No Printer Visible in Ubuntu 8.04

[claypigeon]

I am using VirtualBox on a Windows XP Host and Have Ubuntu 8.04 installed as Guest. Everything appears to be working okay, files updated, I can access the internet, etc. In every respect it looks like a normal install and setup. The problem is that Ubuntu 8.04 does not show my HP Laserjet 1200 as an available printer. The printer is attached to LPT1 on the Host.

This same thing happened with an install of Ubuntu 9.04 and also with 9.10. Someone on the VB Forum said something about having to Bridge VB. Anyone have any specific ideas? Tks

[D-cat]

You have to share your printer in Windows. Choose a share name that's easy to remember, preferably with no spaces or special characters. You might also have to set up Unix Print Services... but we'll try the regular Windows sharing first. Also make note of the hosts IP address.

In the Linux client, (for our first attempt) you want to set up the printer as a Samba client. Menu->System->Administration->Printing. Click on New.
After a few seconds, it'll show you a small menu defaulted on local. Expand "Network" and click on "Windows Printer via SAMBA"

The next window will ask you where the printer is. I can't seem to make the browse function work right in the VBox guest, maybe you'll have better luck. I manually enter in the server name (or IP) followed by / followed by the share name of the printer, no spaces.

(smb://192.168.0.100/Canon_MX300_series) -that's my printer, yours will be different, of course. If your printer is set to private share, also enter the authentication data. Otherwise, leave it blank. Click Forward.

Here it will ask you the printer make. The next screen will be model. Try to be as accurate as possible; windows has issues with receiving incompatible print data.

Finally is the last screen where you get to name the printer something that makes sense to you. Click Apply and you should be done. Run a test to make sure.

Let us know how it works. You may have to supply Windows with the selected ppd file. If that even doesn't work, then it's plan B.

[claypigeon]

Thanks for the help but I've already blown away both Virtual Box and Ubuntu. Maybe sometime in the future we'll give it another try. For now its not worth the aggrevation factor. I do appreciate the time for your extensive answer.