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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Linux Mint and VM's again....
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Grogster Admin Group  Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9306 |
Hello all.  I've been reading this thread on the forums, and it has made me want to play with Linux Mint again. I still run one W10 Pro machine for my CAD, and the last time I tried Mint(a couple of years ago), WINE would not run the CAD software RELIABLY. It would run it fine for a while, but then it just crashed and locked up the ENTIRE system to the point you had to do a hard-reset. I then - at the time - started playing about with VM's, and setup an XP SP3 VM, and installed my CAD softwares to that, and they ran beautifully. No crashing, no problems, excellent.  The one deal-killer for me, was that the VM XP machine, flatly refused to print to either my local or my network printer. No amount of tinkering, or installing the VM "Extras" etc helped that. I could get access to USB flash-drives under Linux via the VM XP with the help of the extras, but nothing would allow me to print the CAD work to the printers installed under Linux. I figured I will try this again, so I have downloaded a copy of Mint 21.3 Cinnamon, and will install this to a spare machine in the next few days. I am wondering if perhaps my issue with not being able to print from the VM XP under Mint, was that I had not done something with the local USB or network permissions, so this system setup is being done so I can play with that. I know that to get USB serial ports to work under Linux, you have to tell Linux that USB serial ports are ALLOWED access etc, so it got me thinking that perhaps there was something like that I needed to do at the console - such as allowing the VM access to the USB subsystem and user etc, along with perhaps any network printer that Linux could see. It could also have simply been a bug in the VM software from a few years ago. QUESTION: Anyone running ANY form of Windoze in a VM under Linux - do you have any problems printing to a local or LAN printer that Linux CAN see and use, but that Linux or the VM software simply won't allow you to access? Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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LeoNicolas Guru  Joined: 07/10/2020 Location: CanadaPosts: 479 |
I'm not using any VMs in my Linux, but I can setup one and test the printer. What VM software are you using? Virtual Box? |
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| LeoNicolas Guru Joined: 07/10/2020 Location: CanadaPosts: 479 |
Grogster I'm on my way to configuring the VM. XP was the last Windows version I used on my personal computer before moving to Linux.  |
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| PhenixRising Guru Joined: 07/11/2023 Location: United KingdomPosts: 858 |
Ah-ha, someone using Virtual Box How do you like it? I'm considering the opposite of Grogs....Linux in W11. |
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| LeoNicolas Guru Joined: 07/10/2020 Location: CanadaPosts: 479 |
Ok, these are the results, considering I don't have a printer connected to my PC via USB; it is a wireless printer. 1) After installing the SO in your VM, change the Network configuration from NAT to bridge. This will allow the SO in the VM to see your network. 2) I have tried Windows XP with no success. It is too old for my wireless printer. 3) I created a second VM with a Windows 7 copy I downloaded from Archive.org https://archive.org/details/Windows7-iso 4) After installing Windows 7 (and changing the network to Bridge), W7 could find my network printer without any issues and automatically install its driver.    |
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| LeoNicolas Guru Joined: 07/10/2020 Location: CanadaPosts: 479 |
I rarely need to use a Windows machine, so I didn't have VirtualBox installed. Linux is much more suitable for my use case as a Developer, and I'm very comfortable with it. I've used different Linux distros since 2008 for personal use and, at work, on Desktops and Servers. This could not be true for other people, like my son, who has a Windows 11 machine for gaming, or someone who needs Photoshop, some specific CAD software that only runs on Windows, or maybe for Video and Audio editing. There are more professional software for these areas that only run on Windows. OS is just a tool; I think people need to use what is better for their goals. |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9306 |
WOW! Above and beyond Leo, thanks! I was just posting a preliminary thread, figuring I will need help to get the printer to work, and thought a "Heads-up" kind of thread might prepare people for what I am most likely to have an issue with.  Perhaps it was XP. I have most of the Windoze ISO's, so I can copy you and install a W7 VM and see what happens. Oh, BTW - YES - Virtual Box. What about local USB printers? Is there anything special I need to do in VirtualBox settings, to allow the VM to "See" a local USB printer? I still have to install Mint and VirtualBox, then setup an XP and W7 VM to play about with. I wonder if my original problem was simply that XP was "Too old".... I chose XP SP3, as that was the minimum spec you needed to run the CAD. Footnote added 2024-02-19 09:54 by Grogster The CAD software ran fine in the XP VM, but I just could not make the XP VM "See" the printers that Linux could see - that was the main issue, and a deal-killer, as I NEED to be able to print out things.  Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9306 |
Just an update to this thread - success!!!! I did have to go and download the W7 driver for the network printer, but once I did that(inside of W7 in the VM), W7 picked up the printer and I could print a Windoze test page to the network printer on Linux Mint. Encouraging! I will have a play with the "Shared folders" setting in VB, and see if I can make a folder in Mint, that I can use to stash anything I need to suck across into the W7 VM - such as my CAD install softwares. If I can get printing from the W7 machine to work in Linux, then my one and only W10 machine's days might be numbered. All my other machines are running Linux in one form or another. Everything else other then the CAD, I do on-line via Opera web-browser, and you can get a native Linux version of that, so for doing all this kind of forum posting etc, I can do that inside Mint natively, and only crank up the W7 VM, when I need to use my CAD - which is quite often, so the VM might end up running in the background all the time. I was obviously shooting myself in the foot trying to get XP to work - it must just be too old, cos Leo could not make his XP VM do the printer thing either. The tinkering continues.... Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9306 |
Everything WAS going so well..... As soon as I inserted the VM Guest Additions ISO into the virtual CD-ROM and ran that(inside the W7 VM), that completed fine, and wanted to reboot - so I let it. Now W7 bootup crashes, and not even the W7 ISO and repair utility can get it back again. Looks like back to square one. Not sure what the hell went on there, but.... Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| LeoNicolas Guru Joined: 07/10/2020 Location: CanadaPosts: 479 |
Grogster In my tests, I installed the VM Guest Additions ISO from inside the Virtual Box menu. It worked fine.  |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9306 |
Yes, that is what I did. W7 then wanted to run the installer, so I let it. That completed fine. On reboot, it dies. I setup a brand-new copy of W7, and the very first thing I did, was insert that image and run the installer, and even on the completely clean install, it fell over a died and would no longer boot. This time, I grabbed a screenshot of the error:  Oh, BTW....YES....I ticked "Trust software from Oracle" etc during the setup, so Windoze should not be bleating about this at all. I wonder if there is a bug in the latest version of the guest additions image? EDIT: Or perhaps the download of the ISO for the guest additions I have is corrupted or something? I do remember using the guest additions before years ago when I was last playing with VB, and I don't remember there being any problems.  Edited 2024-02-21 15:27 by Grogster Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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phil99 Guru Joined: 11/02/2018 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2135 |
Just a guess. Windows thinks the VM is a real machine so rather than re-boot the computer just restart Windows, if possible or the VM if not. Either way keep Linux running. |
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