Printing on a MacBook Pro with VMware Fusion and Windows XP

[chenderson2]

I have tried printing after setting the correct printer, but I do not get any results except a Print error message. I even tried changing the network setting to "bridged." This caused me to lose the internet connection. Which port am I supposed to be using? I've never dealt with ports before, because I've always used Macs. I have port one selected.

[Qasid]

I had similar issues. I installed Bonjour and now all the printer work perfectly fine.

[Mikero]

Is the printer being passed from the Host to the Guest in Fusion's settings, or are you trying to install it directly within Windows?

Virtual Machine > Settings > Printers

[chenderson2]

I told the virtual machine to automatically use the same printers the Mac used. However, it didn't show up in the print window until I chose it within Windows.

As far as Bonjour is concerned, I looked on the Apple site for it and all they had was an update for it. Where do I get the original?

[Qasid]

try here :

Bonjour for Windows

[chenderson2]

OK. I got Bonjour (Print Wizard) installed and was able to run it, but it says "no Bonjour printers found."

[chenderson2]

No other suggestions? I was hoping for more help than I got on the Apple boards. They say, "It is not an Apple problem. Go to VMware board."

[Qasid]

I did not install any printer within Windows. I installed Bonjour and it picked up all the printers that were installed on MAC. Bonjour then asks you to install the printer through its own dialogue. I used the default/generic settings there here.

[gbullman]

How was the subject VM created (converted from a Physical PC, or from scratch with Fusion)? I had some problems with a converted VM when I first upgraded to Fusion 2.0 but other than that ThinPrint has mostly just worked (every once in a while not all printers get created in one of my VMs, but stopping and then starting the TP AutoConnect Service seems to clear that up).

Here is the thread with all the details of how I worked through that issue. Cannot tell with the amount of detail that you have provided so far if you are running into the same thing.

[chenderson2]

Now, see, I'm not even sure what you are talking about. I bought VMFusion for the Mac. It is installed on my MacBook Pro. I upgraded to the most recent version of VMFusion recently. I had version 2.0. Now, I believe it is 2.5. I don't know what ThinPrint is nor what TP AutoConnect is. I have the port set to #1. I did this within Windows XP.

[gbullman]

How did you create your Windows VM? From Fusion (File->New... and then answer the questions and insert your Windows XP CD) or using the VMware converter run on a phyiscal machine saving the virtual machine to some disk drive?

How are you trying to print from the VM, in the Fusion menu Virtual Machine->Settings, click on Printers, do you have Enabled Checked?

I have no idea what you mean by port set to #1, what port within Windows, where did you set that?

What are you trying to do; Have your VM print through your Mac's printer (then Enabled should be checked in the above question)?

If VMware Tools are properly installed on your Windows XP VM and you have Printers enabled then each time you start up the VM it will create in Windows whatever printers are configured on the Mac. If you are trying to print through your Mac's printers and they are not getting created in Windows automatically at startup then you'll need to go through some trouble shooting steps to figure out why. The link I provided in the previous post covered much of how that printer sharing works and should help a knowledgeable person figure out why the print sharing is not working in a particular case.

[chenderson2]

How did you create your Windows VM? From Fusion (File->New... and

then answer the questions and insert your Windows XP CD) or using the

VMware converter run on a phyiscal machine saving the virtual machine

to some disk drive? I used the VM Fusion disk to create a virtual machine on my Mac. I then used the Windows XP disk and installed Windows on the virtual machine/disk.

How are you trying to print from the VM, in the Fusion menu Virtual

Machine->Settings, click on Printers, do you have Enabled Checked? Yes, Enabled is checked.

I have no idea what you mean by port set to #1, what port within Windows, where did you set that? Go to the "START" button in Windows. There you see "Printers and Faxes" Under that, it opens a window with several choices. I chose "Set Printer Properties" One of the choices is "Ports". I chose LPT1 Printer Port.

What are you trying to do; Have your VM print through your Mac's printer (then Enabled should be checked in the above question)? I am trying to get Windows to print (on my network) to my Xante Accel-a-writer 8200. In the above section,(Printers and Faxes) I had "Added the printer" to my available printers. I don't believe that it actually found the printer on my network, but that it has a list of printer description files and I was able to locate my Accel-a-writer there. It always says, under the Accel-a-writer icon "READY." Even when the printer is not turned on.

If VMware Tools are properly installed on your Windows XP VM and you

have Printers enabled then each time you start up the VM it will create

in Windows whatever printers are configured on the Mac. If you are

trying to print through your Mac's printers and they are not getting

created in Windows automatically at startup then you'll need to go

through some trouble shooting steps to figure out why. The link I

provided in the previous post covered much of how that printer sharing

works and should help a knowledgeable person figure out why the print

sharing is not working in a particular case. Yes. They do not show up.

[gbullman]

Is your Mac able to print to the Xante Accel-a-writer 8200? I see there are drivers available for it, not sure if they work with latest Mac OS X or not.

What version of Mac OS X are you running? Have all updates been applied with Software update...

From what you have described so far the configuration you created within Windows will not work.

If your Mac can print to this printer;

1) In Windows you want to delete any entries you made with the Add Printer wizard

2) In the Fusion Virtual Machine->Settings preference panel check that Other Devices has an entry for a Serial Port (it should have a description For Printer Data). Under most circumstances there will only be 1 Serial port.

3) Verify the Serial Port is Connected (you can't change this while the VM is powered up)

4) Restart the Virtual Machine and then check the Printer & Fax window to see if the printer was automatically created.

If your Mac cannot print to this printer you will follow the same steps as if you were working with a physical Windows PC;

1) You would not Enable Printing in Fusion's Virtual Machine->Settings / Printers

2) Probably best to have Network set to bridged mode

3) Install Windows print drivers, supporting software just like you would for any Windows PC.

4) Note that the port will not be an LPT port (parallel port) if you are connecting via the network. If the printer software does not find the printer automatically you will need to create a TCP/IP port for the Windows machine with the printer;

a) On first screen of Add Printer Wizard leave Local Printer attached to this computer selected

b) On 2nd screen Select Create a new port and chose Standard TCP/IP Port for the type of port

c) Enter the IP address of the printer in the create port wizard that starts up when you hit Next.

d) After entering the IP address and hitting next hopefully at that point it will see the printer and you can finish the rest of the printer setup.

You would really make it easier to help if you initially provided the information suggested in

Personally if your Mac can print to this printer I would use the first set of directions especially if you work at different locations with your MBP. Then once you set a printer up on the Mac it automatically becomes available to the VM. Some people have had problems getting the Fusion Printer sharing to work, but once I got through my initial problems it has worked like a charm for me.

[chenderson2]

OK, here is an update to my problem. It turns out that Snow Leapard does NOT support my printer. I gave up and bought a new Brother HL 4040. Works fine on the Mac, but when attempting to print from Windows in VMware Fusion the printer does now show up automatically. But, it only prints gibberish (page after page of it.) I saw this problem listed earlier somewhere, but now am unable to locate it. Thanks everyone for your help. I think we are finally making progress, if we can get the actual printout instead of gibberish.

[chenderson2]

Found the solution on another thread. The solution was to remove VMFusion and then reinstall it. Don't know why that worked, but it did.