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To connect the virtual machine's first parallel port (LPT1) to the physical computer's first parallel port, take the following steps:

1. Reboot the physical computer and enter the BIOS setup. Typically, you do so by pressing F2 or Delete while the machine is booting. Find the parallel port mode setting and set it to PS/2. (The typical choices are AT and PS/2.) If PS/2 is not available as an option, set it to bidirectional.
2. Log on to the console operating system as root and enter the following commands:

   /sbin/insmod parport
   /sbin/insmod parport_pc
   /sbin/insmod ppdev

   Type lsmod and confirm that these modules are in the listing of loaded modules.

   To make these changes permanent, add the three lines shown above to the end of the file /etc/rc.d/rc.local.

3. Be sure the virtual machine is shut down and powered off, then add the following options to the virtual machine's configuration file as described in Modifying the Configuration File Directly (Advanced Users Only).
   • Add an option called parallel0.present and set its value to true.
   • Add an option called parallel0.fileName and set its value to "/dev/parport0".
   • Add an option called parallel0.bidirectional and set its value to true.
4. Be sure the virtual machine is using virtual hardware version 6. Look for the following line in the configuration file:

   config.version = 6

   This line should already be present in the configuration file for any virtual machine created with ESX Server 1.5.x. or ESX Server 2.1. If the virtual machine was created under ESX Server 1.0 or 1.1 and has not already been updated, add the config.version = 6 line to the configuration file.

   Note: When the virtual machine starts after you update the virtual hardware version, you see a dialog box with the message "The CMOS of this virtual machine is incompatible with the current version of VMware ESX Server. A new CMOS with default values will be used instead." Click OK. As the virtual machine starts, the guest operating system may detect new virtual hardware and install drivers for it. Respond to any messages as you would if upgrading the hardware on a physical computer.

5. Start the virtual machine using the remote console. As it starts to boot, click inside the remote console window, then press F2 to enter the virtual machine's BIOS setup. Go to the Advanced I/O Device Configuration section and configure the parallel port mode for the virtual machine to bidirectional.

Now your virtual machine can use a dongle or other parallel port device.

Note: As you start the virtual machine, you may see a message warning that the parallel port is starting disconnected. If you do, connect to the virtual machine with a remote console and use the remote console's Devices menu to connect the parallel port.

Note: Only one operating system can be connected to the parallel port at one time. You cannot configure more than one virtual machine to use a particular parallel port at a given time.