If you want to use devices connected to your machine's parallel port (the connector at the computer with 25 holes), e.g. printer, ZIP drive, PLIP link (Parallel Line Internet Protocol is mainly used to create a mini network by connecting the parallel ports of two local machines) etc., then you need to say Y here; please read Documentation/parport.txt and drivers/parport/BUGS-parport.
For extensive information about drivers for many devices attaching
to the parallel port see
<http://www.torque.net/linux-pp.html>
on the WWW.
It is possible to share a single parallel port among several devices and it is safe to compile all the corresponding drivers into the kernel. If you want to compile parallel port support as a module ( = code which can be inserted in and removed from the running kernel whenever you want), say M here and read Documentation/modules.txt. The module will be called parport.o. If you have more than one parallel port and want to specify which port and IRQ to be used by this driver at module load time, take a look at Documentation/parport.txt.
If unsure, say Y.
You should say Y here if you have a PC-style parallel port. All IBM PC compatible computers and some Alphas have PC-style parallel ports.
This code is also available as a module. If you want to compile it as a module ( = code which can be inserted in and removed from the running kernel whenever you want), say M here and read Documentation/modules.txt. The module will be called parport_pc.o.
If unsure, say Y.
This adds support for multi-IO PCI cards that have parallel and serial ports. You should say Y or M here. If you say M, the module will be called parport_serial.o.