parallel port is detected and the ppc driver is loaded. It's just the parallel bus and lpt port that isnt. That could be because my box doesn't have a physical port (and maybe not a bus).
However on your system no chipset is detected so you may have a tougher problem on your hands!Steve
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Sorry, but i´m no good at installing drivers on linux, but i will try.
Just as well this isn't Linux then, isn't it ;)
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As previously pointed out, there doesn't appear to be any kind of parallel port chip detected at startup.
Does your system have a parallel port connector? (Might be pin header on the motherboard.) Parallel ports are now out of fashion.
Do you know you have parallel port functionality in your system? Is the parallel port enabled in the BIOS?
For a number of reasons you might have to provide some form of parallel port hardware (e.g. PCI card, USB adapter) which might need another driver which might make what you are wanting to do "too hard" compared with, say, a serial interface to a LCD.
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@Cry:
Sorry, but i´m no good at installing drivers on linux, but i will try.
Just as well this isn't Linux then, isn't it ;)
Sorry, BSD even 8)
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Reading back through this thread and the other one. I see that on my 1.2.3 box the chipset parallel port is detected and the ppc driver is loaded. It's just the parallel bus and lpt port that isnt. That could be because my box doesn't have a physical port (and maybe not a bus).
However on your system no chipset is detected so you may have a tougher problem on your hands!Steve
I have now installed 1.2.3-release on tree other machines, an no one of then detectes the chipset parallel port. But today I will try with the 2.0beta. The Box u are talking about, could this bee a 1.2.3-RC candidate ?
Best regards
WolfieDK -
As previously pointed out, there doesn't appear to be any kind of parallel port chip detected at startup.
Yearh, i will try with the 2.0beta today.
Does your system have a parallel port connector? (Might be pin header on the motherboard.) Parallel ports are now out of fashion.
Yes it does, and the parallel port works fine under M$ Windblows.
Do you know you have parallel port functionality in your system? Is the parallel port enabled in the BIOS?
Yes.
For a number of reasons you might have to provide some form of parallel port hardware (e.g. PCI card, USB adapter) which might need another driver which might make what you are wanting to do "too hard" compared with, say, a serial interface to a LCD.
Hmm okay, sorry to hear that. Mabye I have a Parallel PCI card I can try with. But the best solution would bee to get the parallel port existing in the system to work :-) I cant make these LCD´s into seriel so easly.
Best regards
WolfieDK -
I have now installed 1.2.3-release on tree other machines, an no one of then detectes the chipset parallel port. But today I will try with the 2.0beta. The Box u are talking about, could this bee a 1.2.3-RC candidate ?
I am running 1.2.3-release embedded (nanobsd) on a box with an Intel 875 chipset.
Could it be that only the nanobsd image has ppc support?Steve
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I just upgraded the firmware in my pfSense 2.0 system to the 1-Jan-2011 snapshot build. On reboot I entered the BIOS and (as I expected) the parallel port was disabled. I changed the parallel port setting from Disabled to 378/IRQ7 (first option, others were 278/IRQ5 and 3BC/IRQ7). On reboot I saw in the startup output:
. . . ppc0: <parallel port="">port 0x378-0x37f,0x778-0x77b irq 7 drq 3 on acpi0 ppc0: SMC-like chipset (ECP/EPP/PS2/NIBBLE) in COMPATIBLE mode ppc0: FIFO with 16/16/16 bytes threshold ppc0: [ITHREAD] ppbus0: <parallel port="" bus="">on ppc0 plip0: <plip network="" interface="">on ppbus0 plip0: [ITHREAD] lpt0: <printer>on ppbus0 lpt0: [ITHREAD] lpt0: Interrupt-driven port ppi0: <parallel i="" o="">on ppbus0 . . . # ls -l /dev/lpt0 crw------- 1 root wheel 0, 49 Jan 3 21:45 /dev/lpt0 #</parallel></printer></plip></parallel></parallel>Perhaps you have a "standard" parallel port but at a non-standard address. Can you find out its address, IRQ and (possibly) DMA channel? Perhaps the BIOS will report that; perhaps the BIOS will allow changing it to use standard port address and IRQ (378/IRQ7)
You don't seem to be using ACPI. Is there a reason for that? I expect ACPI would tell FreeBSD the parallel port I/O resources. (ACPI is enabled in my system.)
If you can't use ACPI there are alternate ways of specifying the parallel port i/o resources but it might be best to get the parallel port at the standard address, reboot and see if the startup reports a ppc0.
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On my pfSense 2.0 box FreeBSD detects the parallel port regardless of which of the three addresses it is assigned and regardless of whether ACPI is enabled or disabled. The parallel port controller is named ppc0 if the port address is 0x378 or 0x3bc and is named ppc1 if the port address is 0x278.
So what are the port addresses of these parallel ports which aren't detected? Maybe that information can be found in the BIOS. In my system the menu path is Integrated Peripherals -> Onboard SuperIO and from there I can change the parallel port settings.
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Hello again.
I have now tryed with the LiveCD pfsense2.0beta snapshot 03-jan-2010 and it detects the parallel port just fine. The error must bee in the 1.2.3-release kernel (or something like that, but i´m only guessing)
Is is possible to integrate the missing "driveres" into the 1.2.3-release?
I cant switch to the 2.0 because i´m using the multi-wan setup.Best regards
WolfieDK
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Is is possible to integrate the missing "driveres" into the 1.2.3-release?
See Cry Havok's reply of 1st Jan.
Perhaps someone else could comment on whether multiWAN works in recent pfSense 2.0 BETA snapshots.
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Hi wallabybob:
See Cry Havok's reply of 1st Jan.Yearh, i´m still searching the net for a step-by-step guide :-P
Best regards
WolfieDK -
Perhaps someone else could comment on whether multiWAN works in recent pfSense 2.0 BETA snapshots.
Works great. Has for months.
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