How to drive a new laser printer (no XP driver) from a WinXP VMWARE VM

[peter-h]

I am running a win7-64 machine, and on it I have a winXP VM for running a load of oddball old (but very valuable) software.

I replaced a trusty old Kyocera laser with a new FS-1061DN Kyocera laser, and found there is no WinXP driver for it

Apart from the obvious like printing to a PDF, copying that PDF to the base machine, and printing that, how can this be solved?

I thought that basically all lasers emulate the old HP Laserjet (PCL language) but I can't get that to work.

A complication is that the old laser was connected via a centronics parallel cable (because LPT1 always works ) the new one has no parallel, only USB and an RJ45 for ethernet.

[HighVoltage]

I have a similar setup and installed HP Laserjet driver (4100) manually in XP (VM).
Also, I set up printing over the network and setup the IP addresses manually in XP.
This way I could print directly to an older Brother laser printer.

A while back I needed to setup Win98 in a VM box with laser printer.
That was a real challenge.
 

[RoGeorge]

Install the new printer in Win7 and share it as a LAN printer.
Then boot the WinXP VM and set the WinXP to use the network printer from Win7.

[peter-h]

Thank you. But I can't get XP to see it.

This is the sharing config on the base OS (win7-64)



and this is what I am trying in XP but it can't see it



The VM OS doesn't seem to have network connectivity, which doesn't help:



I have tried some other settings like NAT and Host Only and while the base OS can see inside the VM, the VM cannot see anything outside. My experience is that one normally spends hours playing with this and one day it starts to work

[RoGeorge]

The host (Win7) and the guest VM (WinXP) must be in the same network.  Try something else than "Host-Only" in the VM network adapter settings (last pic), then see which setting makes the shared Win7 printer visible to WinXP.

I think the share printer idea should work, but I didn't use Windows for a long time, so I don't know the exact settings.  I hope I'm not wrong with this advice, I have no way to test if it works.

[Ian.M]

First you'd need to fix your XP VM network connectivity issue - if the VM cant access shared folders on the host you have no chance of Windows shared printers working.   I've done similar with Win10. To get that working, IIRC I had to install a bunch of legacy protocols and services on the Win10 side + drop to 64 bit encryption, which opens up a lot of security holes so is totally unsuitable for a machine that will ever be used on public networks.

*IF* you have the printer plugged in to Ethernet, you could try putting the VM's network interface into bridged mode and adding a TC/IP printer port (by address) for it in XP, but you'd most likely need to configure your LAN's DHCP server to give the printer a fixed address, and XP machines should *NEVER* be exposed to the internet without a strong firewall.

USB pass-through to the VM might be another option.

The Kyocera product page claims to have a driver for Windows XP/Server 2003: GX printer driver (v.5.3.2306)

[alm]

I would share the printer using something else than the Windows printer sharing protocol, because that indeed requires comprising security on the host. I would use IPP, which goes over HTTPS. I'm not a Windows person, but on Linux I'd set up Cups, which exposes the printer as a generic Postscript printer over IPP, as long as Cups supports the printer. On the client side this only requires a generic Postscipt driver with a printer definition file that tells the driver about the number of paper trays etc.

I don't think the standard Windows printer sharing can do this. I'd guess there may be appliances that do this?

[2N2222A]

On the client side this only requires a generic Postscipt driver with a printer definition file that tells the driver about the number of paper trays etc.

I don't think the standard Windows printer sharing can do this. I'd guess there may be appliances that do this?

Yes, bascially there is a post script printer driver from Adobe I think. It even works on Windows 98. Then you can print to a CUPS or Unix Postscript printing system. Possibly to a postscript compatible printer directly. I think the HP LaserJet 1200 is Postscript compatible. Or I could be totally wrong about that.

I believe Windows printing copies the driver from the print server and runs it on the client. So the client does all the heavy processing. At least that's how it was in the pre Vista days. Not sure if all drivers worked like that. So a non XP compatible driver on the print server would not work on the XP client.

To make pre Vista machines talk to Windows 10 and possibly earlier with Windows network, I think SMB 1 has to be enabled. They turned it off by default. In Win10 you run (Win+R) optionalfeatures and turn on the bottom 2 of 3 options in the right category. Even then, you may still have to type \\computer_name\ in an address bar to see the computer.

[gf]

I replaced a trusty old Kyocera laser with a new FS-1061DN Kyocera laser
[...]
I thought that basically all lasers emulate the old HP Laserjet (PCL language) but I can't get that to work.

FS-1061DN is a "dumb" GDI printer. The protocol between driver and printer is likely proprietary (no PCL, no Postscript).

[DimitriP]

A driver for XP appears to exist:  https://www.kyoceradocumentsolutions.eu/en/support/downloads.name-L2V1L2VuL3ByaW50ZXJzL0ZTMTA2MURO.html#tab=driver

After sharing the printer from W7  (and may have to enable SMB as mentioned earlier), when you go to add it to XP , use the option to add a "local printer" with manual settings (ie add a Port and the port is \\w7machinename\printersharename )

Good luck!


corrected spelling

[c64]

I believe Windows printing copies the driver from the print server and runs it on the client. So the client does all the heavy processing. At least that's how it was in the pre Vista days.

This is correct. When printer is shared on the server, the server just helps you to establish the connection to the printer. Your computer still need to talk to printer itself (i.e. have drivers installed locally). Drivers can be installed manually or downloaded from the server on first connection

[Psi]

There's probably a way to create a virtual PCL printer that redirects to another local printer.
Then share the virtual PCL printer to winXP.
I'd definitely look into virtual printers.

Another thing you can try, is force winXP to use a driver that is as close as you can find.
I used to do that with my old Kyocera printer and it always used to work fine, but maybe that was because it was a PCL printer, dunno

[peter-h]

Sorry I have not been back sooner.

A driver for XP appears to exist:

Thanks for that. For some reason I didn't find it.

However I have a bigger problem: the XP VM can see other devices, including other win7-64 computers, on the LAN, but it cannot see any printers attached to the Host machine. It cannot even browse files on it. It merely sees its name under Networks.

But the Host win7-64 machine can browse the VM.

I am using the Bridged LAN adapter option in the VM.

I tried lots of things... including dropping encryption from 128 bits to 56 bits. This is an internal LAN, behind NAT, anyway.

And other win7-64 machines cannot browse the VM filespace although they see its name under Networks.

I have spent so much time on this, over many years. Sometimes it is something under Local Policy...

Once the VM can see the shared 1061 printer (I've tried all kinds under its share options) then I will install that XP driver for it.

The printer is currently USB attached. Yes, as suggested, I might have better luck with ETH.

[RoGeorge]

Give to the VM the USB port where you plugged the printer into host, as if the printer would be connected directly to the WinXP.  No share needed.

The VM can be set to grab the USB port each time it starts, or you can give the USB to the VM manually, for example in VirtualBox it's only a matter of a right click and give printer to VM, no settings required.  After that, the printer will disappear from the host, and will appear in WinXP only.  Switching the printer back and forth between the guest and host only take one second, so you can move the printer manually to the OS where from you want to print, and don't bother sharing.

I think the correct technical term is USB pass-through.  USB pass-trhrough should work out of the box, no special settings needed.  Right click and pass-through whatever USB device you may need from the guest to whatever VM is running.

[peter-h]

Great suggestion!



Unfortunately that driver is for a 1060, not a 1061, so XP finds the device but won't install the driver. I've tried editing oemsetup.inf but evidently not well enough

And without an XP driver, talking to the printer via ETH won't help...

One can probably edit the .inf file. Does anyone know how?

[peter-h]

Actually if you download the whole CD ISO from the same URL, you do get a 1061 driver under "XP or newer" so I am testing that shortly.

EDIT: the XP VM BSODs

[DimitriP]

However I have a bigger problem: the XP VM can see other devices, including other win7-64 computers, on the LAN, but it cannot see any printers attached to the Host machine. It cannot even browse files on it. It merely sees its name under Networks.

Change temporaryli or permanently the workgroup name so they are all in the same workgroup . Even if some are on domain and some are not, make the workgroup name the same as the domain.

Check if the Computer browser service is disabled, and enable it.

What happens if you try to access a W7 share from xp with \\machinename\sharename ?
 

[peter-h]

On the host machine, I can see it (itself) under Networks and it shows like this



which is as expected. The 1061 printer is shared ok. Everything is on WORKGROUP.

Now turning to the XP VM, inside it I can see the host machine, which again is as expected



and the printer works as expected!

Also the XP in the VM can see everything outside it OK including any printers with shares on them.

But I no longer have the printer connected via the VM's Removable Devices feature. I did that to get the printer to be detected by XP and to install the driver for it. That connected the printer directly to XP, via USB which the XP VM took over while it was running.

So what made it work? What I did was connected the printer via Removable Devices and installed its XP driver. But then when I tried to print to it, the XP inside the VM did a BSODs. But now, when I closed and restarted the VM, it is working.

One of those unexplained things...

Thank you all for your help.

[RoGeorge]