Parallel Port Problem

[mcwill]

We are running a DOS application under a Win98 VM and want to capture the LPT port to a file. This part is easy, just attach a parallel port to the VM and connect it's output to a host file.

The problem is we need to clear the host file of output after processing each print job, but in order to do that, the parallel port needs to be disconnected on the VM settings then reconnected.

Is there any way to do this from within the guest? (We looked at VIX but couldn't see anything obvious).

Thanks

[nick_couchman]

I don't think there's any way to do that, unless you write some sort of application that uses something outside VMware (like standard networking) to communicate with the host and disconnect/reconnect the LPT. VIX is a server-side app...

[mcwill]

Thanks for the response, however I probably didn't explain my problem that well.

Thinking about it more, I realise that whatever we do would need to occur on the host side, however looking at VIX I can't see any functionality to connect/disconnect peripherals. Are we out of luck or is there another API to control the VMs?

Message was edited by:

mcwill

[ClayMon · Accepted solution]

The tools here may help you dicsonnect and reconnect an LPT port from within a VM.

http://chitchat.at.infoseek.co.jp/vmware/vmtools.html#vmw

I've got to get to a machine with an LPT port, running VMware, to be able to test it though.

[mcwill]

This works perfectly!

Thanks.

[ClayMon]

This works perfectly!

Thanks.

Great! I've been meaning to send Kato, the author of those tools, an e-mail. I'll refer him to this thread and your thanks.