Why Win 10 pro guest on two Mint21 hosts prints solid black test pages though fine in native win10?

Discussions about using Windows guests in VirtualBox.
Post Reply
rtalexb
Posts: 2
Joined: 6. Jan 2023, 22:18
Primary OS: Linux other
VBox Version: OSE Debian
Guest OSses: Win10, LM 19, 21

Why Win 10 pro guest on two Mint21 hosts prints solid black test pages though fine in native win10?

Post by rtalexb »

Desktop and laptop both running 64bit Linux Mint 21.0 with Virtualbox V7.04 and V 7.0.4 r154605 Guest additions.
Same Win 10 Pro 22h2 VM's in both.
Both printers are Brother and only wireless connected.
The Native and VM Win 10 both show Location: htt: //10.1.10.168:80/WebServices/Device in Windows printer properties. (I removed the htt pee per forum constraints)
Native Linux Mint 21 or dual booted native Windows 10 pro 22H2 both print correctly. Only Windows Vm's in Virtualbox prints full black pages to both Brother Inkjet and Brother laser printers when a test print or any other print performed.
FWIW, A windows VM print to "Microsoft PDF" produces the correct output.
A Linux Mint 19.3 Cinnamon guest VM with V 7.0.4 r154605 guest additions also prints correctly.

Any thoughts on how to resolve this would be great. Thanks!
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: Why Win 10 pro guest on two Mint21 hosts prints solid black test pages though fine in native win

Post by mpack »

I don't immediately see why this can have anything to do with VirtualBox since it doesn't involve a VirtualBox feature. VirtualBox provides the network connection, that's all. Printer redirection is an entirely software feature (guest driver talking to a host OS sharing protocol).
rtalexb
Posts: 2
Joined: 6. Jan 2023, 22:18
Primary OS: Linux other
VBox Version: OSE Debian
Guest OSses: Win10, LM 19, 21

Re: Why Win 10 pro guest on two Mint21 hosts prints solid black test pages though fine in native win

Post by rtalexb »

Hi. Thanks for the reply.
Since the printers are not physically connected to any machine, but wifi connected and I don't believe have a "share" setting on any computer, all os to printer connections "should be" direct to the printers. Since two machines, running the same windows 10 guest in virtualbox are the ONLY sources of the black page problem, "something" about virtualbox seems relevant.

I forgot to mention that BOTH guest win 10 instances are from the same win 10 installation. e.g. they're both from the same .OVA.
FWIW, I have uninstalled and reinstalled the win 10 guest printers, with no change to problem.

Thanks!
BillG
Volunteer
Posts: 5102
Joined: 19. Sep 2009, 04:44
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows 10,7 and earlier
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: Why Win 10 pro guest on two Mint21 hosts prints solid black test pages though fine in native win

Post by BillG »

All this would suggest to me that the Windows vms do not have the printer drivers required to format output for the printers, but the Mint 19 vm does.

The fact that the Mint 19 vm prints correctly seems to confirm that it is not a VirtualBox problem.
Bill
Post Reply