virtualbox.org

Hi all,
Here's my setup:

Desktop has printer attached, running LMDE with Windows 7 as VM guest. Printer is an old HP Deskjet F300 series.

2 Laptops on the wireless network, running various versions of Linux.

Naturally before I installed the Win7 VM, everyone was printing fine. However, once I set up the Win7 VM to print only my new VM could print (and the host Linux machine could print), everyone else started getting "Printer not connected" errors when trying to print. When I bring up the Win7 VM on the Desktop, the other machines see it as a SMB printer and not as running under Linux...and still not connected. I tried to use Linux's " printer add " then Windows printer option, and it asked for authentication and the passwd I use--any of them I use-- didn't work, and I couldn't finish setting it up.

I tried to remove the printer on the Win7 by unchecking it as a USB device available...now unavailable, but my other machines still can't see the printer under Linux even if I delete the printer on those laptops and re-add the printer.

So, I went into the Network setup under the Win7 VM and saw that its picking up the ISPs network, and not my local network. (NAT), but when I tried to set it up under Local network, nothing worked right so that was out.

WHAT I WANT:

Is there any way to get the Win7 VM to see the printer as belonging to the Host Linux that its sitting on vs as a printer attached to the Win7 VM (In other words, skip samba)? If not, Is there something I need to do with Samba on the Linux machines to get everyone to play nice together?

Thanks, Kim

USB is a one-to-one connection. It can't be shared. If a VM owns your printer then neither the host nor any other VM can use it.

You should be sharing the printer over a network, not assigning it exclusively to one VM. Remove the filter from the USB settings.

mpack wrote:USB is a one-to-one connection. It can't be shared. If a VM owns your printer then neither the host nor any other VM can use it.

You should be sharing the printer over a network, not assigning it exclusively to one VM. Remove the filter from the USB settings.

So what you're saying is, even though I've shared the printer (through the printer software) with other machines on my wireless network and they printed fine from/through Linux, the same can't be done with a VM. BTW, my host for the printer can print from linux or the VM, but no one else can.

I was thinking I'd be better off getting a wireless network printer. THis one is pretty old, anyways, but still works.

I didn't assign the printer to the MS VM, other than adding it as the printer for the MS VM. I had tried to remove it as a USB filter, but that didn't change anything with the other linux machines. Its as if the MS VM (guest) took over the printer and now every other machine except the host sees it as an SMB printer and not as it is on the Linux host as it was originally set up to be.

titianmom wrote:I had tried to remove it as a USB filter, but that didn't change anything with the other linux machines. Its as if the MS VM (guest) took over the printer and now every other machine except the host sees it as an SMB printer and not as it is on the Linux host as it was originally set up to be.

Did you shutdown the vm, not just savestate?
And did you restart VirtualBox?

Also, check out Bonjour for Windows via google search for sharing host printer in a vm.