[PLUG] Parallel port under Xen

Joe Pruett joey at clean.q7.com
Tue Jun 23 23:42:17 UTC 2009


> I'm looking for help with a Xen problem.  Here's the short summary, with
> details below.
>
> I'm running Xen under OpenSUSE at a client site.  The domU is running Win2K
> to support an old but necessary application.  The application uses a
> parallel port license dongle.  DomU owns the parallel port and thinks it has
> access to it, but never sees the dongle as present.  As a diagnostic, I
> replaced the dongle with an HP Laserjet 4 printer.  If I define a printer
> there, Win2K *thinks* it can print successfully to the printer (job goes
> into queue, then comes out after the spooler hands the data off to the
> printer), but the printer shows no signs of activity.  If I shut down domU,
> load the kernel parallel port modules, and define the port to CUPS under
> dom0 it prints there.
>
> I'm looking for advice on either how to solve this problem, or at least
> where I should go next to diagnose it.  I've done the requisite googling,
> and mailed to the Xen mailing list without a response (although I don't
> think very many people follow the Xen mailing list, so that may not mean
> much).  There could be a beer or similar beverage in it for the person that
> helps me solve this one.

those dongle usually need pretty low level access to the parallel 
controller to do their magic.  i don't know if xen can give that level of 
controller to a guest or not.  i've seen some discussion about giving some 
pci access to guests, so maybe something like this is doable.  newer usb 
dongles are probably easier for this setup, but i doubt your app (or 
win2k) would be able to use that.



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