VPO(4)

📦 version 12.2, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💖 VPO(4) — the parallel-to-SCSI girlies 💖

ok so bestie, this is a page from the Kernel Interfaces Manual for vpo, and honestly? she's a little retro, a little deprecated, but she ATE in her day. let's get into it 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

vpo — parallel to SCSI interface driver

that's it. that's the name. short, sweet, iconic 💅

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

so to get her in your kernel you drop this:

device vpo

and if you want one or more SCSI busses (plural besties, she's social):

device scbus

no cap, that's the whole vibe.

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

the vpo driver gives you access to parallel port Iomega Zip and Jaz drives. yes, the clicky ones. yes, the ones from the era of your older cousin's bedroom. 🦋

✨ DEPRECATION NOTICE ✨

🚨 okay so IMPORTANT: the vpo driver is not present in FreeBSD 13.0 and later. she's gone, bestie. retired. if you're on a modern FreeBSD, this is a history lesson, not a how-to. 😭

✨ HARDWARE ✨

the vpo driver supports the following parallel to SCSI interfaces:

  • Adaptec AIC-7110 Parallel to SCSI interface — and yes, this one is built-in to Iomega ZIP drives 🎀
  • Iomega Jaz Traveller interface
  • Iomega MatchMaker SCSI interface — also built-in to Iomega ZIP+ drives ✨

three queens, one driver. periodt.

✨ USAGE ✨

the driver should let you use a printer connected to the drive while you're transferring data. multitasking main character energy fr fr 🔥

DOS and FreeBSD file systems are supported. when you're mounting a DOS file system or formatting a FreeBSD file system, check the slice of the disk with the gpart(8) utility. don't skip that step bestie, the slice is the whole plot. 💀

in order to unixify a ZIP disk, put the following in /etc/disktab:

zip|zip 100:\
        :ty=removable:se#512:nc#96:nt#64:ns#32:\
        :pa#196608:oa#0:ba#4096:fa#512:\
        :pb#196608:ob#0:bb#4096:fb#512:\
        :pc#196608:oc#0:bc#4096:fc#512:

and then use bsdlabel(8). yup. that's the ritual. 🧚

if you have trouble with your driver, it's lowkey possible your parallel chipset may not run properly at the detected mode (NIBBLE, PS2 or EPP). the fix? tune the ppc(4) bootflags to force other modes. vibe check your chipset, basically. 🌸

✨ SEE ALSO ✨

go read those too, they're the supporting cast 🫶

✨ HISTORY ✨

the vpo manual page first appeared in FreeBSD 3.0. a true OG. 👑

✨ AUTHORS ✨

this manual page was written by Nicolas Souchu. thank you king 💜

✨ BUGS ✨

😭 okay listen. during boot, the driver first tries to detect a classic ZIP, then a ZIP+. and the ZIP+ detection is intrusive — it may send erroneous characters to your printer if the drive is not connected to your parallel port. so like. not me accidentally printing nonsense to my printer at boot. 🙈

that's the whole page bestie, hope it slayed 💖✨ and just so you know, this version came from the Debian folks and it's dated December 21, 2019 — so yeah, retro, but make it cute 🎀🌸

📦 where this page comes from