A long shot. VMware interpret USB-dongle as parallel-port dongle ?

Background:
We have some age-old HMI software that runs on Windows 2000 only. Until now, we have solved the problem of supporting this old HMI software by installing a VMware with Win 2000 and everything. Works OK, with the online ethernet connection being bridged from the host to the guest.

Problem:
The driver for the online connection (B&R PVI) is copy-protected by a parallel-port lock, and the parallel-port MUST be on the motherboard. Parallel-port via an add-on board does not work. It is becoming more and more difficult to get PCs with an onboard parallel port.
B&R cannot (will not ?) sell us a parallel-port dongle, but they are willing to sell a USB-port dongle. So even for customers that do have a working PC, but a defective parallel-port dongle, we also have a problem in need of a solution.

A possible solution, which leads to the question:
Have anyone ever had any success with emulating a USB-port copy protection as a parallel-port copy protection in VMware guest ?


I know, it is a long shot, but why not ask the question ?

I do not know what make the parallel-port copy protection is, but here is a picture of the thing:


Any other creative ideas are welcome !

You won't be able to use VMWare, or anything that I know of, to 'convert' a USB dongle to a parallel dongle. They operate on entirely different communications methods, and the parallel port ones usually take advantage of playing with hardware in highly unorthodox ways.

Most likely, you will just have to pay, pay, pay to get things upgraded to newer platform hardware.

For DOS based apps, I suppose, if you really needed to, you could, with a lot of time and effort, disassembly, and programming, bypass the copy protection.

Jesper

Dos the PC that you are running VMWare on have a physical parallel-port?

If so you can setup a virtual parallel-port in vmware workstation and map the physical port into the virtual port just like you do with usb. Serial ports can be done the same way.

If you can get a usb dongle from B&R then that would be best. All usb dongle pased copy protection I have used in VMWare works fine if thats what you are asking.

The AB activations on USB dongle work good with vmware and some PID tuning software that I Have.

I have done as PC Kid and used an existing paralle port to access a dongle thru VMware using Win98. It works but can be a PITA. Sometimes on bootup the VmWare would not see the dongle on the prot, I would have to reboot to get it to see it. USB dongles work with no issues in VMware that I have run across. VMware handles USB connections very well.

JesperMP said:

Problem:
The driver for the online connection (B&R PVI) is copy-protected by a parallel-port lock, and the parallel-port MUST be on the motherboard. Parallel-port via an add-on board does not work. It is becoming more and more difficult to get PCs with an onboard parallel port.
B&R cannot (will not ?) sell us a parallel-port dongle, but they are willing to sell a USB-port dongle. So even for customers that do have a working PC, but a defective parallel-port dongle, we also have a problem in need of a solution.

Click to expand...

Hi Jesper,
I try to get the problem, but I am not sure if I do. Is the real problem that Win2000 does not support USB ?

We have been changing over from parallel port to USB without problems (desktop PC with whatever OS, but no Win-NT (no USB)).

Also, I would personally be interested what could possibly make and application only working on Win.2000 ??

br
bb

I ran into the same issue w/ an older copy of Fix32, I ended up making the whole dongle virtual.

bits'bytes said:

I try to get the problem, but I am not sure if I do. Is the real problem that Win2000 does not support USB ?

We have been changing over from parallel port to USB without problems (desktop PC with whatever OS, but no Win-NT (no USB)).

Click to expand...

Maybe you know it better than me. Can the parallel-port dongle be swapped for a USB-dongle, and the PVI driver will work with no update, or do we need to update, or ?

The main problem is that we cannot touch this old HMI software. The original programmer has left the company, and it is painful to even make minor modifications. The whole way this HMI software is constructed is very proprietary to say the least.

bits'bytes said:

Also, I would personally be interested what could possibly make and application only working on Win.2000 ??

Click to expand...

It is a HMI application that is heavily dependant on ActiveX components. There is a webserver that uses these ActiveX components to generate the screens. And it is the ActiveX components that are Win 2000 only. We have been offered (at a steep price) to update the software so it can work with Win Vista, but then we just get the problem again for every update of Windows. VMware has saved us so far.

Windows 2000 supported USB in most forms as of Sp4.

Yes. USB is supported by Win 2000.

I am quoting another person who has investigated the issue, and he says that B&R cannot sell us a parallel-port dongle, and the USB-port dongle will not work with the old software. I dont know why this is so.
I think the problem is with the PVI driver for Windows 2000.

Jesper - what is the software package and version? I'll see if I can do a little research for you.

Nathan, I can get the exact software details on monday.

If it can be done it is not against the law to modify the software to work without the dongle if the dongle is no longer available. Ref Library of Congress, page 9 of the PDF

JesperMP said:

Maybe you know it better than me. Can the parallel-port dongle be swapped for a USB-dongle, and the PVI driver will work with no update, or do we need to update, or ?

Click to expand...

Hi Jesper,

there is a version X.X that supports USB additionally to parallel dongle, before not. I am not sure which version X.X is .... which version are you using ? I think any version >= 2.x also support USB.

Once we have been updating PVI from 1.36 to 2.5 but we did not have to use USB dongle as this was on a IPC of B&R. And that IPCs don't need a dongle.

We had problems when we have been updating as the HMI program was not clean. It was handling wrong sizes of data. the older version of PVI did not care, but the newer version was poping up with an error and than exiting. So we had to modify the HMI program.

Only to tell you that an upgrade may cause additional problems resulting in the need to modify HMI program.

JesperMP said:

I think the problem is with the PVI driver for Windows 2000.

Click to expand...

I don't think so. B&R does not have special drivers for each Win OS system (as long as I know). PVI was also running very well on Win-NT (without USB dongle, B&R IPC).

--
Maybe we can tell more after we know the versions you use. But I guess
a) the PVI Version you use supports USB dongle --> no problem, just have to use it (as Win.2000 supports USB)
b) the PVI Version you use does not support USB dongle --> you need to upgrade PVI. If HMI works well, also no problem ? Or did I miss something else ?

br
bb

I'll find out exactly what version PVI is on monday.

The PVI driver is version 2.2.0.15 (18.03.2002).

The PVI components are