ReAl

From AVReAl‘s point of view there are two Windows families.

Windows 9X family OS like Windows 98 does not require LPT access driver. avreal uses direct IO access when working in it.

NT-line OS like Windows XP or Windows 7 requires a DLPortIO driver. Driver installation process for 32-bit and 64-bit OS has been described before.

For all Windows versions parallel port number or base address must be set in command line, for example -p1, -p378. Port number is just alias for standard address as it is noted in -p switch description. Fixed 378/278/3BC addresses are used for LPT1/2/3.

Non-standard base address for PCI-LPT (PCI-Express LPT, PCMCIA-LPT) extension board can be found on port properties tab in device manager.

»»» How to see the address of LPT in Windows XP, Windows 7

Unlike in NT-line Windows a DLPortIO.sys driver is not required for LPT port access in Linux/x86 (both 32- and 64-bit). Unlike in Windows 98 any program in Linux can’t access ports without permissions.

There are two ways — direct IO-port access and parport device usage. Direct access provides faster programming but requires root privileges when avreal is started.

Continue reading ‘avreal and LPT in Linux’ »

Unfortunately, there is no DriverLINX package (DLPortIO.sys + DLPortIO.dll) for x86-64 (AMD64, Intel64) Windows versions. I didn’t find it at least. Scientific Software Tools, Inc. (http://www.sstnet.com) discontinued the package support.
Fortunately, there is InpOut32 package (hwinterface.sys+inpout32.dll) and 64-bit version InpOutx64 with hwinterfacex64.sys driver.

»»» How to install DLPortIO in 64-bit Windows

For Windows NT, Windows 2000 and 32-bit WindowsXP, Windows 7 driver DLPortIO.sys and library DLPortIO.dll can be installed by either of the two installers — GUI and CLI (command-line interface). AVReAl is an CLI program itself so I hope that avreal users are not annoyed with CLI. I recommend to use command-line installer which has a ten times less archive (about 17KB instead of 170KB) but can do the same.

»»» How to install DLPortIO in 32-bit Windows

avreal has been working correctly under 64-bit versions of Windows for some years. Experts installed right driver and the program worked properly. But of late years I use linux mostly so 64-bit Windows is not very interesting for me.
Now I found enough time, a place and a disk space for testing by myself DLPortIO driver under Windows7/32 and 64-bit DLPortIO emulator under WindowsXP/64 and Windows7/64. dd program worked hardly restoring hard drive partitions from images for many installation attempts on “clean” system by all possible (even incorrect) methods.

So, installation archives was added yesterday to download page. There are two archives for DLPortIO-32 (GUI and command-line installer) and one archive for DLPortIO-64 (command-line installer). You can download and install an appropriate driver.
I will explain all that several days later.

See more:
DLPortIO and 32-bit Windows.
DLPortIO x64 and 64-bit Windows.

Sometimes avreal works unstable with LPT under OS Windows. Programming can be successfull or can fault, for example synchronisation lost.

A reason of these faults may be LPT polling by Windows Plug-and-Play (PnP) subsystem in order to detect connected devices. The polling is made at OS booting which is indicated by adapter LED blinking. Windows also can make the polling during its working. DLportIO.sys driver does not block access to LPT from another programs that why the polling can interfere in the microcontroller programming.

To avoid PnP interference download and run disable-lpt-poll.reg file. As you can see from the text, the file adds registry key which disables LPT polling.

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Parport\Parameters]
"DisableWarmPoll"=dword:00000001