Linux Iomega ZIP Drive Mini-HOWTO
Byron A. Jeff (byron@cc.gatech.edu)
August 24, 1995

As I've posted recently I have been having problems with my new Iomega SCSI
ZIP drive. After fighting with the incompatible cable formats which forced
me from my PAS 16 SCSI to a more standard Adaptec 1522, I was horrified to
find that I couldn't write to the disk! Worse yet 75MB of disk space had
already been taken. Taken was how I felt.

Bottom Line: The ZIP Tools disk is dual formatted for DOS/WIN and Mac. There 
are a hidden 50 Megs for a Mac partition. In addition a pristine ZIP tools 
disk, that has not had the Iomega install program run on it, is read-only.

I was simply amazed the the format of the ZIP Tools disk hadn't been
discussed on the net but I hypothesize that most of the folks tested their
stuff under DOS/Windows to make sure it worked then tried it under Linux.
Once the Iomega install has been performed the disk starts to function
properly. So no problem results when tested under Linux.

I was of course too stupid ;-) to take that route.

When you run the Iomega Tools \scsi\install program it kills the Mac partition
and unlocks the disk. This makes 75MB of writable space available.

However this isn't much help if you're running Linux. The docs state that
for Unix that one had to do a low level format of the ZIP disk.

A colleague of mine (Hi Michael!) finally used the SCSIFMT.EXE from adaptec to 
do the job. Obviously this wipes the disk. And he had to take his Linux 
machine down, boot DOS, and run the format. Not optimal, but functional.

I don't think it was necessary to run SCSIFMT because one could just load the 
apsi2dos driver (or whatever it's called) then run guest and the SCSI install 
from DOS. I think it'll do the right thing. I'm not sure because I didn't do 
this. See below.

However that isn't the big news. Fortunately I have access to a parallel
ZIP drive (fortunately? What the hell is he talking about?!! There isn't a
parallel ZIP driver for Linux!) and a portable with Linux. (no SCSI available) 
I played with the install under Windows (Blech) to learn how this 
conversion got done. In the end I had a writable Tools disk with 75 MB of 
free space, and a second pristine disk with 24 MB of free space and read-only.
Note I ran real Windows 3.1 and used the parallel ZIP drive.

Well it was finally time to test the real deal. For a few weeks now I've been
hypothesizing (hey twice in one HOWTO!) that the parallel ZIP drive may work 
under DOSEMU. Today I finally got access to a parallel ZIP drive to test it 
out. The parallel instructions shows how to install in a DOS only environment. 
Clearly it was time to take DOSEMU to task! So I:

1) Compiled a kernel with no LP support (I now see a good reason to ensure 
that LP is module only. Then you can run LP, PLIP, or parallel ZIP). 
2) Configured DOSEMU to have the three ports addresses for the parallel port
(that's 0x378-0x37A for LP1) 
3) Ran DOSEMU. 
4) Popped in the Iomega floppy and the ZIP disk in their respective drives.
5) Ran the guest driver program per the instructions...

AND IT WORKED BABY!!!!

Guest picked up the drive, assigned it an drive letter, and off we went!

I then ran the \scsi\install as per the instructions and it promptly
converted the disk to a writeable 75MB free space ZIP disk.

Talk about killing two birds with one stone! I haven't measured the
performance of the parallel drive under DOSEMU yet. But just being able
to access it is a good first step. Plan to run some tests later. Performance
will probably be abysmal but if you have a parallel ZIP drive I'm sure
that's better than not being able to access it at all.

Summary: Parallel ZIP drives can be accessed under DOSEMU! Run the guest and
\scsi\install program to convert the disk. Alternatively look at getting
a SCSI format program from the SCSI card manufacturer to completely
low level wipe the disk. The only thing that's missing now is a Linux SCSI
low level format program. The possibility also exist to run a SCSI driver
under DOSEMU then use the Iomega program to convert the disk. But it would
have to be a PIO card only. No busmastering, no DMA. Probably not real fun
to try.

I hope this helps you folks out there.

I'm off to play with my new 100MB worth of writable space! First thing I did
was delete the ZIP tools because I have access to a second disk with the tools
on them and I'm not going to run DOS/Windows anyway!

Later,

BAJ