virtualbox.org

I have asked this as part of other threads, but without any joy.

HISTORY
I was running Vbox on Ubuntu host, XP guest very happily using two Canon printers. Then upgraded to Ubuntu 9.10, re-installed Guest Additions, enabled both printers and two other USB devices

PROBLEM
Both printers are enabled in Vbox but are shown greyed out and unavailable on XP. The other 2 devices (external hard drive and Spyder monitor calibration) work perfectly.
I remember having this sort of trouble at first when I started on XP within Vbox, but can't remember what sort of incantation/dance/spell was necessary to get the thing working! I seem to remember something about needing to remove the USB while XP is on and replace it in a different socket while dancing naked under a full moon, or somesuch Windows tosh.
All the permissions etc are there (the other devices work fine) it's just getting Windows to realise there are two Canon printers wanting to hear from me!

SUGGESTIONS?

Why not using the Printers via CUPS/IPP in the Guest. That has the advantage, that host and guest can use them at the same time.

Else try searching. Some users reported, that they add the user to the "lp" group and it works.

I thought CUPS is a Linux solution. There are no CUPS drivers for either of these printers, but one of them works in Ubuntu using Turboprint. The other is a wide format printer and I can only use that with its Windows driver - so it has to be in XP.

They used to work in Vbox before I upgraded to 9.10, and the other devices still work. It's just something about XP that results in XP effectively saying I refuse to work with these, like a child having a tantrum.

Try the group "lp".

SOLVED

Thank you Stefan, and sorry it's been so long since you made your suggestion. My name was there, but not checked. So I checked the box, re-booted Ubuntu and it worked!

Thanks again.
Girts