Score:1

Ubuntu

How to get parallel port IOMega zip drive working on Ubuntu 20+

Andy

1/20/24, 9:35 PM

I'm trying to get my old Iomega zip 100 drive (parallel port) up and running and came to a point where it appears my issue in accessing the drive is the lp module is loading before the ppa module.

In the Linux HOWTOs on the zip drive this paragraph is found ( https://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/ZIP-Drive ):

The most common problem is to load the lp printer module before the ppa program. The ppa program must be loaded before the lp module. The lp module will tie up the port that the zip drive needs, this is why the ppa progam must be loaded first.

How does one cause the ppa module load before the lp module.

Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS 64-bit

Thanks for any advice and ask for any additional info needed.

443

1 + 4

kernel

guiverc

1/20/24, 10:14 PM

If you're still running 20.04.3 (*I'd check that*), I'd apply all security updates and fixes asap as you're a ~year behind on security fixes if your details are correct. You didn't say which 64-bit architecture you're using (there are many; *arm64*, *ppc64el*, *ppc64el*... & *amd64*) but https://fridge.ubuntu.com/2022/02/25/ubuntu-20-04-4-lts-released/ will show the ISO release date, but installed systems upgraded before that date, and a fully updated 20.04 system has reported itself as [20.04.5](https://fridge.ubuntu.com/2022/09/01/ubuntu-20-04-5-lts-released/) for some time now

steeldriver

1/20/24, 10:51 PM

Can you provide a link to the HOWTO that you are quoting? There is some out of date documentation on the web, and I wonder if that issue was fixed by the parport-based architecture?

steeldriver

1/21/24, 1:21 AM

OK thanks - so that is indeed an old article, based on 2.0.x kernels. Have you actually confirmed that module load order fixes your issue (for example, removing `lp` and inserting `ppa` manually)?

Andy

1/21/24, 4:22 PM

@steeldriver I'll follow up at some point (and thanks for the input); I tried upgrading using the 20.04 -> 20.10 upgrade sequence (to get to 21) and system doesn't boot, so I'm installing 22.04 LTS and hope to get back to my original project (zip100 drive) after that.

Score:3

Ubuntu

Andy

1/22/24, 11:52 PM

Decided to go the route of a full install of 22.04.1 LTS which was a one day activity filled with many headaches of which I will spare the reader.

Went back to some initial instructions found here: IOMegaZIPDrive - which was unsuccessful, still no zip drive in scsi list.

I revisited dmesg and verified my parallel port is discovered at least (this is not new with the install but good to see):

[    4.036626] ppdev: user-space parallel port driver
[    4.039811] PCI parallel port detected: 1c00:3050, I/O at 0x3100(0x0), IRQ 19
[    4.039871] parport0: PC-style at 0x3100, irq 19 [PCSPP,TRISTATE]
[    4.039891] pcieport 0000:00:1c.7: AER: Corrected error received: 0000:00:1c.7
[    4.039898] pcieport 0000:00:1c.7: PCIe Bus Error: severity=Corrected, type=Data Link Layer, (Transmitter ID)
[    4.039900] pcieport 0000:00:1c.7:   device [8086:a33f] error status/mask=00001000/00002000
[    4.039902] pcieport 0000:00:1c.7:    [12] Timeout               
[    4.040898] systemd[1]: Finished Load/Save Random Seed.
[    4.041004] systemd[1]: Condition check resulted in First Boot Complete being skipped.
[    4.041773] parport0: Device ID was 64 bytes while device told it would be 63 bytes
[    4.041785] parport0 (addr 0): SCSI adapter, IMG VP1

with some error info included.

I then revisited a page that I found during this exercise Linux/ZIP Drive which differentiated on "older" and "newer" zip drives.

I had always assumed it was an older drive (figuring ZIP100 was older) and went down the "ppa" path (although I am nearly certain I had also tried the "newer" path instructions on the 20.04.3 install). After the install of 22.04.1 the "older" path (ppa) still did not work.

I then tried the "newer" zip drive path which did:

modprobe imm

reran cat /proc/scsi/scsi:

Attached devices:
Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00
  Vendor: ATA      Model: Samsung SSD 860  Rev: 2B6Q
  Type:   Direct-Access                    ANSI  SCSI revision: 05
Host: scsi2 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00
  Vendor: ASUS     Model: DRW-24B1ST   j   Rev: 1.11
  Type:   CD-ROM                           ANSI  SCSI revision: 05
Host: scsi4 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00
  Vendor: ATA      Model: Samsung SSD 860  Rev: 1B6Q
  Type:   Direct-Access                    ANSI  SCSI revision: 05
Host: scsi6 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00
  Vendor: Seagate  Model: One Touch HDD    Rev: 1707
  Type:   Direct-Access                    ANSI  SCSI revision: 06
Host: scsi7 Channel: 00 Id: 06 Lun: 00
  Vendor: IOMEGA   Model: ZIP 100          Rev: K.06
  Type:   Direct-Access                    ANSI  SCSI revision: 02

Yes!

It did not automount as described in last reference so I restarted (which I'm in the habit of now for any system change). After restart I verified same cat /proc/scsi/scsi command with same results!

And then ran the Files App and:

(in the 'Other Locations' section - it's small but says ZIP-100 and is browseable.)

Well I can now proceed with my original task of copying a bunch of zip drives.

Here's the parallel port card used: X-MEDIA XM-PEX-1P PCI-E 1-Port DB25 Parallel PCI Express (PCIe x1) Card

Copied 24 zip disks so far - no issues...

One interesting behavior of the ZIP mount is while it shows as available in the above GUI - if I were to go to the mount point (/media/me/ZIP-100) there would be nothing there - only after clicking on ZIP-100 does it actually go out and read the zip and then I can do the listing. (I'll try to refine this description at some point.)

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