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On Mon, 13 Dec 2010, baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org wrote:

> The CD-ROM HOWTO says they are usb storage devices.
>
> Mine is not recognized by the driver, even with a kernel that has built-in 
> usbcore and usb-uhci (with modules scsi_mod and sd_mod) and ALL the USB 
> storage drivers.  Maybe I need newer kernel source code than 2.4?
> LaCie Ltd. 24x 10x 40x - tested with the oldest/largest of the drives,
> circa 2002.  Will try again some day with a 2.6 kernel.

One of our external CD-RW drives is a Micro Solutions Backpack, 
combination parallel port and USB 1.1, for which there are in theory 
Windows drivers.  The USB part is not seen by Mac or Puppy Linux. Our 
other five working external CD-RW (USB or firewire) mount automatically in 
Mac OS 10.4.11 (USB storage?) and this one is not found as USB drive. The 
embedded CD-RW drive works via USB-IDE adaptor cable and external power 
supply, in the Mac, without its casing.  (Did not test burn, just read).

The Windows-only (Win95-XP) drivers are available only from driverguide, 
for a fee.  The manufacture does not seem to support them any more (or 
maybe even to exist).  TechRepublic required registration then the 
'driver' was a page of ads and irrelevant links.

As a challenge, I tried to make this work in BL3.5.  Parallel IDE.
We are having three days of ideal linux weather (under 10 F).

I attempted to load all the required modules.  PARIDE howto.

1.  BL3.5 'big' kernel with built-in scsi support (scsi_mod, sr_mod, sg - 
needed to write CDs in scsi-emulation mode).
2.  insmod parport (parport_pc probably optional)
3.  insmod paride (would not insert with regular kernel)
4.  specifically for CD-ROM  (like sd_mod)- insmod pcd
5.  for CD-RW generic support (like sg)  - insmod pg
6.  for Backpack - insmod bpck

You are supposed to specify at boot time pd.drive0=0x378,1 (and so on for 
any other drives attached to the pass-through port on this one, in which 
case you need the last two digits of the Micro Solutions serial number),
and then insmod pcd drive0=0x378,1

(Maybe it should be at boot time pcd.drive0=0x378,1?  Like setting up 
ide-cd for regular CD burners and cdrecord?).

It won't insmod, nor will pg.  'Autoprobe failed' when I don't specify the 
drive, or 'invalid parameter' no CD-ROM drive found when I do.  Maybe it 
is not 0x378?  I don't see 0x378 listed in /proc/ioports, or any other 
parallel port.  serial port is listed.  The port normally prints (did not 
test it with this kernel or modules though).

bpck does insert.  Registered as Protocol 0.

A more careful read-through might help (I am not sure if I need to insert 
cdrom and ide-cd) but the explanation is quite confusing since it includes 
Syquest and LS-100 and other drives and the examples are for having three 
things chained through the parallel port not even counting a printer.  I 
used to have ISA parallel cards which could be set to any of three io 
addresses (and the onboard parallel port could sometimes also be set in 
CMOS).  How do I know my ioport in this case?

Once this works I should make devices pcd0 etc. for other parport ide 
devices and mount them and use the burner similarly to /dev/hdc (sr0) with 
cdrecord.

The instructions mention in passing that the burn speed can be as high as 
2x but is otherwise 1x.  Parallel ports are slow.  Our first CD-RW was 2X, 
in 1999, regular IDE, probably much faster than parallel port.  USB 1.1 
would also be faster.

I have two PCMCIA CD-ROM drives for use in computers that have no CD-ROM 
drives.  /dev/hde1 ide_cs.o

I don't really need to burn CDs from older laptops or even transfer files 
via CD.  I can use parallel port zip drive for file transfer, or network 
cable (all my laptops have pcmcia now), or even a large CF card in PCMCIA 
adaptor, or PCMCIA hard drive.  (Or USB hard drive or zip drive in post 
1998 laptops).  I can play using a standalone NEC scsi CD-ROM drive with 
play button, LCD screen, and headphone/speaker port and an RCA jack.

It was helpful to have the big kernel and modules to play with.

I am giving up on both parport CD-RWs in linux unless someone else wants 
to help with this.  I wrote LaCie free tech support for instructions for 
using their USB external CD-ROM drives with linux.  We have two now. 
Also Iomega, SONY, Memorex (and we recycled two that did not work).
There were once expensive.

Sindi