Setting Up a Network Printer
You can install a network printer directly into a guest OS.
Before installing a network printer in a guest OS, make sure that:
-
Networking in the primary and guest OSs is configured.
-
The virtual machine network adapter is connected to the corresponding virtual machine and enabled. To do this:
-
Select
Configure
from the
Virtual Machine
menu.
-
Click the
Network Adapter
item in the left pane.
-
Make sure that the
Enabled
and
Connected
options are selected. If they are cleared, select these options and click OK.
-
The user account in the guest OS from which you will setup the printer has permissions to access the network printer.
-
You know the printer's IP address.
After that, you can log into your guest OS and install a network printer.
In a Windows Guest Operating System
Before adding a network printer to Windows, download and install an appropriate printer driver.
The procedure of adding a network printer is almost the same for all Windows guest OSs. To add a network printer in Windows XP or Windows Vista:
-
Choose
Control Panel
from the
Start
menu in your guest OS.
-
Click
Printers and Faxes
in Windows XP or
Printers
in Windows Vista.
-
Click the
Add printer
icon.
-
In the
Add Printer
wizard introduction window, click
Next
.
-
In Windows XP, select the
Local printer attached to this computer
option and disable
Automatically detect and install my Plug and Play printer
.
In Windows Vista, choose the
Add a Local Printer
option.
-
Select
Create a new port
and specify
Standard TCP/IP port
as the port type.
Click
Next
.
-
In the next window, specify the printer's IP address and click
Next
.
-
If prompted to specify additional port information, choose
Standard
and select
Generic Network Card
from the list.
-
In the next window, click
Finish
.
-
In the
Install Printer Software
window, specify the manufacturer of the driver and select the model of the network printer.
If the required printer model is not listed, click the
Have Disk
button and specify the path to the
.inf
file in the driver installation folder.
When finished, click
Next
.
-
Follow the wizard's instructions to complete the installation.
In a Linux or FreeBSD Guest Operating System
Make sure that the following components are installed in your guest Linux or FreeBSD system:
-
Common UNIX Printing System (CUPS). Installation instructions can be found at
CUPS site
;
-
Samba service. Installation instructions can be found at
Samba site
;
-
A Web browser, since we consider controlling CUPS via web interface;
Note:
To set up a network printer, you should have the
root
privileges.
Before adding a network printer to Linux, download and install an appropriate printer driver.
To add a network printer in a Linux or FreeBSD guest OS:
-
Start your Linux or FreeBSD virtual machine.
-
Start Common UNIX Printing System.
In a terminal, type the command:
/etc/init.d/cups start
-
Start a web browser and type either the IP address of your virtual machine or
http://127.0.0.1:631
.
-
Click the
Add Printer
button.
-
In the
Add New Printer
window, enter a printer name, location, and description.
-
In the
Device for <Printer Name>
window, select the
Windows Printer via Samba
.
-
In the
Device URI for <Printer Name>
window, specify the path to the network printer in the following format:
smb://<computer name>/<printer name>
-
In the
Make/Manufacturer for <Printer Name>
window, select the model of your printer.
-
Enter the
root
password when prompted.
-
CUPS performs installation. If the installation is successful, the "
Printer <name> has been added successfully
" message is displayed.
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