virtualbox.org

I use VirtualBox 5.0.8 r103449 with Extension Pack 5.0.10r104061
I have used Virtual Box for some years to run Windows XP with an old DOS program, that prints over LPT 1 only.
It has worked flawlesly, but sometime last fall the LPT 1 port disappeared when updating Virtual Box or I rather suspect that it is the Extensions update, that ruin it.

Because the virtual Box I have now works, but if I restart Windows, the LPT 1 port disappears, and that is probably because I have updated the Extensions, and you have to restart Windows, before the new extensions kicks in (right?).

I hope someone has an idea for me, because every once in a while my Windows XP / VirtualBox has to be restarted, and then I can only fix it with a backup of a Windows XP system, that worked, and that was ended by saving the machine with it's settings.

For some years? VirtualBox didn't include LPT support on Windows hosts until relatively recently (*). Are you sure you aren't confusing VirtualBox with other software?

(*) How time flies. Looks like that was three years ago.

The extensions have nothing to do with LPT support, AFAIK.

What LPT related settings are you using in the VM, and have you tried using the "Add Hardware" wizard from the XP control panel?

I might be wrong, but I believe that Heine means Guest Additions, not Extension (pack).

In that case, same answer. The GAs definitely have nothing to do with simulating hardware.

It seems like two years, that I have used VirtualBox, but I may be wrong.
Before that it was Windows Virtual PC (Windows XP Mode), that always worked with the LPT 1, but in every other aspect VirtualBox is so much better.

I have both the Extensions Pack and the Guest Additions installed.
Must have confused them with each other. Thought they were the same, sorry.
But it's the Extensions Pack, that I have manually been updating, and it seems that LPT 1 went missing somewhere between 5.0.7 and 5.0.8 og 5.0.10

The only LPT related setings, I am using, is the Printer sharing in Windows, that routes the LPT-port to my network printer.

I did try to use the "Add hardware" wizard, and I choose the LPT 1 port manually.
But after installation, it ends up in the hardware with a yellow exclamation mark.

In that case all you can do is raise a BugTracker ticket, linking to this topic - and revert to 5.0.6 in the meantime.