Network printer not printing on full page (NAT on VB 2.1)

wavingbears · Post by **wavingbears** » 24. Dec 2008, 22:10

Hopefully someone will be able to solve my dilemma. I have been a long time VB user and the forums have always helped me solve my problems without ever needing to post... but, now I have not found anything on this.

I have a network capable HP Photosmart 3210 connected to the LAN side of my wireless router.

I am running OpenSUSE 11.0 x64 with KDE 4.1.3 as my host OS.

I am using VirtualBox 2.1 and running Vista Business SP1 as guest.

I have had my printer installed via TCP/IP using the native Vista HP driver. This has been working fine, albeit slower (because of NAT) than I would have liked. I was using this same VDI with VB 2.0.6. I am using the Intel PRO/1000 MT (desktop) and configured for NAT.

I did a clean install of VB 2.1 and set up the VM with the same parameters as previously. And, before you ask, I did reinstall guest additions.

However, now when I print, the information does not print on a full page... it seems to be broken up. Even when I print the test page (because I have tried deleting and reinstalling the printer) the test page comes out on 4 pages.

Anyone else having problems printing to their network printer after switching to VB 2.1?

Any help or alternatives would be appreciated.

Post by **Sasquatch** » 25. Dec 2008, 00:56

This could be the cause of the new NAT engine. You have two options: use the new HIF feature that is implemented in 2.1.0, so your VM becomes part of the network; or you can downgrade to 2.0.6 (hopefully, you have a backup of the xml files) and wait for the most errors to be fixed.

wavingbears · Post by **wavingbears** » 25. Dec 2008, 06:27

Sasquatch, as usual, you have saved another one.

Switching to HIF worked. I just hope that the lack of IPv6 will not affect some other programs. Did NAT even use IPv6?

Thank you very much.... I appreciate the help.

Post by **Sasquatch** » 26. Dec 2008, 14:48

NAT did not use IPv6, but I always was able to use IPv6 when in HIF. Haven't tested this with the new method though.

gaving · Post by **gaving** » 8. Jan 2009, 01:11

I too am experiencing a similiar issue. I am getting PCL errors, while printing to an HP jet direct printer. Host based networking is not fixing the issue either.

Post by **Sasquatch** » 8. Jan 2009, 21:53

gaving wrote:I too am experiencing a similiar issue. I am getting PCL errors, while printing to an HP jet direct printer. Host based networking is not fixing the issue either.

You get a single page that only says "PCL Error"? If so, that means that you use the wrong driver. I know this, because we had this error with printing from a Citrix enviroment to HP laser printers connected to a printserver (either HP JetDirect or Linksys).

I don't know the type of printer you use, but for a normal Laserprinter, you can try the HP Laserprinter PCL6 or PCL5 driver. Try the PCL5 first.

gaving · Post by **gaving** » 12. Jan 2009, 06:29

Sasquatch wrote:
gaving wrote:I too am experiencing a similiar issue. I am getting PCL errors, while printing to an HP jet direct printer. Host based networking is not fixing the issue either.
You get a single page that only says "PCL Error"? If so, that means that you use the wrong driver. I know this, because we had this error with printing from a Citrix enviroment to HP laser printers connected to a printserver (either HP JetDirect or Linksys).

I don't know the type of printer you use, but for a normal Laserprinter, you can try the HP Laserprinter PCL6 or PCL5 driver. Try the PCL5 first.

This is not the issue. This started exactly after my upgrade to 2.1.0. I havent changed the driver. Sometimes it will print the first page fine, and then bomb on the rest of the print job. I have uninstalled, and reinstalled the driver a few times with the same result.

Post by **Sasquatch** » 13. Jan 2009, 00:01

Do you use NAT or HIF? It seems that the data that is send to the printserver gets mangled on the way from the Guest to the server.

rickle · Post by **rickle** » 8. Jul 2009, 15:12

I too was/am having a similar problem. It prints maybe half the test page then a PCL error.
It happens with both Windows XP and Vista running in a VirtualBox using NAT on Ubuntu 9.04 printing to an HP3600N using the built in jetdirect print server. If I use the Host Interface instead of NAT it works just fine, so I agree the data gets mangled going through the NAT.

Edit:

virtualbox.org

Network printer not printing on full page (NAT on VB 2.1)

Network printer not printing on full page (NAT on VB 2.1)

Re: Network printer not printing on full page (NAT on VB 2.1)