Weird Printer Problem

[NSchneider]

I have an IMac running Leopard, though I had the same problem when I was running Tiger. I can print fine in my Mac applications. Then I go into WordPerfect in Fusion and I can print fine there. When I then try to print again from a Mac application it shows that the printer has stopped. I cannot print from my Mac until I exit Fusion. Is there some switch for this? I assume I'm missing something simple, but I can't find anything to fix the problem. Thanks for your help.

[admin]

If you're using a USB printer, this is expected behavior. The reason is that only one OS can talk to any given USB device at a time (or else the device gets confused, since it only expects to talk to one controller). To print from the Mac sinde, you need to disconnect the printer from the guest (use the Virtual Machine > USB menu or use the USB icon in the right side of Fusion's status bar).

[NSchneider]

But why then can I print on both my Mac and by Virtual Windows on my laptop on the Virtual PC platform even though my printer is attached by a USB? And why can a friend print on both out of his Parallels program? There has to be the ability to print in both without exiting one platform or disconnecting the USB device. Is the answer really "you can't do both"?

[rcardona2k]

It depends on the mode you decide to share the USB printer with. By convention, any USB device is dedicated to the OS/device it's connected to, whether that's the host or the guest OS. Both OS X and Windows allow network printer sharing but in different ways. If you hook the printer up to OS X (assuming you have drivers, etc) and enable OS X printer sharing, then through networking and Bonjour (not USB bridging) other machines including the VM can "share" that printer at the same time.

If you have a USB printer with Windows-only drivers, then you use the virtual USB connector to map it to the guest VM and do the converse, share that printer out over the network including to the OS X host.

The mode Eric describes could be the situation where both OS X and Windows have their own USB drivers for the printer and you're taking turns moving the dedicated "cable" between each OS. This is clearly not the same as "network printer sharing" I've described above.

VMware has video tutorials on how to setup network printer sharing so you can share the printer "at the same time".

[admin]

The developers are aware that people would like to print from both environments at the same time, but I can't give more details or comment on a timeline.

[NSchneider]

Thank you both. I will try to use Bonjour tonight when I get home. Do I have to disconnect the current printer sharing? Do I have to add another printer?