Re: Printing from Xywrite under VMWare

[Kari Eveli lexitec@xxxxxxxx]

I think this might a non-starter. There very little support for DOS
programs in VMware. VMware is geared to more modern systems, and the
printer subsystem is part of the guest additions (VMware tools). There
are no guest additions for DOS in VMware.


***
What follows is an account of my VMware ramblings:
***
I finally had time to look at my VMware XP mode setup. To get Windows
updates running etc. you need to update the browser to IE 8. I
downloaded an IE8-Windows package and installed. Previously my IE update
hung when I used Windows Update (silly mistake!). Then I installed
Chrome and Avast Free Edition.


Then I went to Virtual Machine Settings, Options, Autologin (Enable)...
so that the system starts without much ado.


Then the system froze. But after I forcibly shut it down, it restarted.

You have the option of using shared folders. I tried drag-and-drop. It
works.


Then there is the end session problem. If I have a VM open when ending
my host session, it can be a problem. Luckily there is VMRUN.EXE. This
is in the VIX SDK (a separate download) (VirtualBox users have similar
tools in the basic package!):


Download from:
https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/free#desktop_end_user_computing/vmware_player/6_0|PLAYER-600-A|drivers_tools

Using this you can control the virtual machines when exiting Windows:
To start a VM:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware VIX\vmrun.exe" -T player start
"D:\My Virtual machines\Windows XP Mode.vmx"

To suspend it (for restarting it later where you left it):
"C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware VIX\vmrun.exe" -T player suspend
"D:\My Virtual machines\Windows XP Mode.vmx"


If your running VirtualBox in the same machine as VMware, you need to
very careful not to run them simultanously. One tends to forgets what is
on, and I use batch files to start virtual machines and log off and end
Windows, etc. to alleviate this.


An example of this: a batch file to start VirtualBox W2K with VMware check:
***
W2K.CMD
***
:rem checks if VMware is running
tasklist /fi "IMAGENAME eq vmplayer.exe" | find /I "vmplayer.exe" > nul
if errorlevel 1 goto RUN_VirtualBox
nircmd infobox "Cannot start VirtualBox - VMware running!" "W2K.CMD"
goto DONE

:RUN_VirtualBox
:rem Run VirtualBox W2K
start "" "C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\VBoxManage.exe" startvm
"Windows 2000"

:DONE
***
nircmd = http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/nircmd.html

Best regards,

Kari Eveli
LEXITEC Book Publishing (Finland)
lexitec@xxxxxxxx

*** Lexitec Online ***
Lexitec in English: http://www.lexitec.fi/english.html
Home page in Finnish: http://www.lexitec.fi/

3.4.2014 1:53, Bill Troop wrote:
> I'm not succeeding in printing from W2K/VMware, although all my printers
> are there and they are apparently connected to a virtual serial port. I
> don't see why I shouldn't be able to print - - there's no doubt some
> XyWrite or DOS or W2K setting that I've long since forgotten? The only
> Xy4 printer driver I have is a postscript one . . . .