Using parallel port (parport0) with VMware on ubuntu

If you add a virtual parallel port device to a virtual machine you'll get this message when you start up the guest operating system.

Cannot open /dev/parport0: Permission denied
Virtual device parallel0 will start disconnected.

So let's a look at the correspoding device entry

ls -la /dev/parport0
crw-rw---- 1 lp scanner 99, 0 2008-08-28 13:27 /dev/parport0

It shows that you need to be a member of group "scanner" to use the device.

So you've simply to add yourself to this very group.

sudo usermod -a -G scanner

Once you'd fixed this another error message will come up.

Parallel port "/dev/parport0" is used by another program (such as another instance of VMware Server) or driver (such as lp). Virtual device parallel0 will start disconnected.

The "lp" kernel module, loaded by cups - the printing system - causes this trouble. Simply remove it.

sudo rmmod lp

Now the virtual machine can use the parport0 device. Be aware that e.g. cups won't work until you'll reload the kernel module "lp".

sudo modprobe lp

Did it work for you? Drop a comment and share this bookmark!