Baslinux mailing list

[sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>]

On Thu, 7 Apr 2005, David Moberg wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "sindi keesan" <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>
>
> > Can the parport adaptor be used somehow with BL2 as an external
> > hard drive?  If not, DOS is fine.
>
> I bet it uses paride or a similar driver. It probably acts like a
> parallel port hard drive. Try the relevant HOWTOs for paride, or
> maybe the Parallel HOWOT.

> > Our problem is that the camera did not seem to like the format that
> > came on the 10MB card which was in the PCMCIA adaptor.  What format
> > would a camera want?  We could try to format it with BL3 fdisk via
> > the PCMCIA adaptor.  The camera told us it was formatting but it
> > did not succeed.
>
> It may not take that size/type of card. Is the card writable? Usually
> cameras like one partition that fills the whole disk, formatted as
> msdos or vfat. Usually they prefer FAT16/32 formats from DOS or Windows
> tools. If the card has nothing that you want, use dd if=/dev/zero to
> wipe it clean, then use DOS or Windows format, Windows preferably.

The problem may just be low batteries - I will hunt up a 6V power cube. 
When it said it was reformatting it could have just been making its own 
directory and subdirectory where it puts the photos.  This is Type I 
compact flash, which is thinner than Type II.  People kept telling us they 
were 3.3 and 5V (like cpus?) but they are 3.3 and 5 mm.  Type II adaptors 
can handle both thicknesses.

One website said FAT32 was needed on cards over 1G (this is 10MB) and 
cameras could not all handle FAT32.  These cards are now made up to 8GB. 
The Type II run 170MB - 4GB and you can use them instead of hard drives 
in PCMCIA slots.  We have to learn to access the card before we can 
determine the format.  Might start with the PCMCIA adaptor in BL3 then 
proceed to learn paride in BL2 (assuming the kernel handles it, otherwise 
bare.i).  They consist of memory plus controller (unlike the Smartmedia 
cards which are memory only but for some perverse reason cost more).

The datafab site had lots of info on parallel port memory card readers, 
such as you need to set the parport to LPT1 IRQ7 and ECP mode in BIOS (but 
then there was something about the slower SPP and not-quite-as-slow EPP 
also working).  The pass-through may not work with a dot-matrix printer so 
use an A-B switch box if so.  You have to unplug the keyboard and plug the 
adaptor into the keyboard port for power, then plug the keyboard into it. 
Odd creature, heavier than the camera and not ideal for travelling.

I will go read about paride - external hard drives and CD-ROM drives too? 
The parport zip drives appear to be treated as scsi not ide - still have 
to set mine up.

> David
> --