LPT / Parallel Port Zip drives and Ubuntu

I was working on homework for my Linux class on my Compaq Armada M700, when I came to a section where I needed to format a floppy or a ZIP disk, the book uses a ZIP disk for its description. I don't have the floppy module for it (I don't know if there is a zip one or not, so obviously I don't have that one either). I do have a USB floppy drive, and a Parallel Port Zip Drive. I figured that I woud use the zip drive as that is what the book goes by.

I tried just plugging it in, no luck. Searching Google left me with some information about older ZIP 100 drives and older (2.0.x) kernels. In reading the infomation I saw that it talked about a "ppa" driver module. I did a sudo modprobe ppa and it was loaded, but nothing happened. Next I put ppa on the end of my /etc/modules file, rebooted, and still nothing. Reading on, I saw something about a Zip Plus drive that uses a different driver module, "imm." My drive is a "Z250P" from 2001, the artivle mentioned that the Zip 250 drive was new and used the imm driver, however, it was talking about an internal Zip 250. I did a sudo rmmod ppa and then a sudo modprobe imm and... NOTHING! I was beginnign to think that I coulnd't get it to work with a newer version of Linux, but then I saw that the ppa and imm modules need to be loaded BEFORE the lp module (if it was used). The very first module in /etc/modules was lp. I did a sudo rmmod imm then sudo rmmod lp then a sudo modprobe imm and sudo modprobe lp and bingo! there it was, an Icon for the drive on ym desktop. I went in to my /etc/modules file, took out the ppa, and put imm on teh very beginning (before the lp).

For the uniniated, the /etc/modules file is a list of modules to be laoded on bootup, the sudo command gives root (admin) privilages, modprobe loads a module, and rmmod removes a module imm, ppa, and lp are names of modules.

In summary, for a parallel port Zip drive, put imm (for newer drives) or ppa (for older drives) at the beginning of your /etc/modules file. To edit the file in ubuntu issue: sudo gedit /etc/modules from the Terminal, replace gedit with mousepad for Xubuntu, and kate for Kubuntu. To get started right away, do a sudo rmmod lp then sudo modprobe imm or sudo modprobe ppa then sudo modprobe lp.