turning off printing or parallel port

[Paul Mora]

On Fri, 2004-01-23 at 22:07, Chris Aitken wrote:
> The message I get while booting the vm is:
> 
> Parallel port "/dev/parport0" is used by another program (such as
> another instance of VMware Workstation) or driver (such as lp).
> Device parallel0 will start disconnected.

To see what process is open on the device, you can try using the "fuser"
command.  For example, "fuser /dev/parport0".  If a process is open on
the device or file, you'll get back the PID.
> 
> ______________________________________________________________________
> I was printing OK from W98 VMware vm.
> 
> Then I installed CUPS and can print from linux host.
> 
> Now I can't print from the W98 vm. I don't know how to free up the
> parallel port in linux so I can print from the W98 vm. I tried
> /sbin/service cups stop and get
> 
> [lsf-5jgDBJOV2nY at public.gmane.org lsf]$ /sbin/service cups stop
> Stopping cups:                                             [FAILED]
> 
> I tried /sbin/service cups stop and get
> 
> [lsf-5jgDBJOV2nY at public.gmane.org lsf]$ /sbin/service lpd stop
> Stopping lpd:                                              [FAILED]

Based on your output above, you're running the service command as a
normal user.  That command only works as root.  Try doing an "su -" to
the root user, and re-running the command.  You don't have to turn off
"lpd", because if you're using CUPS, it should be disabled anyway.

> How can I suspend linux printing or close the parallel port or whatever
> so I can print from the vm?

Use the "fuser" command to see what process is running on the device. 
If it is cupsd, then stop it with "service cups stop", executed as root.

A much better way of doing what you want is to set up your VMware Win98
guest to print via a network printer to your Linux host.  VMware
includes a customized version of Samba, which can be configured to allow
your Linux printer to show up in the Win98 Network Neighbourhood.  So,
to the Windows guest, your printer shows up as a "network" printer, but
it's really on the Linux host.

See if it's there already, by going into the Network Neighbourhood in
Windows and browsing for your Linux machine.

VMware's documentation describes how to set up printer access via
VMware.

pm

-- 
Paul Mora <paulmora-bJEeYj9oJeDQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org>

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