Problem Printing from VMWare Guest to CentOS host printers

Linux31 · 09-16-2007, 02:35 PM

I'm running CentOS 5 on an AMD64/Asus MB system.

I have Windows running on the free VMWare server running as a guest and was originally able to print with no problems to printers on another Windows computer running Samba.

Now I'm trying to consolidate things on my CentOS computer with the VMWare and everything is working fine except the printing. I have two printers. The HP Laserjet is connected to the parallel port of the host and it successfully prints. However, even though I installed the parallel port on the VMWare server when I start VMWare I get "cannot open /dev/parport0: Permission denied. Virtual parallel) will start disconnected". Under the VMWare tools when I try to click on the device box for the parallel port I get an access denied message. Everything I can find is marked as a share so I'm stumped.

The other printer is a Canon connected by USB. Even though I have the USB option installed for the VMWare server, I get an access denied message when I try to use it from the VMWare as well. Otherwise it prints fine from the host. Again, both printers are marked as shared.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

acid_kewpie · 09-16-2007, 02:43 PM

well your printers under centos are going to be available via cups anyway, so why not just use network printing as any normal client would use a print server?

Linux31 · 09-17-2007, 03:13 PM

I thought that was what I was doing since in setting up the printers under the Windows guest I specified the path to them (\\Machine name\printer name).

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks for the help.

acid_kewpie · 09-17-2007, 04:04 PM

well \\machine\printer is a network share, so to use that sort of syntax to connect to a linux share that would be samba passing requests off to cups anywa, no direct hardware access there at all.

Linux31 · 09-17-2007, 04:35 PM

How would I do what you suggest from within Windows 2000 running as a VMWare guest on a CentOS 5.0 host?

Thanks for the help.

Richard555 · 09-18-2009, 03:38 AM

Hi, I'm very new to Linux and have the same or similar problem. Centos 5 was set up for me on my server with VMware and XP SP3 as a guest. I have little to no knowledge of centos so i tend to leave well alone but i am also trying to get a USB printer to work from my networked pcs through XP - Through VMware - Through Centos5 to the USB port on the back of my server. Any help would be very much appreciated. Just seen the date on this so am starting new thread.