Introduction

This page describes how to use an Iomega ZIP parallel port drive in Ubuntu. These instructions have been tested with Ubuntu 22.04.3

Installation

All that is required is to add the ppa kernel module for parallel ports. First verify that the parallel port has been detected:

root@phenom:~# sudo dmesg | grep -E 'lp|parport|ppa' | grep -v apparmor
[   15.027018] lp: driver loaded but no devices found
[   15.052448] parport_pc 00:04: reported by Plug and Play ACPI
[   15.052567] parport0: PC-style at 0x378, irq 7 [PCSPP,TRISTATE,EPP]
[   15.148738] lp0: using parport0 (interrupt-driven).

lp0 is successfully detected. The parallel port is configured in the BIOS for EPP mode.

Next, verify that the ppa module isn't already specified - the following command should not print anything:

lsmod | grep ppa

Now let's manually insert the ppa module:

sudo modprobe ppa

Check the kernel logs to confirm the module is installed:

sudo tail /var/log/kern.log
Sep 27 13:40:51 phenom kernel: [ 1014.658066] ppa: Found device at ID 6, Attempting to use EPP 32 bit
Sep 27 13:40:51 phenom kernel: [ 1014.658541] ppa: Communication established with ID 6 using EPP 32 bit
Sep 27 13:40:51 phenom kernel: [ 1014.660962] scsi host9: Iomega VPI0 (ppa) interface
Sep 27 13:40:52 phenom kernel: [ 1014.808517] scsi 9:0:6:0: Direct-Access     IOMEGA   ZIP 100          D.13 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
Sep 27 13:40:52 phenom kernel: [ 1014.875453] sd 9:0:6:0: Attached scsi generic sg7 type 0
Sep 27 13:40:52 phenom kernel: [ 1014.976454] sd 9:0:6:0: [sdg] 196608 512-byte logical blocks: (101 MB/96.0 MiB)
Sep 27 13:40:52 phenom kernel: [ 1015.008486] sd 9:0:6:0: [sdg] Write Protect is off
Sep 27 13:40:52 phenom kernel: [ 1015.008508] sd 9:0:6:0: [sdg] Mode Sense: 25 00 00 08
Sep 27 13:40:52 phenom kernel: [ 1015.076449] sd 9:0:6:0: [sdg] Cache data unavailable
Sep 27 13:40:52 phenom kernel: [ 1015.076465] sd 9:0:6:0: [sdg] Assuming drive cache: write through
Sep 27 13:40:52 phenom kernel: [ 1015.316472]  sdg: sdg4
Sep 27 13:40:52 phenom kernel: [ 1015.332500] sd 9:0:6:0: [sdg] Attached SCSI removable disk

To have the zip drive installed at boot, the ppa module needs to be in /etc/modules. Check there first:

grep ppa /etc/modules

Add the module:

sudo sh -c "echo ppa >> /etc/modules"

Now reboot your system to test the drive is automatically available. It may be necessary to remove the module and re-insert it to have the drive detected, eg if the module is installed when the drive is not connected or powered on:

rmmod ppa
modprobe ppa

Check /var/log/kern.log for details

After reboot, you should be able to see your ZIP drive in the list of devices when running:

cat /proc/scsi/scsi

Host: scsi9 Channel: 00 Id: 06 Lun: 00
  Vendor: IOMEGA   Model: ZIP 100          Rev: D.13
  Type:   Direct-Access                    ANSI  SCSI revision: 02

or

root@phenom:~# lsscsi 
[2:0:0:0]    disk    ATA      SanDisk SDSSDX48 R211  /dev/sda 
[4:0:0:0]    disk    ATA      SanDisk SDSSDX48 R211  /dev/sdb 
[5:0:0:0]    cd/dvd  PIONEER  DVD-RW  DVR-216  1.06  /dev/sr0 
[8:0:0:0]    disk    ATA      SanDisk SDSSDX48 R211  /dev/sdc 
[8:0:1:0]    disk    ATA      SanDisk SDSSDX48 R211  /dev/sdd 
[8:0:2:0]    disk    ATA      SanDisk SDSSDX48 R211  /dev/sde 
[8:0:3:0]    disk    ATA      SanDisk SDSSDX48 R211  /dev/sdf 
[9:0:6:0]    disk    IOMEGA   ZIP 100          D.13  /dev/sdg 

Operations

Once the drive is configured above, working with zip disks is the same as any scsi disk.

  • Insert a disk and the desktop Files app will be able to mount it just like a disk.
  • The desktop Disks app can format

Command line

root@phenom:~# fdisk -l /dev/sdg
Disk /dev/sdg: 96 MiB, 100663296 bytes, 196608 sectors
Disk model: ZIP 100         
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x726a014e

Device     Boot Start    End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sdg4  *       32 196607  196576  96M  6 FAT16

Other resources


CategoryHardware

IomegaZIPDrive (last edited 2023-09-27 05:14:47 by poddmo)