virtualbox.org

Hello.

I'm new to Virtual Box, but I'm not computer-illiterate. However, I'm encountering two problems I'd like help solving, please.

The host is Windows 7 RC. The reason I'm setting up Virtual Box is because my laser printer does not work yet on Windows 7.

(It's an HP LaserJet 1006p.)

So, I want to install Vista on Virtual Box as a guest, set up the laser printer on it, and use the guest to do my printing.

If that's possible, that is.

As of right now, I've successfully installed Vista as the guest.

I've also installed the Guest Additions.

Now, the two problems I'm encountering:

1 ) I'm not exactly sure I understand Shared Folders. I'm assuming a shared folder is a folder or entire drive on my host computer, that will be recognized by the guest OS. Is that correct?

If that is correct, then I do not know how to set it up. The documentation is a bit confounding.
I tried adding my host's C drive, as well as both of my external hard drives, to both the Machine Folders and Transient Folders menu, but I don't see them being recognized by the guest. When I go into Virtual Box Details, under Shared Folders, it says None.

I would like to have those drives interact with the guest, so I can print out documents housed on them.

Can someone please help me get those drives recognized by the Vista guest OS?

2) I successfully downloaded the HP driver software inside Vista, and tried installing it. When I plugged in and turned on my laser jet printer, it wasn't recognized by the guest. It's a USB printer, so I assumed it would be recognized by the guest, but it wasn't.

When I right-click on the USB icon at the bottom of the Virtual Box screen, I see all of my USB peripherals listed. However, when I mouse-over the icon, it says No USB devices attached.

So, how do I get the laser printer recognized?

That's really all I'm using Virtual Box for. Any assistance is greatly appreciated.
Thank you for your time and help.

J. Danniel

(Please call me Jd.)

1) You share the folders/drives from the VM settings. It seems you already did that, but you haven't found them. The manual states a simple command to get them to work, net use x: \\vboxsrv\<sharename>. Browsing the entire network should also reveal the VirtualBox Shared Folders environment.

2) If you enabled USB for the Guest, you have to attach it to it. You plug in the device for the physical system, but the virtual one doesn't have a USB port you can physically access, so you have to virtually provide it with the USB cable. Right click the icon, then left click the printer. It's now attached to the VM.

Sasquatch wrote:1) You share the folders/drives from the VM settings. It seems you already did that, but you haven't found them. The manual states a simple command to get them to work, net use x: \\vboxsrv\<sharename>. Browsing the entire network should also reveal the VirtualBox Shared Folders environment.

Not a clue how to do this. Can you guide me through it? I did read this in the documentation, but as I previously said, it's a bit confounding.
(Actually, it's VERY confounding.)

2) If you enabled USB for the Guest, you have to attach it to it. You plug in the device for the physical system, but the virtual one doesn't have a USB port you can physically access, so you have to virtually provide it with the USB cable. Right click the icon, then left click the printer. It's now attached to the VM.

I have no idea if I enabled USB for the guest or not. I thought I did. But when I installed the driver software, plugged the USB cable into the printer, and turned it on, nothing happened.
I did right-click on the icon, but no printer is listed there.

Can this be explained to me a bit more clearly, please?

Thank you.
Jd

jdanniel wrote:

Sasquatch wrote:1) You share the folders/drives from the VM settings. It seems you already did that, but you haven't found them. The manual states a simple command to get them to work, net use x: \\vboxsrv\<sharename>. Browsing the entire network should also reveal the VirtualBox Shared Folders environment.

Not a clue how to do this. Can you guide me through it? I did read this in the documentation, but as I previously said, it's a bit confounding.
(Actually, it's VERY confounding.)

Ok, open the VM settings, then go to Shared Folders. There you can add folders on the local hard drive of the Host to be available for the Guest. Give it an easy name, without illegal characters like spaces. A-z will do just fine, e.g. 'share'. Now in the Guest, open a command prompt and run net use x: \\vboxsrv\share. Now the folder you shared before will be accessible from Windows Explorer on drive X.

2) If you enabled USB for the Guest, you have to attach it to it. You plug in the device for the physical system, but the virtual one doesn't have a USB port you can physically access, so you have to virtually provide it with the USB cable. Right click the icon, then left click the printer. It's now attached to the VM.

I have no idea if I enabled USB for the guest or not. I thought I did. But when I installed the driver software, plugged the USB cable into the printer, and turned it on, nothing happened.
I did right-click on the icon, but no printer is listed there.

Can this be explained to me a bit more clearly, please?

Thank you.
Jd

You have to have USB enabled for the icon to be usable. If you haven't enabled it, it will be greyed out. In the USB menu, take a close look at the devices. Think about which devices you have attached by USB (mouse, keyboard, internal card reader, printer) and exclude each of them of not being the printer. Now the only device that's left will be the printer. It's easier to spot the differences if you boot the VM and check the USB icon menu when the printer is off, then check it again after you turned it on. The new device in the list is your printer. The Host, or VB, sometimes can't fully identify a device, so it will be listed as an unknown device, with some ID after it, like Unknown Device 0DB0:6970 [1392]. On my system, that's my bluetooth device.

Thanks for responding.

I will not be able to follow-up until later this evening or perhaps on Tuesday, but I'll work on this.

You mentioned the command prompt...the guest command prompt. You mean go into Vista within Virtual Box, and find the command prompt within it there, somewhere in the Start menu?

Okay, a few problems:

1. I was never able to get the shared folders to work. Using that command, nope, nothing. I clearly don't know what I'm doing with it.

2. Somehow--not sure how yet--I managed to get my Iomega Zip drive and one external drive recognized by the guest. So, that means that I really don't need the shared folders. But the problem with this is that I have two external hard drives, and Virtual Box only sees one. I can't get the second external drive to appear in the USB list. It's really the second external hard drive that I want to use. This isn't a REAL big deal, since I can copy whatever I want to print out onto the Zip drive or the first external drive.

That's not as big a problem as the next one:

3. When a drive is recognized by the guest OS, it is no longer recognized by Windows 7 and I can't use it. I was under the impression I could use a drive simultaneously by the host OS and the guest OS. Am I wrong about that? This poses a problem for me, if I can't use a drive simultaneously.

4. I absolutely can't get the laser printer recognized by the guest. I need to be guided through this process step by step, one step by one.

In the meantime, I see myself being forced to set up a dual boot system, which I've been trying to avoid. I'd rather use VB, but right now time is of the essence.

I'm more confused than ever.

I just launched Virtual Box to give it another try. Vista opened up, and ALL of my drives were recognized. I have no idea how or why.

And my laser jet printer was listed in the USB DEVICES box. That hasn't happened before.

But I still couldn't get it working in the guest.

I shut down Virtual Box...and then opened it again. And now everything is back to how it was...no drives recognized, still unable to install the printer.

Why is this happening?

Is it possible that Virtual Box is not fully compatible with Windows 7, and that's why I'm having such a frustrating time with it?

Jd

Windows 7 is not final, or at least, you're not running the final (the RTM is already released behind closed doors). All non-final versions are not officially supported, neither by the devs, nor by us volunteers/mods (we don't have any obligation to help anyone with this OS, we're just kind to do it anyway).

Back to your problems.

1) In Vista, you have a nice little input field in the start menu. Type cmd in it, then the net use \\vboxsrv\share command. Replace share with the name you gave the shared folder. Only available if you have the GA installed, which you probably already have (not checked and forgot it).

2) No idea why devices are missing in the USB list, other than that they aren't turned on.

3) You can't use them at the same time while using them through USB. You would get file system corruption and loss of data as a result of that if you would access them at the same time. Only way to get it working, is with shares.

4) Not all devices work as you would like, and it seems that your laser printer is one of the devices that just doesn't play nice. There are other devices that don't work properly either (just check the forum for the iPod).

Thanks for replying, and I apologize if I sound harsh. I'm just frustrated, and I do appreciate your patience and help.

You not get ed your printer software cd with printer? it must be in box. If you not get ed then you can download it. Without software, You can't use printer.

rogerwillson wrote:You not get ed your printer software cd with printer? it must be in box. If you not get ed then you can download it. Without software, You can't use printer.

The printer driver is not compatible with Windows 7, regardless of whether it's from the CD or downloaded.