A Slackware Desktop Enhancement Guide
Parallel Port Printers
© Copyright Darrell Anderson.
For some odd reason, Slackware comes packaged without immediate support for parallel port printers. Parallel port printers are still common. Like so many tasks in Slackware, the solution is straightforward and requires a few moments in a text editor.
Obtain root privileges and then with a text editor open /etc/rc.d/rc.modules.
Not too far into the file, search for some text that looks like this:
### PC parallel port support ###
#if cat /proc/ksyms | grep "\[parport_pc\]" 1> /dev/null 2> /dev/null ; then
# echo "parport0 is built-in, not loading module" > /dev/null
#else
# if [ -r /lib/modules/$RELEASE/kernel/drivers/parport/parport_pc.o \
# -o -r /lib/modules/$RELEASE/kernel/drivers/parport/parport_pc.o.gz \
# -o -r /lib/modules/$RELEASE/kernel/drivers/parport/parport_pc.ko ]; then
# # Generic setup example:
# /sbin/modprobe parport_pc
# # Hardware specific setup example (required for PLIP and better
# # performance in general):
# #/sbin/modprobe parport_pc io=0x378 irq=7
# fi
#fi
Uncomment all but the first line. That means deleting the single hash mark (#) at the beginning of each line. The text then will look like this:
### PC parallel port support ###
if cat /proc/ksyms | grep "\[parport_pc\]" 1> /dev/null 2> /dev/null ; then
echo "parport0 is built-in, not loading module" > /dev/null
else
if [ -r /lib/modules/$RELEASE/kernel/drivers/parport/parport_pc.o \
-o -r /lib/modules/$RELEASE/kernel/drivers/parport/parport_pc.o.gz \
-o -r /lib/modules/$RELEASE/kernel/drivers/parport/parport_pc.ko ]; then
# Generic setup example:
/sbin/modprobe parport_pc
# Hardware specific setup example (required for PLIP and better
# performance in general):
#/sbin/modprobe parport_pc io=0x378 irq=7
fi
fi
Just below that section of text will be another section beginning with the line: ### Parallel printer support ###. As with that first section, remove the single hash mark for all lines except the first line. The text then will look like this:
### Parallel printer support ###
if cat /proc/ksyms | grep "\[lp\]" 1> /dev/null 2> /dev/null ; then
echo "lp support built-in, not loading module" > /dev/null
else
if [ -r /lib/modules/$RELEASE/kernel/drivers/char/lp.o \
-o -r /lib/modules/$RELEASE/kernel/drivers/char/lp.o.gz \
-o -r /lib/modules/$RELEASE/kernel/drivers/char/lp.ko ]; then
/sbin/modprobe lp
fi
fi
Save and exit the file.
You need to reboot to render the previous modifications effective. The previous effort only enables the parallel port support. Be sure to also enable the executable bits of /etc/rc.d/rc.cups with chmod +x /etc/rc.d/rc.cups.
Finis.
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