MikeL's Perl howto - Device::ParallelPort

MikeL's Perl howto - Device::Parallel

Installing this thing shouldn't be this hard, but it took me quite a while to get it going, so here's my notes. P.S. I was only trying to make this work on Windows XP on an older 32 bit Dell. Just to make clear, these are all steps I took in the process of getting it working, spread across many reboots etc. Hopefully this is a simple direct path to success.

Now's the time to upgrade your Perl install if you haven't done so recently. Go to your "add/remove" programs, and uninstall your old Perl.
Clobber anything remaining in your old perl directory. (I have some custom stuff of my own in the site/lib directory that I left, but nothing else.)
Install current production Perl. I use ActiveState (click "languages" tab, choose "ActivePerl", then "download free community edition").
From command line:
ppm install Device-ParallelPort-drv-win32
If you don't have ppm, use:
cpan install Device::ParallelPort::drv::win32
Do a web search and download "inpout32". I found this here (you've gotta click on the "x64" even though you're x32):
logix4u.net inpout64 page find "click here for full description ... 32 bit version" [local copy InpOutBinaries.zip].
From the Win32 directory in the zip file, copy:
hwinterface.sys into windows/System32/Drivers directory.
unzip the 32 bit folder version of inpout32.dll and move it into \windows\system32\ directory.

Here's my sample test program, cribbed from the package itself in the synopsis of the Device::ParallelPort package:

#!/usr/local/bin/perl

use strict;

use Device::ParallelPort;

my $port = Device::ParallelPort->new();

$port->set_bit(3,1);
print $port->get_bit(3)."\n";
print ord($port->get_byte(0))."\n";
$port->set_byte(0, chr(255));

(I don't even know yet if this is what it's supposed to do, I'm just documenting what I did to get it this far!) Running this prints:

1
255

When I was having problems, I would get a message something like the following [note "unabel" sic]:
Device::ParallelPort unabel to create driver auto (see Device::ParallelPort::drv ::auto for further information) - Device::ParallelPort::drv::auto (auto detect) error failed to load win32 - Can't locate Device/ParallelPort/drv/win32.pm in @INC (@I NC contains: F:/Progs/System/Perl/lib F:/Progs/System/Perl/site/lib .) at (eval 2) line 2. BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at (eval 2) line 2. . Make sure you have loaded and installed Device::ParallelPort::drv::win32 from CPAN. Install Device::ParallelPort::drv::(linux|parport|win32) and try again at (eval 1) line 3 at L:\Page\cgi-bin\lpt.pl line 2

Side notes, questions I asked myself when I was having trouble:

When I was getting the above message, I did have win32 loaded
I lost track of when this message stopped happening and I started getting a message about not finding inpout32.dll, there may have been a reboot
I do have a physical DB25 on the computer
Yes, parallel is enabled in BIOS, x378 "AT mode"
It may work in other modes, this is simply the mode it was in when I got it working
There is nothing physically plugged into the DB25 at this time
There is a USB printer on the machine
On a laptop that I did not get working, the parellel port is apparently in the external dock which I don't have - don't know if this is the problem as I was just testing on that machine -- got it working on desk box and quit trying on the laptop
That laptop that I did not get working was a 64 bit machine

Later addition - got it to work on Windows 7 x64 bit laptop. You must rename inpoutx64.dll to inpout32.dll, then copy this file into the /windows/system32 directory. This computer is printing "1" and "120". I have not looked into the docs yet to see if it's expected that this returns a different number than my other box. Note that this is working without the dock.

Another later addition - now that I got it working on the laptop, I tried all 4 parallel port settings in the BIOS, and there was no difference, even disabled. Options are "Disabled", "AT", "PS2", and "ECP".