[caver01]

you didn't mention Serial Client. Are you running that software too? In VB I setup the serial port using CUSTOM and picking a Host Pipe, check ON in Create Pipe, and set the host path to /tmp/serial. The IRQ and Address settings in VB have to match the COM port you created in Windows.

Finally, as I said, you have to run the Serial Client software and set it to the same /tmp/serial path as above, click CONNECT in that that program.

So, if you follow the path from the guest OS through all of the software linkages:

1. Windows XP has a COM port setup (for me it's COM3, IRQ3, address 0x3F8
2. Virtual Box has its virtual serial port setup using the same IRQ and Address
3. Virtual Box is routing the serial traffic through a HOST PIPE created at /tmp/serial
4. Serial Client is grabbing traffic from /tmp/serial and routing it to/from the Keyspan device.

I think that's basically what is going on from one end to the other.

Admittedly, I have had trouble with my Keyspan with communication going OUT to the serial device, but serial data coming in on the device seems to work just fine. What I mean by this specifically is that when I download data INTO Windows, it works fine. When I try to upload data from an app in Windows to the serial port, I get mixed results. I had the same experience using Virutal PC some years back. I was starting to think my Keyspan was to blame, but I recently setup a Boot Camp partition and installed XP and the native Keyspan drivers and the device works great. It's only in virtual environments that I have had trouble. I think it might just be the software I use to program my remote control (the whole reason I am doing all of this windows nonsense).

[rstrauch]

Caver,

It's still not working for me. My initial problem was not being able to access the VB settings, because I didn't know I had to power off the VM in order to make the settings active. I've now done that and set everything up the way you suggested, SerialClient seems to be connecting OK, but the com port isn't working. The status message I get in the Device Manager is "This device cannot start (Code 10)."

Given what you've said about having problems with the comm-out, maybe I'll just let it go. I want to use it to send map data to a GPS unit and had trouble with the outgoing stream timing out in Parallels. It works fine in BootCamp, though, so maybe it is a general problem with virtualization and I'm better off just sticking with bootcamp. Thanks for taking the time to respond.

Ralph

[caver01]

Interesting. One thing I remember that I needed to pay special attention to was the address used in Windows. In my case, the COM port was at 3E8 and the default in VB was 3F8, so I had to go into CUSTOM to set the address properly. I may have it backwards, but the point is that they had to match. Sorry you had trouble. Personally, I'd rather the mac ignore the keyspan altogether so that I could simply load a Windows driver for the device inside VB. I could never get VB to pass the keyspan USB as a valid device to the guest OS because it kept giving me an error to the effect that it was already in use. In other words, Mac OS was grabbing it before VB could take it and pass it to Windows. I believe that if I could stop a driver from loading in OSX, that I could load a Windows driver for it inside VB and it would function like it does in Boot Camp. Oh well. I guess that's asking to much at this point in time.

[rstrauch]

caver01 said:

One thing I remember that I needed to pay special attention to was the address used in Windows. In my case, the COM port was at 3E8 and the default in VB was 3F8, so I had to go into CUSTOM to set the address properly.

Ah! I hadn't checked that carefully and that was my problem. I've corrected the addresses and now it half-works. By that I mean that I seem to make the connection -- SerialClient shows itself as connected, and when I turn on the NMEA on the GPS I it shows up in the SC log window, but the mapping program won't connect. When I attempt to connect from the mapping program to transfer waypoints (with NMEA off), I can see the probes that the computer is putting out, but it doesn't seem to be getting anything back from the GPS.

The settings (baud rate, etc.) are the same on the GPS, SerialClient, and Windows Device Manager (and I've tried different baud rates). Is there anything else I can check for consistency.

I'm also having problems setting up shared folders. The shared folders show up in vbox and in the icons along the bottom of the Windows window, but they don't show up in Windows Explorer under ?My Networking Places? -> ?Entire Network? -> ?VirtualBox Shared Folders? where the manual says they should be. What am I missing here?

Ralph