[SOLVED] Parallel port printer setup with parallel card

[Infidel]

I'm running Kubuntu 18.04 LTS and am trying to get a HP Laserjet 1100 parallel port printer to work with a parallel port card. The card reports itself with the following when running sudo lspci -v:

09:01.0 Parallel controller: SUNIX Co., Ltd. Multiport serial controller (prog-if 03 [IEEE1284])
Subsystem: SUNIX Co., Ltd. Multiport serial controller
Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 5
I/O ports at e800 [size=8]
I/O ports at e480 [size=8]
I/O ports at e400 [size=16]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3

Following the instructions I found here, https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1233589 I did the following:

sudo modprobe parport_pc io=0xe800
sudo modprobe lp
sudo /etc/init.d/cups restart

When I then run hp-setup the printer is found and can print. ls -l /dev/parport* shows the following:

crw-rw-r-- 1 root lp 99, 0 Mai 17 15:19 /dev/parport0

To make all this permanent, I created the file parport_pc,

sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/parport_pc
options parport_pc io=0xe800

and put it into modules:

sudo nano /etc/modules

parport_pc
lp

However, after a reboot all the information is lost. Any jobs send to the printer end up being indefinitely on hold in the printer spool and ls -l /dev/parport* comes up empty.

I'd appreciate any help here, because I'm seriously stumped.

[oshunluvr]

I'm going to try and say this without sounding too harsh: Why would you expect a solution from 2009 to work 10 years later?

Start by undoing all you did and rebooting. AFAIK, parport is loaded by default. Try this:

lsmod |grep parport

and you should see something like this:

parport_pc 36864 0
parport 49152 3 parport_pc,lp,ppdev

This would indicate parport is in fact loaded. Then try:

sudo lpinfo -v

If your printer is not listed, try removing hpaio:

sudo apt-get remove libsane-hpaio

[Infidel]

I'm going to try and say this without sounding too harsh: your solution didn't work and another one ten years old did. I found it at

https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/69233

In case that link goes dead at some point and someone else is facing the same problem: the advice was to put the info relevant for your card at the end of /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

# parallel_port:
alias parport_lowlevel parport_pc
options parport_pc io=0xe800 irq=auto

It certainly isn't the most elegant solution to use a config file meant for handling the sound system to do this, but it does what it does. At some point I'll have to look if it works in /etc/modprobe.d/modprobe.conf as well and makes it all tidier.

[oshunluvr]

I'm going to try and say this without sounding too harsh: your solution didn't work and another one ten years old did.

Zing! LOL

Probably the odd-ball solution was related to it's age. Not surprising that parallel port solutions are ancient I guess as so are printers that use them (Zing-Back! ).

Normally, these days one would only have to create a file called something like /etc/modules.d/parport.conf with your options in it. But hey, if it's working, why muck with it? Good job nailing it down so fast and thanks for reporting back with your solution.

[Snowhog]

I'm going to try and say this without sounding too harsh: your solution didn't work and another one ten years old did. I found it at

https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/69233

In case that link goes dead at some point and someone else is facing the same problem: the advice was to put the info relevant for your card at the end of /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

# parallel_port:
alias parport_lowlevel parport_pc
options parport_pc io=0xe800 irq=auto

It certainly isn't the most elegant solution to use a config file meant for handling the sound system to do this, but it does what it does. At some point I'll have to look if it works in /etc/modprobe.d/modprobe.conf as well and makes it all tidier.

That it was 'suggested' to put the specified information in /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf was likely because, back then, that may have been the only file, and the author didn't know you could create your own custom files there. So, as oshunluvr pointed out, you could write your own parallel_port.conf file with the information. Launch Kate. Put in the information you cited above. Click Save and navigate to /etc/modprobe.d and give the file a name, such as parallel_port.conf. You'll be asked to provide your password to save the file in that location.

Then edit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf and remove what you put in and save.