[Linux-parport] The Intel parport bug

[Adam Baker]

On Wednesday 15 Jun 2011, Leopold Palomo-Avellaneda wrote:
> Package: linux-image-2.6
> Severity: normal
> Tags: patch
> 
> Hi,
> 
> there's a bug in the parport module that have been reported (in another
> places) some time ago [1]. Also, this bug was reported at Redhat [2], but
> nobody follow the report and it was closed.
> 
> As Adam baked said [1] :
> 
> <quote>
> A long time ago (~ 10 years), Intel produced a chipset that
> included broken EPP support. The Linux parport driver was written to detect
> such a chipset and disable EPP support on it. Unfortunately the test that
> was written gives false positives for many current chipsets and no-one
> seems to know exactly what the problem hardware was, let alone have a
> sample of it to see if a better test can be written. After such a long
> time it is probably appropriate to just remove the test (on average it
> does more harm than good) however you are correct in asserting the driver
> is unmaintained so no-one is bothering to fix it.
> </quote>
> 
> I have applied the patch to the standard debian kernel and it compiles and
> runs perfectly. Applied to some Dell hardware, now the EPP mode is detected
> and, after some initial tests it's working.
> 
> I don't have any hope that it would be solved in the linux kernel, but at
> least in the debian kernel it could be applied.
> 
> Please, apply the patch.
> 

The reason I gave up on trying to get this into the mainline kernel was 
because I binned the only hardware I had that used EPP and I needed at least 
one and preferably more people to confirm this was an effective fix for a real 
world problem, not just something that happened to once work for me.

As the parport driver is currently orphaned you need to post a patch to the 
LKML if you want to get it included in mainline but if your prepared to do 
some testing that would be the best solution for everyone.

Adam