Trouble configuring /dev/lp<n> under 2.4.x

[Mitch Petenaude]

So I'm finally getting around to configuring my printer under a 2.4.x
kernel, and I'm stuck almost before I can begin.

I can't get it to recognize the parallel port.  Here's what I tried:

I checked my BIOS setup screen, and it has the following config
MODE  I've tried both "normal" and "ECP+EPP".
IRQ 7
IO  0x378
DMA 3 (if mode is EPP, ECP or both)

Well, the first thing I notice is the lp kernal module is not loaded,
but while modprobe detects it, it doesn't bind to major device 6 or
find the hardware port.

A cursory reading of the code for the lp driver leads me to believe that
under 2.4.x kernels, lp relies on the parport and parport_probe modules
which are supposed to auto-detect, but they aren't.

Where do I go from here?  I've tried hard coding config, but I can't 
find the parameters documented anywhere.

   -- Mitch