As mentioned above, the three lines we added to /etc/modules.conf should make the kernel load the drivers if and only if there is demand for them. Now we can instruct the kernel to load the driver now for a test. For if the driver can't be loaded now, it probably also can't when the kernel tries to automatically do so in case of demand. So we log in again as root and start in the Plustek driver directory a make load command:
Welcome to SuSE Linux 7.2 (i386) - Kernel 2.4.7 (tty2). mathplanet login: root Password: Last login: Thu Sep 20 16:58:55 on tty2 Have a lot of fun... mathplanet:~ # cd /tmp/Scanner/plustek_driver/ mathplanet:/tmp/Scanner/plustek_driver # make load /sbin/modprobe pt_drv || exit 1 rm -f /dev/pt_drv* mathplanet:/tmp/Scanner/plustek_driver #Fine. Everything seems to have worked well. Let's see if the driver is really loaded. There is a list of all the currently loaded drivers and their status. You get that list via the command lsmod. For this command you probably have to be root too.
mathplanet:/tmp/Scanner/plustek_driver # lsmod Module Size Used by parport_pc 13680 1 (autoclean) pt_drv 111808 0 (autoclean) parport 14880 1 (autoclean) [parport_pc pt_drv] snd-mixer-oss 5280 0 (autoclean) snd-seq-midi 3728 0 (unused) snd-seq-midi-event 3408 0 [snd-seq-midi] snd-seq 43712 0 [snd-seq-midi snd-seq-midi-event] snd-card-sb8 2416 0 snd-sb8-dsp 12256 0 [snd-card-sb8] snd-pcm 32736 0 [snd-sb8-dsp] snd-mixer 25248 0 [snd-mixer-oss snd-sb8-dsp] snd-rawmidi 10592 0 [snd-seq-midi snd-sb8-dsp] snd-seq-device 4288 0 [snd-seq-midi snd-seq snd-rawmidi] snd-opl3 5104 0 [snd-card-sb8] snd-hwdep 3504 0 [snd-opl3] snd-timer 8912 0 [snd-seq snd-pcm snd-opl3] snd 36624 1 [snd-mixer-oss snd-seq-midi snd-seq-midi-event snd-seq snd-card-sb8 snd-sb8-dsp snd-pcm snd-mixer snd-rawmidi snd-seq-device snd-opl3 snd-hwdep snd-timer] soundcore 4048 4 [snd] ne2k-pci 5184 1 (autoclean) 8390 6304 0 (autoclean) [ne2k-pci] mathplanet:/tmp/Scanner/plustek_driver #Now that interests us most can be seen at the top of the list. The rest (everything that starts with snd for example, doesn't have anything to do with the parallel port or the scanner but rather with the alsa sound driver) is of little importance for us now. There is a line pt_drv a the second entry in the list. (The order of appearance is of no importance.) So the driver is really loaded. Great. And in the bracket we read autoclean. That is also fine. It describes the status of the module. If we would still be reading initializing there, you probably didn't set you parallel port to EPP mode jet. Return to section 4.1 to get that right. See if the problem persists. Look into the FAQ file if it does. So in the above example everything seems to be working fine. Loading the driver '' by hand'' did work. That means that most likely it will also work when the kernel does it automatically because you have started some application that tries to talk to the scanner.