> > Well, it doesn't matter how new the operating system is; if the hardware
> > doesn't support interrupts correctly (like many parallel port implimentations),
> > what are you supposed to do?
>
>Admited, if the hardware is broken, there's not much the OS can do. I
>just happen to wonder why the same error occurs with two different
>main boards and an external io card. IMHO it is unlikely that all of
>these parallel ports are broken, but then I don't know a lot about
>hardware.

Well, the last time this was discussed, a _lot_ of people had the same
problem.  I could very easily believe that all the hardware you have
doesn't work right with the interrupt-driven driver.

>I don't think that it is appropriate to patch the kernel to get rid of
>the symptoms. I'd rather have the problem, whatever it is, solved.

Of course, we haven't established that there is a problem yet, other than
the known one with the interrupt-driven parallel port.

> > Maybe the manufacturer of your printer didn't bother connecting up those
> > lines since it didn't affect the printer's operation under MS-DOS.
>
>Unlikely, because this printer works fine under Linux and has worked
>fine several years with NetBSD/Amiga.

I looked at sys/arch/amiga/dev/par.c, which I believe is the parallel port
driver for NetBSD/Amiga.  I didn't see anything in there which would log
any messages if the same things were happening.  So it is entirely possible
that the same thing _was_ occuring on NetBSD/Amiga, and the parallel port
driver just never told you about it (I don't know about Linux, however).

--Ken