Virtual Printer

We offer a VirtualBox image to help developers test their systems without actual hardware. VirtualBox is a free open-source cross-platform virtualization solution which runs on Windows, OS X, Linux and Solaris.

Note

This is a tool primarily targeted for developers. We do not offer generic Windows/VirtualBox support.

For G1 versions of the virtual printer, please refer to this document.

Prerequisites

Download and Installation

  1. Download the latest appliance from our VirtualBox Appliance Download Area. The file is named focal_amd64-X.Y.Z.ova where X.Y.Z corresponds to version of the evolabel Markerapp Software.
  2. In VirtualBox, select File ‣ Import Appliance… and browse to the downloaded ova file.
  3. When importing the appliance, please select Generate new MAC address for all network adapters. This prevents IP conflicts if more than one virtual printer is connected to your network.

Screen Resolution

If you are unable to see the whole touch screen in the VirtualBox window, ensure that in the VirtualBox menu, View ‣ Auto-resize Guest Display is checked.

You can now resize the window and the touch screen contents will fill the new size. The native size of the touch screen interface can be selected from View ‣ Virtual Screen 1 ‣ Resize to 1024x768.

Note

The UI can expand freely, but the width will only shrink in small increments, so if you want to shrink the window from a large size you may have to repeatedly resize the window until the UI is able to fit the window size.

Note

On some Windows hosts the Auto-resize Guest Display option does not work. A workaround is to set the display resolution directly in the virtual machine:

  1. Login into the UI as administrator by tapping the Log In button and enter 9987.
  2. Close down the UI by tapping Restart from SETTINGS ‣ System ‣ Restart.
  3. When the restart dialog appears, press Cancel.
  4. From the desktop inside the virtual machine, select the start menu (with the Evolabel logo) Settings Manager.
  5. Select the Display applet, and set Resolution to 1024x768.
  6. Press Apply and start the printer UI by tapping the MarkerApp button in the bottom toolbar.

Networking

In order to be able to control the virtual printer via network, you will have to configure the VirtualBox guest to use either a bridged network adapter, if you want to get the printer on your local network, or you can use a host-only network adapter, if you only want to connect to the printer from the host computer.

For bridged network it is easiest if there is a DHCP server available. Otherwise you will have to configure a static IP address on your local network.

For host-only network VirtualBox provides a DHCP server.

After you have made changes to the virtual networking setup, you may have to request a new DHCP address for the virtual machine.

  1. The virtual machine should be stopped

  2. Open Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager

  3. Select your virtual printer and then click on Settings.

    _images/virtual_box_usb_settings.png

  4. Click Network and ‘Adapter 1’ tab.

    1. Enable Network Adapter
    2. Attached to: ‘Bridge Adapter’ or ‘Host-only Adapter’ as described above.
    _images/virtual_box_network_setup.png

USB

Support to access USB storage devices can be enabled in the virtual printer.

  1. The virtual machine should be stopped

  2. Open Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager

  3. Select your virtual printer and then click on Settings.

    _images/virtual_box_usb_settings.png

  4. Click USB and select Enable USB Controller

    _images/virtual_box_usb_settings_enable.png

  5. Click OK at the bottom right of the screen to close.

  6. Open your virtual machine.

  7. Now, there is a USB icon at the bottom of the screen.

    _images/virtual_box_usb_icon.png

  8. Insert the USB Storage device on one of the USB ports on your PC

  9. Right click on the USB icon. The USB Storage device is listed as an USB disk. Select the USB disk

    _images/virtual_box_usb_select.png

  10. The USB icon in the upper right corner, tells that the USB Storage device is available to the virtual printer.

    _images/virtual_box_usb_top_icon.png

  11. The USB Storage device is no longer available from Windows.
    Deselect the device (see step 9) to unmount the disk from the virtual printer and make it available in Windows again.

Troubleshooting

The Virtual Printer Does Not Start

On some PCs running Windows 11, we have seen that the virtual printer fails to start and there is no error message. The solution is to setup Oracle Virtual Box to emulate a 2 cores processor.

  1. The virtual machine should be stopped

  2. Open Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager

  3. Select your virtual printer and then click on Settings.

    _images/virtual_box_usb_settings.png

  4. Click System and then on the Processor tab and select 2 processors.

    _images/virtual_box_processor_settings.png

  5. Click OK to confirm.

Solution for “VT-x is disabled in the BIOS”

By default the virtual machine is setup to mimic the target hardware which is based on a dual-core Atom processor. In VirtualBox, this requires VT-x which is enabled in the BIOS.

_images/vtx.png

  1. Reboot your computer and pay close attention to the first screen that appears. Look for a message that indicates which key you need to press in order to access the BIOS.

    Common choices are: Enter, Delete, F1, or F2.

  2. Inside the BIOS menu, find the setting that control virtualization and enable it.

    The setting may be named “Virtualization Technology”, “Virtualization Extensions”, or something similar.

  3. Find the choice for saving settings and reboot again.