VirtualBox support for a parallel port

[iprogramplus]

does any one know when a parallel port be supported, I am running Ubuntu on VB

[stefan.becker]

I think on a Monday

In this forum you dont find timelines for features, else i dont know if this ever will be supported.

[phillipnolan]

I think on a Monday

In this forum you dont find timelines for features, else i dont know if this ever will be supported.

other than that sarcasm, do you have any knowledge of any effort to implement support for parallel ports in VB? I see requests going back to 2007.

Is anyone even looking at this? Does anyone with the ability to impement it care?

i would appreciate any direction you can offer. Like many others i have some legacy software that requires a hardware dongle on the parallel port.

thanks

[Perryg]

I do see work being done on this from time to time. It works already in a Linux host at least if you compile it yourself and maybe on pre-compiled, and know how to energise it.

This has been discussed for a long time and has been answered in depth, and the sad truth is parallel port support is not as big an issue for the paying customers, which means it is extremely low on the todo list. I know contributions have been made as I see it in SVN from time to time.

[mpack]

The direct answer to your question is, no - none of us know. These forums are run by volunteer users. As users we know as much about Oracle's future plans as you do.

I've had a look at the relevant source. Linux host support is already place, but it looks to me like Windows host support would require a custom host device driver.

Incidentally, you don't say what you want it for. If it's just to attach a printer then that is better done as a network share anyway.

[anshul makkar]

Yes, the parallel port support for Windows Host on VBox is in development stage.. Trial build with parallel port support is available, if you want to try please let us know..
Please note that the build available is a development one only, not related to 4.1.x version..

[analogscott]

Where?

[ajcrm125]

I think the real value add for including parallel port support is all of the legacy test equipment out that that uses them. There's also a large set of software that used parallel port dongles back in the day.
Microsoft VPC 6.0 supported it and I've used that in the past with much success but they've since removed parallel port support in VPC 2007.

I would love to see this feature added to Virtual box.

[ajcrm125]

Yes, the parallel port support for Windows Host on VBox is in development stage.. Trial build with parallel port support is available, if you want to try please let us know..
Please note that the build available is a development one only, not related to 4.1.x version..

Serious? I would love to try this. Is it available for Win7?

[anshul makkar]

Please try the following test build.
http://www.virtualbox.org/download/test ... 87-Win.exe

The build will be available for short duration. Please try and let us know your feedback..

[Seawolf2913]

I usually don't post, but the instructions in this thread worked like a charm for me. XP Pro SP3 host, Xubuntu 12.10 client (iso downloaded today.) VBox 4.2.4r81684, also downloaded and installed today.

Installed VBox and Extensions,
Installed Xubuntu and Client Extensions
Shut down Xubuntu and VBox
Went into XP device manager and assigned IRQ 7 to LPT 1 (Don't know if was needed or not)
cd "\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox"
vboxmanage modifyvm "Xubuntu" --lptmode1 LPT1
vboxmanage modifyvm "Xubuntu" --lpt1 0x378 7
Restarted VBox and Xubuntu

After installing IDLE for Python 2.7 and python-parallel, I'm controlling the XP parallel port from Xubuntu using python.
Does everything I need, basically out-of-the-box. Thank You!

[michaln]

After installing IDLE for Python 2.7 and python-parallel, I'm controlling the XP parallel port from Xubuntu using python.
Does everything I need, basically out-of-the-box. Thank You!

Thanks for reporting! Out of curiosity, what kind of parallel port hardware do you have? And (if applicable) how is your parallel port set up in the host system's BIOS? Machines with a parallel port are not terribly common anymore, so it's hard for us to be sure what exactly works and what doesn't.