I don’t know exactly where to start but I will try to keep this a simple
as I can.
I have a printer that does not have a driver for Linux. I am wondering
if it is possible to set up a virtual machine running Windows in Linux
to enable me to run my printer. Will I be able to access the printer
from within Linux?
I know nothing about virtual machines, but I have a installation of XP
on my other drive which has the printer drivers installed.
Can I use that or do I need to create some sort of new Windows
installation?
Actually, I have installed VMWare Workstation 6.5 on my laptop and
installed Windows XP in it. Whenever I plug in a USB device that is not
recognised by Linux, the virtual machine can use it at once. If the
device is already used by Linux then a small message box appears saying
the device will be disconnected from Linux and be connected to the
virtual machine. So it works!. The only problem is when this device is a
printer that CAN BE USED by Linux. Then things are a little bit strange
but that is not your case. So I believe it will work.
Scott Swinyard wrote:
> I don’t know exactly where to start but I will try to keep this a simple
> as I can.
>
> I have a printer that does not have a driver for Linux. I am wondering
> if it is possible to set up a virtual machine running Windows in Linux
> to enable me to run my printer. Will I be able to access the printer
> from within Linux?
>
> I know nothing about virtual machines, but I have a installation of XP
> on my other drive which has the printer drivers installed.
>
> Can I use that or do I need to create some sort of new Windows
> installation?
>
>
Have you looked at Turboprint? http://www.turboprint.info/
It is “pay for”, but has “try before you buy” and covers a wide range of
printers.
At the moment, I run Windows XP under VirtualBox to print at other than
600dpi on my Canon (plus other features), though I do have the same apps
in both and load/print in WinXP. I will probably pay for Turboprint in
the near future, as I rarely use WinXP for anything now.
VB has a howto for moving a system into a VM, but I failed to get it to
work - that’s probably me, though - and I was happy to do a clean install.
Not experienced with Linux, so cannot help with the “filter” and/or
Samba processes to do what you want
–
PeeGee
Asus M2V-MX SE, AMD LE1640, openSuSE 11.0 x86-64/XP Home dual boot
Asus M2NPV-VM, AMD 64X2 3800+, openSuSE 10.3 x86-64/XP Home dual boot
In my virtualized copy of WinXP, running inside qemu, there is a shared
printer under “Network Shares” – the only problem is I currently have
no printer to test it with so I could be more specific …
– http://stopsoftwarepatents.eu/ Even if free software were crap, it should still get our preference
over the non-free crap secreted by IT corporations.
-A free rephrasing of RMS-
