Hi I am newer to linux and was wondering if you can help me with my huge issue i am haiving. I came to this linux forum as I feel you would be the most experienced.
My problem: I have a Program called Testworks QT that I need to use to run a Tensile machine at my work. The program is currently working fine on an old windows machine but i am trying to create a backup plan and this is proving to be challange. It connects to the machine using an ADC card plugged into the ISA port on the computer. ISA ports on old machines are even getting hard to find so if the hardware fails im done. I have contected the OEM for a software/hardware upgrade but they want to chare $16 000 dollars to do so or $30 000 for a new machine. I built a new computer with ISA and need to get the software working.
New computer: My new computer has a MSI MS-98A9 motherboard with an ISA slot. It only has SATA ports no PATA.
Software issue: The program i am installing will install on any windows version fine but when attempting to run i get a security violation. This is due to the program requiring Direct access to a parallel port dongle attached to the computer. The program only works correctly on windows 95 and 98. I was succesfully able to install windows 98 on this hardware setup but it does not have the correct drivers to access the harddrive controller and cuases the opperating system to be to slow to use the program. The program does work correctly just really long and unsafe delays. If i install it on windows xp the program looses direct hardware access. I was able to used a program (userport) to give me intermittant access to allow the program to launch once it bypasses the security check but than it cant read the ISA card. I have tried running the program in a virtual machine (virtualbox) and i am able to connect to parallel port alot better but still cant fix the access to ISA. So i gave up on windows and am now trying linux.
Linux attempt: So far i have installed ubuntu with wine and got the program to install. I have allowed read write access to the parallel port but i get the security violation message telling me it cant access the parallel port. I have installed virtualbox with windows 98 and i was able to get it to open. same ISA issues. Not Knowing linux enough i am now stuck.
I need everyones help to either give me ideas on things to try with linux and or windows. I NEED both access to the parallel port and to the ISA card on the machine. Any ideas?
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