[sclug] Ubuntu and Zip drives

[Will Dickson]

Neil Haughton wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> Let me come right out and say it - I like Ubuntu, and I like the latest 
> Ubuntu 6.06 a lot, and mainly because of the apparent strengths of 
> apt-get etc I'd like to use it to replace my Mandrake setup at home. But 
> I ain't going to do so until I can get it to detect and enable my 
> parallel port 100Mb Iomega Zip drive.
> 
> The Ubuntu forums seem strangely quiet on this topic. Mandrake 9, 10.0 
> and 10.1 have had no trouble seeing and auto-mounting it, and IIRC so 
> did Mepis (which is based on Ubuntu) when I recently tried it so I would 
> expect Ubuntu to do the same; but it stubbornly remains Zip-free.
> 
> Does anyone out there know what the issue might be, or how to overcome 
> the problem?

Ick. Consider migrating to USB flash drives :-) FWIW, and for whatever 
reason, kernel 2.6, and the udev monster in particular, never really got 
on with my IDE zip drive. In the end a combination of that, performance, 
and capacity limitations persuaded me to move over: the fact that this 
represented moving from an essentially proprietary technology to an open 
standard was a bonus. If your box supports USB2, and you're not into 
hacking on this sort of stuff for its own sake - well, they're fast[1], 
they have big capacities[1], and they're cheap.

If that cop-out doesn't appeal, then - based on some very hazy memories; 
YMMV - I suspect the required sequence is:

1. Get the right combination of kernel modules loaded, in the right 
order. (Eg. is the printer module "lp" grabbing the parallel port before 
the "ppa" zip control module?) It might be instructive to compare the 
result of lsmod on the mandrake setup with that on the Ubuntu one if 
that's practical. Boot in text mode to do this, if you can: that way all 
the X-related modules won't have loaded, so it'll be easier to see 
what's going on.

2. Persuade udev to cooperate. (I hate udev cordially, and the feeling 
seems to be mutual, but apparently it's the future so I guess I'm stuck 
with it.)

3. Your automounter of choice shouldn't put up too much of a fight after 
that.

The Oracle of Goog-el may be of use: "Parallel port ZIP disk linux" is 
one incantation.

[1] Compared to ZIPs

HTH

Will