Boot from zip via parallel port

Booting, installing, newbie
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racepres
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Boot from zip via parallel port

#1 Post by racepres »

OK I really have googled this hard, So it is probably right under my nose! I really want to get puppy onto this antique ast lappy, that' is running Damn Small Linux pretty OK. to see if the equip. is just too old I am working with a "semi old" compaq. to get it going. I made a boot Floppy that seems to work w/ both machines. Have the usb type install onto the zip, cause I found no way to put it on via parallel. Both machines refuse to look for the parallel port. Tried option 2, get to the "provide subdirectory menu.. but Parallel is not an option. option 3, Parallel cdrom, just kinda freezes, Option 8, free dos w/ hardware detection, gets to an invalid opcode and hangs right after scsi detection. Am I wasting my time or has someone been successful at boot from parallel? Thanks
RP

ieee488
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#2 Post by ieee488 »

laptop model?

zip model? I'm confused. Is it a Zip drive or a cd drive?

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racepres
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#3 Post by racepres »

Sorry.. For testing I am using a evo n115 compaq. the zip that I am trying to boot from is a parallel connect [printer port] iomega . The drive I made the zip disk with is a iomega usb zip, because I can't get the Pup to see the parallel port drive. Which should tell me all I need to know!!!
I gotta go to an appointment here in a bit so don't get discouraged if you don't hear back till later.. Thanks RP
BTW Has anyone got any parallel port drive to function or even bee recognized? Maybe I need to start there.

Edit: link removed
Last edited by racepres on Wed 18 Feb 2009, 16:55, edited 1 time in total.

Sage
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#4 Post by Sage »

This came up before, several times, and there have been other discussions of using the parallel port. Search. There is an expert amongst us. There is a website dedicated to parallel port in Linux, too. As I remember, most things are possible but not by mere mortals - it gets very complicated. You might end up writing your own driver?!

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racepres
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#5 Post by racepres »

And Search I have! Whilst away I downloaded zipslack. I don't really care for slax that much personally, but I may learn how some of this zip, parallel, all that, works.. RP

Sage
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#6 Post by Sage »

I meant Search on THIS Forum. When I entered 'parallel AND port' I found 123 entries, many of which reminded me of previous discussions.

Incidentally, you are breaking the board rules with your lengthy link. Please truncate this ASAP.

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racepres
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#7 Post by racepres »

Sorry bout the link. Wasn't really useful anyway. I searched using parallel port zip boot.. so got nothing tried parallel port boot.. still nothing. using parallel port, there is plenty of printer info, and a couple of "unsolved" as far as I can tell. I did however find your solution from a year and 8 mos ago. Not what I was looking for either. In the future when the question arises "has anyone booted from a parallel device?" The answer up to now is apparently No! While I realize that that was never one of the "goals" of the puppy, I am still going to stay at it... just cuz. RP

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#8 Post by amigo »

For starters you'd probably need to re-compile the kernel and add support for the parallel-port-IDE feature. Either that or create a custom initrd whichz loads the kernel module fr that before mounting the / partition. If you want to boot directly from that device you'd need support in the BIOS for that. Using an initrd would let you use a floppy, CD or small HD partition to initiate load the kernel and initrd and then the root '/' partition could be nearly anywhere.

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#9 Post by rjbrewer »

I imagine this makes the Iomega scsi parallel port zip drive
even more of a challenge?

rjb

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racepres
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#10 Post by racepres »

rj: I'm with you... especially challenging for an aging "Mac guy".
amigo: I understand the necessity of the boot floppy. It was that very floppy that led me to believe that this might be a click and go procedure. You do show some interesting perspective. I did notice that some parallel port work has been done elsewhere. Maybe I can get lucky and integrate that into a boot floppy procedure. Knowing that it will probably require more than one floppy, I will need to do even more research. Good thing business is not strong, I may have the time to fool w/ it.
All this cause of one cranky little crappy, antique, laptop!! RP

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