VM Ware fusion printing

[rodney]

I cannot get my fusion 2.1 to control the printer properly.  Where can I find some printer troubleshooting help?.  The printer under settings is "enabled" until I launch windows and then it immediately switches to "disabled" and stays that way until I close windows.  My printer is a USB connected HP1320.  It will print in the windows OK but before I can print in Mac I have to shut windows down.

[Dan Millar]

That's normal - fusion "takes over" USB connected printers so that they appear to be off-line to the Mac. This is explained in the Fusion documentation, and at their website.

Which flavour of Windows are you using? Vista and XP can use a shared printer from the Mac host, but you must install Bonjour for Windows for that to work.

Happy Mac'ing!

Dan

[rodney]

Dan;
I have spent 25 hours over the last week on this.  All I got from VM ware was a small PDF that told me how easy it was to install.  Can you please direct me to the link?  The VM ware Knowledge base wont even address issues on printing from me or others.

[Dan Millar]

I'll see what gives with VMWare's KB articles - I was able to in some notes about printing yesterday! In the meantime - what Mac and OS version are you using?

Dan

[rodney]

Dan;  Thank you for the follow up.  My OS is 10.5.6 build 9G55.  My computer is 

Model Name:   MacBook
  Model Identifier:   MacBook2,1
  Processor Name:   Intel Core 2 Duo
  Processor Speed:   2 GHz
  Number Of Processors:   1
  Total Number Of Cores:   2
  L2 Cache:   4 MB
  Memory:   2 GB
  Bus Speed:   667 MHz
  Boot ROM Version:   MB21.00A5.B07
  SMC Version:   1.13f3
I am running Windows XP home and trying to use Fusion Version 2.0.1 (128865)

[ben schmidt]

Dan;
I have spent 25 hours over the last week on this.  All I got from VM ware was a small PDF that told me how easy it was to install.  Can you please direct me to the link?  The VM ware Knowledge base wont even address issues on printing from me or others.

Hi,

Just for clarification, have you been posting your questions to the VMware Fusion Bulletin Board?

  communities.vmware.com/community/vmtn/desktop/fusion

...b

[Dan Millar]

Sorry for the delay in responding to your question, I assumed you found the documentation that came with your copy of Fusion and solved the problem. If not, here's another suggestion, get Sun's Virtual Box:

http://www.virtualbox.org/

Virtual Box is an open-source virtualization tool for Win/Lin/Intel Macs, and it's free, and includes full documentation. It is at least as good as the first versions of either Parallels or Fusion, but will not reliably run Windows versions less than Win XP, i.e. Win 98 doesn't play well.

While I'm on the subject, I don't think anyone here has noted the addition of yet another open-source, office suite. Sun has released Symphony for Intel Macs, and it can be found at:

http://symphony.lotus.com/

Happy Mac'ing!

Dan

[Dan Millar]

Oops!

IBM/Lotus has released Symphony - my bad.

Dan

[ben schmidt]

I cannot get my fusion 2.1 to control the printer properly.  Where can I find some printer troubleshooting help?.  The printer under settings is "enabled" until I launch windows and then it immediately switches to "disabled" and stays that way until I close windows.  My printer is a USB connected HP1320.  It will print in the windows OK but before I can print in Mac I have to shut windows down.

I'd defer to answers you might get from posting on VMware's forum for Fusion, but from your description it sounds like you're almost there. It sounds like you've got your USB printer working from both OS's -- i.e. the printer works from Mac (as long as VMware isn't running), and the printer works from Windows-in-WMware. The problem is only when VMware is running -- it 'takes over' the USB port and therefore the Mac can't print.

If this sounds like your situation, my suggestion then would be to try adjusting the VMWare Settings relating to printing and the USB Port. For example, in the VMware Settings, Enable Printers so that "All printers installed on the Mac will be automatically added to the virtual machine", and also set Default printer for this virtual machine  to "Match the default printer on the Mac".

good luck,
...b