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parallel(HW)


parallel -- parallel interface device driver

Description

The pa device driver provides an interface to the system's ISA and PCI parallel ports via the /dev/lp* special device files. Depending on the machine type, parallel printer ports may exist on serial/parallel port adapter cards, parallel port adapter cards, or the motherboard. ISA parallel ports on PCs are traditionally given the names LPT1 (device node name lp0), LPT2 (lp1), and LPT3 (lp2). PCI parallel port device nodes begin at lp3.

ISA and PCI parallel ports are configured into the system using the mkdev parallel command.

PCI parallel ports

By default, the system is configured to support up to two PCI parallel ports. If you want to use additional parallel ports, you can increase the default value by running mkdev parallel.

Specify the total number of ports installed on your system, not the total number of parallel adapters. For example, if you intend to install a two-port PCI parallel adapter and a four-port PCI parallel adapter, you must configure your system to support six PCI parallel ports.

PCI ports are enumerated at boot time -- the first port detected is assigned /dev/lp3, the second /dev/lp4, and so forth.

These device numbers are persistent as long as you do not change your hardware configuration. If you add, remove, or alter the placement of parallel adapters within the PCI bus, device node numbering may be different when you reboot the system. For example, if you have a one-port PCI parallel card, and you install a second one, it is possible that the new adapter would be enumerated as /dev/lp3 and the original card, which had been /dev/lp3, would become /dev/lp4. In this scenario, if you had a printer connected to the original port, you would need to modify the printer's configuration to take into account that port's new device node.

ISA parallel ports

The first, second, and third parallel printer ports configured on a system correspond to the character special files /dev/lp0, /dev/lp1, and /dev/lp2 respectively. The lp0 and lp2 files provide access to parallel ports 1 and 2, respectively. The lp1 file provides access to the parallel port on the monochrome adaptor. Only one of lp0 and lp1 may be used on a given system. To access two parallel printers on a system, use either lp0 or lp1, and lp2.

The parallel driver accepts all ioctl(S) commands documented on termio(M), although some of these may not make sense for a line printer.

The crash tt -tpa command can be used to monitor the pa driver; see crash(ADM) for more information.

Minor device numbers

The minor device numbers of the lp special files are used to control the behavior of the parallel port driver. Three bits may be set in the minor device number, with the following effects:

Bit 7
Reset printer on each open.

Bit 6
Force polling, rather than interrupts and polling (as normal). This setting is provided for situations when the printer appears to be running slowly as a result of lost interrupts.

Bit 5
Tandy printer translation. This setting is provided to perform translation for driving Tandy printers. Firstly, all standard output post-processing is turned off. (This is equivalent to stty -opost.) Secondly, tabs and formfeeds are expanded at the driver level. (Tabs are expanded to 8-column tabstops; formfeeds are expanded to 66 lines per page, using carriage returns. Line count and printhead position are tracked to enable the driver to expand tabs and formfeeds correctly.) Thirdly, the character following a backspace is never translated or acted on in any way except to output it. (Tabs and formfeeds are not expanded; returns and newlines do not increment the line count and other characters do not increment the printhead position.)

This type of behavior is required to support certain Tandy printers. It is not required in any other circumstances, and should not normally be used.

Interrupt vectors and I/O port address ranges

The following table shows the interrupt vector numbers (IRQ), and start and end I/O addresses (SIOA and EIOA) used by an IBM PC/AT with an ISA bus:

Parallel port IRQ SIOA EIOA
LPT1 7 0x3bc 0x3be
LPT2 5* 0x278 0x27a

 +--------------+-----+-------+-------+
 |Parallel port | IRQ | SIOA  | EIOA  |
 +--------------+-----+-------+-------+
 |LPT1          | 7   | 0x3bc | 0x3be |
 +--------------+-----+-------+-------+
 |LPT2          | 5*  | 0x278 | 0x27a |
 +--------------+-----+-------+-------+

*
ISA machines share IRQ 5 for the second and subsequent parallel ports.
The next table shows the values for EISA and MCA architecture machines; note that some machines allow the parallel port addresses to be reassigned:

Parallel port IRQ SIOA EIOA
LPT1** 7* 0x378 0x37f
LPT2** 5* 0x3bc 0x3be
LPT3 5* 0x278 0x27a

 +--------------+-----+-------+-------+
 |Parallel port | IRQ | SIOA  | EIOA  |
 +--------------+-----+-------+-------+
 |LPT1**        | 7*  | 0x378 | 0x37f |
 +--------------+-----+-------+-------+
 |LPT2**        | 5*  | 0x3bc | 0x3be |
 +--------------+-----+-------+-------+
 |LPT3          | 5*  | 0x278 | 0x27a |
 +--------------+-----+-------+-------+

*
MCA machines generally share IRQ 7 for all parallel ports; some EISA and MCA machines can assign any interrupt vector.

**
MCA machines and some others swap the default addresses for LPT1 and LPT2.
If a parallel device fails to interrupt properly, the parallel driver enters ``poll mode''. Once interrupts are received from the device, the driver returns to its original mode.

The parallel driver delays a certain amount of time when a parallel device is closed. The amount of delay can affect printer performance, but is necessary to compensate for different sizes of printer buffers and printer speeds. For example, this command sets the delay on close to 1 second, specified in tenths of a second:

stty time 10< /dev/lp0

When given from a prompt, this command will only work if the port is open. It is recommended that a variation of this command be placed in the interface script used with the parallel device to achieve the same results:

stty time 10 0< &1

The parallel device is usually invoked by lp(C), but can be written to directly.

Diagnostics

The following error message may be displayed on the console. See messages(M) for general information about kernel error messages, including a list of generic device driver errors.

WARNING: parallel: Parallel port (unit=n) not found
A parallel port could not be found.

Limitations

On some machines it is not possible to have more than two parallel ports configured.

LPT1 is usually the parallel port on the first serial/parallel adapter, and LPT2 the parallel port on a monochrome video adapter. However, MCA architecture machines and some others swap this arrangement.

The stty(C) command for output processing is supported on a parallel device. stty options that have no effect on a parallel device are ignored and no error messages are displayed.

The standard lp ports, lp0, lp1, and lp2 send a printer initialization string the first time the file is opened after the system is booted.

Not all computers have an alternate parallel port slot.

Files


/dev/lp[0-2]?
parallel port character special files with minor numbers 0,1, and 2, where the ? is optional and may be any one of the following:


i
reset on open

p
force polling

f
Tandy printer translation


/dev/lp
link to /dev/lp0

See also

lp(C), lpadmin(ADM), lpsched(ADM), mkdev(ADM), serial(HW), sdevice(F), stty(C)
© 2003 Caldera International, Inc. All rights reserved.
SCO OpenServer Release 5.0.7 -- 11 February 2003