i cant even seem to get lpt1 working. its device number 16,1, which
   seems right, and its detected at bootup. if i try to cat a file to it,
   it says "Device not configured" what am i doing wrong?

That would indicate that you don't have an interrupt configured, so you
can only use the polling device, called `lpa1'.  I updated the man page
a while ago to discuss this.


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