The `parport' code provides parallel-port support under Linux.  This
  includes the ability to share one port between multiple device
  drivers.
  
  You can pass parameters to the parport code to override its automatic
  detection of your hardware.  This is particularly useful if you want
  to use IRQs, since in general these can't be autoprobed successfully.
  By default IRQs are not used even if they _can_ be probed.  This is
  because there are a lot of people using the same IRQ for their
  parallel port and a sound card or network card.
  
  The parport code is split into two parts: generic (which deals with
  port-sharing) and architecture-dependent (which deals with actually
  using the port).
  
  
  Parport as modules
  ==================
  
  If you load the parport code as a module, say
  
  	# insmod parport
  
  to load the generic parport code.  You then must load the
  architecture-dependent code with (for example):
  
  	# insmod parport_pc io=0x3bc,0x378,0x278 irq=none,7,auto
  
  to tell the parport code that you want three PC-style ports, one at
  0x3bc with no IRQ, one at 0x378 using IRQ 7, and one at 0x278 with an
  auto-detected IRQ.  Currently, PC-style (parport_pc), Sun `bpp',
  Amiga, Atari, and MFC3 hardware is supported.
  
  PCI parallel I/O card support comes from parport_pc.  Base I/O
  addresses should not be specified for supported PCI cards since they
  are automatically detected.
  
  
  modprobe
  --------
  
  If you use modprobe , you will find it useful to add lines as below to a
  configuration file in /etc/modprobe.d/ directory:.
  
  	alias parport_lowlevel parport_pc
  	options parport_pc io=0x378,0x278 irq=7,auto
  
  modprobe will load parport_pc (with the options "io=0x378,0x278 irq=7,auto")
  whenever a parallel port device driver (such as lp) is loaded.
  
  Note that these are example lines only!  You shouldn't in general need
  to specify any options to parport_pc in order to be able to use a
  parallel port.
  
  
  Parport probe [optional]
  -------------
  
  In 2.2 kernels there was a module called parport_probe, which was used
  for collecting IEEE 1284 device ID information.  This has now been
  enhanced and now lives with the IEEE 1284 support.  When a parallel
  port is detected, the devices that are connected to it are analysed,
  and information is logged like this:
  
  	parport0: Printer, BJC-210 (Canon)
  
  The probe information is available from files in /proc/sys/dev/parport/.
  
  
  Parport linked into the kernel statically
  =========================================
  
  If you compile the parport code into the kernel, then you can use
  kernel boot parameters to get the same effect.  Add something like the
  following to your LILO command line:
  
  	parport=0x3bc parport=0x378,7 parport=0x278,auto,nofifo
  
  You can have many `parport=...' statements, one for each port you want
  to add.  Adding `parport=0' to the kernel command-line will disable
  parport support entirely.  Adding `parport=auto' to the kernel
  command-line will make parport use any IRQ lines or DMA channels that
  it auto-detects.
  
  
  Files in /proc
  ==============
  
  If you have configured the /proc filesystem into your kernel, you will
  see a new directory entry: /proc/sys/dev/parport.  In there will be a
  directory entry for each parallel port for which parport is
  configured.  In each of those directories are a collection of files
  describing that parallel port.
  
  The /proc/sys/dev/parport directory tree looks like:
  
  parport
  |-- default
  |   |-- spintime
  |   `-- timeslice
  |-- parport0
  |   |-- autoprobe
  |   |-- autoprobe0
  |   |-- autoprobe1
  |   |-- autoprobe2
  |   |-- autoprobe3
  |   |-- devices
  |   |   |-- active
  |   |   `-- lp
  |   |       `-- timeslice
  |   |-- base-addr
  |   |-- irq
  |   |-- dma
  |   |-- modes
  |   `-- spintime
  `-- parport1
      |-- autoprobe
      |-- autoprobe0
      |-- autoprobe1
      |-- autoprobe2
      |-- autoprobe3
      |-- devices
      |   |-- active
      |   `-- ppa
      |       `-- timeslice
      |-- base-addr
      |-- irq
      |-- dma
      |-- modes
      `-- spintime
  
  
  File:		Contents:
  
  devices/active	A list of the device drivers using that port.  A "+"
  		will appear by the name of the device currently using
  		the port (it might not appear against any).  The
  		string "none" means that there are no device drivers
  		using that port.
  
  base-addr	Parallel port's base address, or addresses if the port
  		has more than one in which case they are separated
  		with tabs.  These values might not have any sensible
  		meaning for some ports.
  
  irq		Parallel port's IRQ, or -1 if none is being used.
  
  dma		Parallel port's DMA channel, or -1 if none is being
  		used.
  
  modes		Parallel port's hardware modes, comma-separated,
  		meaning:
  
  		PCSPP		PC-style SPP registers are available.
  		TRISTATE	Port is bidirectional.
  		COMPAT		Hardware acceleration for printers is
  				available and will be used.
  		EPP		Hardware acceleration for EPP protocol
  				is available and will be used.
  		ECP		Hardware acceleration for ECP protocol
  				is available and will be used.
  		DMA		DMA is available and will be used.
  
  		Note that the current implementation will only take
  		advantage of COMPAT and ECP modes if it has an IRQ
  		line to use.
  
  autoprobe	Any IEEE-1284 device ID information that has been
  		acquired from the (non-IEEE 1284.3) device.
  
  autoprobe[0-3]	IEEE 1284 device ID information retrieved from
  		daisy-chain devices that conform to IEEE 1284.3.
  
  spintime	The number of microseconds to busy-loop while waiting
  		for the peripheral to respond.  You might find that
  		adjusting this improves performance, depending on your
  		peripherals.  This is a port-wide setting, i.e. it
  		applies to all devices on a particular port.
  
  timeslice	The number of milliseconds that a device driver is
  		allowed to keep a port claimed for.  This is advisory,
  		and driver can ignore it if it must.
  
  default/*	The defaults for spintime and timeslice. When a new
  		port is	registered, it picks up the default spintime.
  		When a new device is registered, it picks up the
  		default timeslice.
  
  Device drivers
  ==============
  
  Once the parport code is initialised, you can attach device drivers to
  specific ports.  Normally this happens automatically; if the lp driver
  is loaded it will create one lp device for each port found.  You can
  override this, though, by using parameters either when you load the lp
  driver:
  
  	# insmod lp parport=0,2
  
  or on the LILO command line:
  
  	lp=parport0 lp=parport2
  
  Both the above examples would inform lp that you want /dev/lp0 to be
  the first parallel port, and /dev/lp1 to be the _third_ parallel port,
  with no lp device associated with the second port (parport1).  Note
  that this is different to the way older kernels worked; there used to
  be a static association between the I/O port address and the device
  name, so /dev/lp0 was always the port at 0x3bc.  This is no longer the
  case - if you only have one port, it will default to being /dev/lp0,
  regardless of base address.
  
  Also:
  
   * If you selected the IEEE 1284 support at compile time, you can say
     `lp=auto' on the kernel command line, and lp will create devices
     only for those ports that seem to have printers attached.
  
   * If you give PLIP the `timid' parameter, either with `plip=timid' on
     the command line, or with `insmod plip timid=1' when using modules,
     it will avoid any ports that seem to be in use by other devices.
  
   * IRQ autoprobing works only for a few port types at the moment.
  
  Reporting printer problems with parport
  =======================================
  
  If you are having problems printing, please go through these steps to
  try to narrow down where the problem area is.
  
  When reporting problems with parport, really you need to give all of
  the messages that parport_pc spits out when it initialises.  There are
  several code paths:
  
  o polling
  o interrupt-driven, protocol in software
  o interrupt-driven, protocol in hardware using PIO
  o interrupt-driven, protocol in hardware using DMA
  
  The kernel messages that parport_pc logs give an indication of which
  code path is being used. (They could be a lot better actually..)
  
  For normal printer protocol, having IEEE 1284 modes enabled or not
  should not make a difference.
  
  To turn off the 'protocol in hardware' code paths, disable
  CONFIG_PARPORT_PC_FIFO.  Note that when they are enabled they are not
  necessarily _used_; it depends on whether the hardware is available,
  enabled by the BIOS, and detected by the driver.
  
  So, to start with, disable CONFIG_PARPORT_PC_FIFO, and load parport_pc
  with 'irq=none'. See if printing works then.  It really should,
  because this is the simplest code path.
  
  If that works fine, try with 'io=0x378 irq=7' (adjust for your
  hardware), to make it use interrupt-driven in-software protocol.
  
  If _that_ works fine, then one of the hardware modes isn't working
  right.  Enable CONFIG_PARPORT_PC_FIFO (no, it isn't a module option,
  and yes, it should be), set the port to ECP mode in the BIOS and note
  the DMA channel, and try with:
  
      io=0x378 irq=7 dma=none (for PIO)
      io=0x378 irq=7 dma=3 (for DMA)
  --
  philb@gnu.org
  tim@cyberelk.net