virtualbox.org

This may seem like an issue that's been wore out in the past, but it seems that I've done my homework and am still am not getting results...

Anyways, as a bit of background I have successfully used this software with DosBOX and porttalk drivers and passed the hardware dongle through without issues, but unfortunately the porttalk.sys driver does not work with Windows 7 x64 and I am now forced to use Windows 7 x64 due to corporate policies. I am searching for ways to continue using this critical software and VBox seemed the only other alternative due to the parallel port requirements. No other options exist as far as software goes, so if this doesn't fly I may be "SOL".

What I have done is configured the parallel port with VBoxmanage --lptmode and --lpt commands. I have also tried every single variation of settings in device manager of the Host for legacy support (radio button on and off) and switching between "try not to use interrupt", "never allow interrupt", and "allow interrupt". I seem to have no luck either way.

One thing I do know is that the software requires a legacy address of either 0x278 and 0x378. As I understand the VBox manual in Chapter 8, the --lptmode command ONLY identifies the path of the host as "LPT1" or whatever port number it is in that format. So whenver I enter the --lpt command and identify the address and IRQ, the host values do NOT matter, and I should be entering a typical legacy value, such as 0x378 7 or 0x278 5. I have tired using both the host machine's addresses (0x378 5) and several variations of the guest address with no luck.

Currently the LPT lines of my .vbox file for my VM look as follows...

<LPT>
<Port slot="0" enabled="true" IOBase="0x378" IRQ="7" path="LPT1"/>
<Port slot="1" enabled="false" IOBase="0x378" IRQ="7" path="LPT1"/>
</LPT>

And to me that looks right. The only thing I've seen in other threads done differently is posted by PerryG in this thread:


forums virtualbox org/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=51246#p234755 (add .'s were spaces are)


where he suggests using the "setextradata" function to identify the paths for the parallel port on the host, but he says this should only work in Linux. DO I need to do something similar?

Also, the only thing that appears in the machine log relating to the parallel port is below:

00:00:00.901605 [/Devices/parallel/1/LUN#0/Config/] (level 5)
00:00:00.901606 DevicePath <string> = "LPT1" (cb=5)

Which tells me nothing. Am I missing something? Any help is appreciated.

Thanks.

Have you read the parallel port howto in the "Howtos and Tutorials" area? Here.

No I have not, thanks for the direction. So much for doing my homework.

Well reading that leaves one question, is the correct syntax "LPT1:" or LPT1, whenever issuing the VBoxManage modifyvm -lptmod1 command? I will go ahead and try both.

Also, does anybody have experience with what are the best settings are in device manager of the Host for this to work correctlly (i.e. does VBox care if legacy support is enabled or the interrupt is turned off).

Edit: I have tried the different syntax ("LPT1:") and tested all 6 combinations of the host device configuration (with restarting) and it seems I've run out of things to try.

A legacy device name in Windows usually needed a colon to distinguish it from a filename in the current folder.

Are you absolutely sure it's "LPT1:"? This is supposed to the device name on the host, typically "LPT1" would be the native port in the PC - is that what you have?

If the LPT is configured as 0x378 IRQ7 then it will be picked up by the guest as LPT1, regardless of what the host calls it.

I am a bit confused, are you asking if its LPT1 or if the name is exactly "LPT1:"?

In device manager of the host the exact syntax of the name of the device is "ECP Printer Port (LPT1)". I'm not sure what else to go by.

Yes, that means it is LPT1 on the host, which answers my question.

OK, well that is configurable in device manager as well but I have left it as LPT1. That being said the settings are correct and something else is amiss. I wish there was an easy way to test the parallel port in my Host OS but theres no way to test the dongle w/o the software and I don't have a parallel port printer handy. Anybody else know a good way to test a parallel port?

As an FYI for anyone who is dealing with a similar issue, your 5th option (after dosbox, vmware, vbox, virtualpc...) is booting from a USB stick into another OS. I've managed to boot from my usb stick into DOS and verify that the software does communicate with the dongle on the docking station. Only issue with that is there are some serious performance problems and it crashes quite a bit due to limited memory because the HIMEM.SS cannot goto high memory... Legacy software is a pain.