[SOLVED] Printer HP J4660 is recognized as unspecified device

[Zencarmax]

Hi, my Windows10 64bits (guest) only recognizes my printer j4660 as unspecified device it appears Virtualbox (5.2) properly recognizes the printer because I can add/check the usb filter (j4660 series) but, when I check the filter, the Windows only recognizes the thing as unknown device, don't know if this problem it's on windows drivers or in the virtualbox filter. I'm sending prints, maybe they can help you.



Tks

[mpack]

Actually, VirtualBox doesn't recognize any USB device as anything - it only provides the connection. It's up to the guest OS to do the recognizing. In this case I suspect that (for some reason) the guest OS can't find out what driver is required for this USB device, so you may need to find and install the driver manually.

You may be well advised to remove some of the fields in your USB filter - it should specify only the minimum number needed to identify the device. Some complex USB devices are composite, i.e. they are actually multiple devices behind a hub, so matching the filter to a single device would prevent other members of the composite from being usable.

p.s. Having one VM steal exclusive ownership of a printer is not an ideal way to use a printer, since it prevents other VMs and the host from using it. It is far better to enable printer sharing on the host, and connect each VM to the host using bridged or "host only" networking.

[Zencarmax]

I've done the HP drivers instalation but it doesn't worked too. I think the guest system can't "see" my printer as a printer... at least the HP driver installer couldn't.
In time, I have already tested this printer with the windows10 in dual-boot and it worked.

[socratis]

Follow mpack's advice and delete some of the values. Or even better, follow mpack's advice and share the printer as a "network printer" with your host. In any case, follow mpack's advice...

[Zencarmax]

Understood, the thing is: I've already shared my printer in Debian (host) but... I really can't find it in windows, in my laptop with Debian I did it without problems.

Tks

[socratis]

If you used SMB sharing (also referred to as Samba or Windows sharing) to share the printer from your host, and you have setup your network so that your host can communicate with your guest, you should be able to see it. Now, about the latter part, the networking...

There are several modes of "network" in VirtualBox. Please read the following: User Manual, ch. 6.2. Introduction to networking modes including the Overview table, which shows quickly what kind of connection is required to achieve what you want.

And remember, you can always have more than one network card in your guest to cover multiple scenarios. So, you could have one adapter set to "NAT" for quick internet access, and a second adapter set to "Host-Only" for communications with the host. Or if your network can handle it (and it covers your needs as well), one adapter only, set to "Bridged".

[Zencarmax]

Good news fellas, I finally found out what was the problem: It's the USB version of the VirtualBox wich came by default in 1.1 and after changing that to 3.0 all my things worked!! Now my print is rightfully recognized and all my external hd too.

So Thanks for all the answers!

Rgs

[mpack]

Thanks for reporting back.