How can I take print in VirtualBox

opensuse121 · 22-Dec-2011, 23:50

Hello,

The printer is not functioning is the guest distribution *buntu, how to make it work?

**ken_yap** · 23-Dec-2011, 01:04

What kind of printer? USB? Did you install the Oracle extension pack that allows the guest to use the host's USB port?

opensuse121 · 23-Dec-2011, 04:30

Yes I installed the extension pack also, I followed this post entirely. The printer is old Samsung printer. And it is connect to the pc (opensuse 11.4) from the back side of the cpu, surely is usb printer.

**gminnerup** · 23-Dec-2011, 06:04

There's a little icon in the bottom right of the screen (in Virtualbox) showing active USB devices. Does the printer show up there?

**lwfinger** · 23-Dec-2011, 09:00

On 12/23/2011 07:06 AM, gminnerup wrote:
>
> There's a little icon in the bottom right of the screen (in Virtualbox)
> showing active USB devices. Does the printer show up there?

USB devices cannot be shared between the host and the guest. Once you tell VB to
capture it, it is no longer available to the host. I doubt that you want this.

I think you need to set up printer sharing in the host using YaST. My only
printer has a network interface, thus I do not need to do this, and have no
experience.

opensuse121 · 23-Dec-2011, 09:10

Not its not showing, however, I can successfully take prints in the opensuse 11.4. This view.

Apart from it, can I also delete the icon of the guest addition cd (which comes after starting the guest *buntu, in its own desktop)? {I installed guest addition for vitualbox for *buntu}.

**gminnerup** · 24-Dec-2011, 02:03

Originally Posted by lwfinger

On 12/23/2011 07:06 AM, gminnerup wrote:
>
> There's a little icon in the bottom right of the screen (in Virtualbox)
> showing active USB devices. Does the printer show up there?

USB devices cannot be shared between the host and the guest. Once you tell VB to
capture it, it is no longer available to the host. I doubt that you want this.

I no longer have a USB printer (well I still have it but it's now connected via Ethernet) so I'm going on memory here but yes, you do have to activate it by ticking the box in the location I mentioned above and that disables it in the host. But then again, once VB is closed control of the printer is returned to the host. I never found that a problem as I rarely need to print from both host and guest in the same session.

**gminnerup** · 24-Dec-2011, 02:10

Originally Posted by opensuse121

Not its not showing, however, I can successfully take prints in the opensuse 11.4. This view.

Sharing the printer from the host, as per lwfinger's suggestion, is one option. But as I suggested in my reply to him, it is possible to have a USB printer installed in both host and guest even though you'll probably be unable to use it from both in the same session. Have you tried installing it in the normal way in Ubuntu, and what happens when you do?

opensuse121 · 24-Dec-2011, 05:11

In fact Ubuntu doesn't detect it at all! It show there is no printer connected!

opensuse121 · 24-Dec-2011, 05:17

Originally Posted by lwfinger

USB devices cannot be shared between the host and the guest. Once you tell VB to
capture it, it is no longer available to the host. I doubt that you want this.

I think you need to set up printer sharing in the host using YaST. My only
printer has a network interface, thus I do not need to do this, and have no
experience.

Well, that is okay it cannot be shared simultaneously but even after capturing it is not at all detected by the guest distribution, even if not available to host. To make it unavailable to host, should I manually achieve this using Yast or it automatically happens that the host is disconnected from the printer once the guest is started, however, no printer was connected in my case.