Out behind the barn, I found my old 100-CDs-Jukebox, my very first CD-writer drive, and a Polaroid 35mm slide scanner.
I also found all sorts of SCSI internal drives, controllers, etc.

After looking at current hardware, my plans to scan 1300 slides into hi-res jpg images, requires the Polaroid scanner 2700x2700 BP 35mm !

How do I cable these old machines to a modern PC/LapTop ?
Answer: By using SCSI/Parallel cables.
Problem: NONE of our machines have "Centronics" parallel, or 'RS-232' serial ports...that explains all that stuff in the barn !

As I remember, PC-DOS/Novell was soup-de-jour for the jukebox and the CD drive. The Polaroid scanner was Windows on a IBM laptop (built-in SCSI).

Sooo - I'll assemble an old PC(64bit) that has RS-232 port, plus six slots for SCSI controllers.
Which Linux Distro would be best ?
<prefer Linux,,, because all my DOS stuff in on diskettes !>

Thanks - Any & all help is appreciated.

There are pretty good (and bad) USB to RS-232 converters and there is support for this conversion in kernel. I use one of these to connect to my motorcycle ECU, to my radio scanner and chip programmer and it works faultlessly. It is somewhere buried in my drawers, but I can look its model up if you wish.

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Best distribution is always subjective and depends on the hardware. By knowing the SCSI controller model number you can look through the modules to see if it still included/supported. Hopefully the drive motors will spin up...

I use FTDI based USB parallel port adapters which IMHO work well. As far as I know they do have bit-bang capability if one of those devices needs that functionality.

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USB to RS-232 - sounds perfect for the 'function control' cable. I'll search/shop for one.

Centronics-parallel-printer-port to SCSI OR, maybe USB to SCSI ?

I have three different MFG's SCSI motherboard controllers which provide true SCSI<->SCSI.
The Polaroid has a true SCSI connector, AND/OR a IBM-PC printer port cable. (optioned ON/OFF).

The original IBM PCs used the 25pin socket to a IBM-Centronics(parallel) printer,
OR, only 9pins to a (serial) modem or printer.
OR, the same 25pin socket could cable to a RS-232(serial) modem,etc.
(IBM sold a lot of cables !)

Didn't ZIP disks provide the way to use scsi over parallel? From there linux used it to access drives.??

Somebody may have done parallel I/O before but the throughput is awkward. There's 8 Outputs and 5 Inputs or vice versa. Forget RS232. Your grandson will wonder why you started something that couldn't be completed in your lifetime.

I would look to connect vintage to modern by Network. Even 10Mb/S ≅ 1MB/S with parity & stop bits. When you find a scsi card from the last millenium, it will hardly come with drivers.

Purchases may be involved.

For which device a RS232 port is required?

First, check your mainboard. Some current mainboards provide one RS232 port which is accessible via a 5×2 male pin header on the mainboard. You only need a cable from this pin header to male DE-9 connector.

You can insert a PCIe x1 card which provides parallel ports and RS232 ports. Check which chips are supported by the Linux kernel. Cards with "Oxford OXPCIe952" chip are a good choice. Avoid cards with "Asix AX99100" chip. Support for this chip is hidden in the Linux kernel. You must patch the kernel to activate this support.

Forget everything with USB. A few devices like FTDI may work but many device are "Windows only hardware" aka e-waste.

SCSI may be a little bit complicated if your mainboard does't provide any PCI slot. You can try a PCIe x1 to PCI adapter and insert a PCI SCSI card into the PCI slot. If you have an µATX mainboard in an ATX case you have enough regular place for this installation. If you have an ATX mainboard or an µATX case place for this installation may be a problem.

Why would you need six slots for SCSI controllers??? Those devices were meant to be chained with a terminator at the last device. You can have eight different SCSI devices on one chain. And why do you need a parallel port or an RS-232 port?? I think the best first-step would be to truly identify what the ports are on the devices, and check their manuals on how they're hooked up to make sure of what you NEED.

CD-Writer? Junk it...MUCH faster ones that hook up via USB are very cheap, same for USB adapters to go from USB to serial/parallel. There are (were?) USB to SCSI adapters, but haven't seen one in years. The only thing I'd worry about would be the chipset on the USB-SCSI adapter not being supported in Linux, strictly due to age. Personally, I'd give my slides to a conversion service, and have them do it cheaper than I could buy hardware. And if that stuff has been sitting behind a barn...are you sure they even still WORK??

Quote: Didn't ZIP disks provide the way to use scsi over parallel? From there linux used it to access drives.??

ZIP drive box#1 included a scsi<>DB25(RS232) cable for IBM PCs. PC-DOS driver/utilities on diskette.
Zip drive box#2 included a scsi<>scsi cable & single-port Adaptec controller (not bootable).
Zip drive box#3 same as #2 but newer bootable controller + internal ribbon cable.
(memory fails me - one box included a bootable Zip-disc with volume-copy backup (like'ghost'))
SCO & Banyon VINES both supported LAN sharing the Zip drives.

Slide-scanning Project Update.
I re-assembled a nifty IBM 'mini-tower' with PentiumIII and all SCSI devices.
Fujitsu HD, Sony CD-RW, onboard 10BaseT -> Router/AP ->WiFi
Windows XP + Polaroid scanner package = world's slowest scanner.
1300 slides X 60-90 seconds.... Forget that !
The CD jukebox works ! However, I must boot DOS for the RS-232-robotics to change CDs.
It worked fine with Windows-For-Workgroups ! (another project for sum-day).

I added a large Fujitsu feeder/scanner and a 4-port USB card and donated it,,, far away :>}
The Polaroid & Jukebox - back to the barn.

Slide-scanning-2023
An old Airequipt projector (did I mention all 1300 are in tiny metal frames? 32 fit into 1 aluminum tray.)
I stripped the projector down to just the feeder mechanics, stuck an iphone where the lens used to be, added a xmas-tree light bulb, and voila! Digital photos as fast as you can click the auto-feeder. The iphone snaps every 4 seconds.
Every 32or64or96 slides, the files are xferd to my desktop (KDE Konnect) where we can review/purge/edit/catalog to a photo library. Today the problem is family,friends,distant cousins, all wanting to get involved.
We'll save that for another day !

Parallel ports were DB25 female and RS232 ports were DB25/DB9 male. Both DB25 and Centronics connectors were used for SCSI and parallel ports. The parallel port version contained an integrated SCSI controller, the Zip drive SCSI drives used 50 pin connectors I believe and your zip drive #3 appears to be an internal IDE version.