Serial Port / COM1

[marcus]

Hi,

i need your help to install COM1 on mein XP Guest System. The Host is Ubuntu 8.04 Server. The background is, that on my physical computer (Windows XP) a card reader is connected on com1 port, so if i connect via RDP to the guest i would like to use the card reader. I use the current version of VirtualBox.

I hope anyone can help me...

Thanks a lot

best regards,
marcus

[vbox4me2]

Check out the RDP local resources Tab page.

[marcus]

HI,

I activated the local serial port for the RDP, but on the Guest System there is no COM Port1 available. In the system settings ist only LPT1 available...

[vbox4me2]

RDP shares work one way, from Guest to Host. Or go for something like http://www.intellidriver.com/

[ROR]

No one seems to be addressing this issue. I keep finding people with the problem, but no solutions.

It's unfortunate that the OP mentioned RDP. As far as I can tell, it's unrelated to the actual problem. Unfortunately, every response I've seen so far has been along the lines of "Why do you want to use a serial port?" or "You can work it around it by [insert some scheme that doesn't require a hardware com port showing up in Windows]"

So, the question remains: how do you get COM1 to show up in Windows? I have the exact same problem. I enable a port in the VBox settings for my XP virtual machine and select it as COM1. Unfortunately, XP doesn't detect it. The only thing that shows up in the Windows devices is LPT1.

I've tried multitudes of variants on this (using the port 2 settings in VBox, COM2, COM3, manually installing hardware on XP, blah blah) and it just won't show up. So, is this a bug or not? If so, is there a fix coming? If not, how do I either get it to work or file a bug report?

For now, I'm going to have drag an old tower out with XP on it specifically so I can have a serial port. The only reason I have a VBox XP machine is so I can avoid having to use multiple computers for the development I'm doing (which requires XP and a serial port).

Details:

Virtual Box Version 2.2.0r45846 on OS X 10.5.6
Virtual Machine running XP SP2

[tge96]

Hi,

COM1 shows up in my Guests' Device Manager and PuTTY script appears to detect it.

So, for me it appears COM1 is working... althought I haven't tested it with an actual hardware device, yet.

[Perryg]

Assuming that you called the serial port COM1 in the VBox setup and that you also selected Host device. (This is what it needs to be by the way)
You then start the guest (XP)
Windows will not see this and there is no way that you can make it see this port as plug-n-Play but you can make it work.
1. Go to control panel (select classic view) and double click new hardware.
2. Click next to start the discovery process.
3. Select yes I have already connected the hardware then click next.
4. Scroll to the end of the list and select add new hardware device and click next.
5. Select Search for and install the hardware automatically.
6. When the scan has completed you should see the Com port.
7. Select finish to end the process.
8. Open the device manager (right click my computer and left click on manage) select device manager.
9. Click the + beside ports and you should see the com port.

Take a bow, Tip of the hat, go on with your work.

[tge96]

Hi,

Just to be clear.
I called it COM1 and didn't need to do anything else in order for the Guest to see it in Device Manager. It just works without fuss.

[Perryg]

Hi,

Just to be clear.
I called it COM1 and didn't need to do anything else in order for the Guest to see it in Device Manager. It just works without fuss.

This is true when it all works as planned. I was sending this for the post above yours (User ROR) and assumed that he had not installed it when he loaded Windows. Adding a com port after the install looks to windows like new hardware but is not always picked up by default. The steps above are for those unlucky ones that need to install it manually.

[tge96]

gotcha, thanks for the clarification and steps for manual install

[motie38]

Marcus, I don't know if you got an answer that satisfied or not, but I just had to do this myself. Here's what I did.
I'm using Fedora 10.
1, I had to figure out which device is the serial port in Fedora. I only have 1 serial port, so it is
/dev/ttyS0
2, I set it up in virtual box by clicking Serial ports, and on the Port 1 tab, selecting the following
X Enable Serial Port
Port Number: COM1
Port Mode: Host Device
Port/File Path: /dev/ttyS0
3, But that didn't quite work yet. I had to go fix the permissions on the device file so I had access to it. As root,
# chmod 666 /dev/ttyS0
4, I booted up XP in the virtual machine and checked Devices, and COM1 claimed to be working properly.
5, I plugged in a loopback plug into the serial port, then went into Hyperterminal, connected to COM1, and typed. I got characters back! Success. After that, I set up my application to use COM1 for it's serial thermal printer I'm using, and tested that. Success again.

I hope this helps
motie38

[a_d_smith]

Hi folks

Anyone know how to perform the steps outlined by Perryg for a Windows 2008 guest OS? I have successfully enabled the serial port in my XP host but the add hardware process is different for Win 2008 and I can't get the Serial port to appear for that OS.

Cheers!

[cheche]

is there a software method to test hte serial port?, on a previous post they only talk about a loopback plug. I found this on the net, has anyone have some experience on this:
http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/~albrecht/s ... index.html

[Perryg]

Hi folks

Anyone know how to perform the steps outlined by Perryg for a Windows 2008 guest OS? I have successfully enabled the serial port in my XP host but the add hardware process is different for Win 2008 and I can't get the Serial port to appear for that OS.

Cheers!

Open Control Panel Select add new hardware.
Select add hardware manually (advanced)
Select ports (com lpt)
That's just about it.
See screen shot below, it works.

[cheche]

thanks Perryg,
This is how I have it, I am able to see the COM1 Serial port on the guess system, but the application that reads from that port does not read the data. So I would like to test somehow.