EMC on HP 6730 weird parallel port noise / not working

Hi All,

I have installed BDI EMC from here:
http://www.isw.uni-stuttgart.de/personen/t_franit/echtzeitlinux/
download.html on my HP Pavilion 6730 (600MHz Celeron, 128MB, 60+8GB).
It doesn't work. Specifically, if I turn on my controller (L297/L298
drivers, stepper motors), the Y axis steps about 1/8 turn about twice a
second. The other axes won't move. The problem doesn't seem to be EMC,
it seems to be Linux. When I watch the data lines on the parallel port
while booting Linux, there are all kinds of signals on the lines. Even
when it's going through the check list at the beginning of the boot
(where it says Starting..(whatever)..[OK]). When I boot Windows 95,
there is no noise on the lines. Also, the parallel port (378) isn't
reported in the control panel for Linux, but it is in Windows. How
weird is that?! If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears. I'm
several days into this project, and it's driving me nuts.

Thanks in advance!

Regards,
JJ