USB Printer to KVM

[BitRausch]

Hi @all,

I could not find the right information on the forum.
Can you tell me how I can connect a usb printer to a kvm vm?
I found some information for openvz but I am not sure if this information are valid for KVM.

kind regards
BitRausch

 

[dietmar]

see option 'hostusb'

# man qm

 

[BitRausch]

Hi Dietmar,

Thank you!. I did check the qm (qm set <VMID> -hostusb 03f0:3617) but it did not work. That means the usb printer (HP Color LaserJet 2605) is not recognized by SBS 2008 VM. lsusb show me the right information. info usbhost show me the information too but it does not show up in the windows vm. So I gave up on that.
But I was wondering if I could use the pve host to actually add the printer as a network printer with samba/cups and make it available to all Windows VM.
Is that possible?

Kind regards
BitRausch

 

[dietmar]

But I was wondering if I could use the pve host to actually add the printer as a network printer with samba/cups and make it available to all Windows VM.
Is that possible?

Why not?

 

[BitRausch]

Thx Dietmar, I will try it now.

 

[SirLouen]

I've tried this command qm set 101 -hostusb xxxx:xxxx and nothing ocurred in the Windows machine...

Maybe I'm doing something wrong???

 

[dietmar]

I've tried this command qm set 101 -hostusb xxxx:xxxx and nothing ocurred in the Windows machine...

Maybe I'm doing something wrong???

You need to Stop/Start the VM (reboot does not help).

 

[SirLouen]

I have recently build a new VM with Windows XP, thrown this command in the root terminal qm set 102 -hostusb xxxx:xxxx and nothing. stopped, started etc the VM but doesn't appear the USB device.

This seems pretty strange, since the lsusb displays the USB printer there:
Bus 008 Device 010: ID 06bc:00cb Oki Data Corp.

What can be happening?

 

[dietmar]

What can be happening?

Sorry, but usb support is not 100% stable till now - some devices makes problems, don't know why.

 

[mangoo]

Qemu only supports USB1. Most devices expect USB2.

So even if the device is properly detected and drivers are installed, it may still not function. Or even BSOD Windows (i.e. very common with printers).

I wonder if USBIP would work better - i.e. Proxmox VE as a host, Windows KVM as a client.
But last time I tried, it wasn't very stable.

 

[SirLouen]

Since I cannot connect directly most of the usb devices (because most are 2.0, worst soon, 3.0), then best idea might be to connect the printer to the linux host (if there are proper drivers, most of the times, there isn't) and try to broadcast it via cups or any other printer sharing server... to connect it to the windows host.

But for some reason, I could not make through linux make that printer work... so thats why I was trying to connect it directly via USB to the client.