The blog of Steve Root

  • Parallels virtual disk much larger on mac than windows is actually using

    I’m using Parallels 9 on Mac OS X (Mavericks) to run Windows 7.
    A couple of days ago I duplicated my Windows 7 virtual machine. Parallels spotted the duplicated machine when it started and offered to create a new MAC address. All looked good.

    I uninstalled some software but Parallels was still using just as much disk space. Windows said it was using 64GB but Parallels and the folder size in Mac OS X reported 137GB. I wanted that free space back!

    I searched the knowledge base but couldn’t find an answer. I then sent a long support request to Parallels complete with about 7 screenshots of various things and information that I thought might be related. Less than 12 hours later (great support!) they emailed back with the solution. Although I had no snapshots, it appears some snapshots from last year remained and that was what caused the problem. In case someone else is having the same problem, here is what they said:

    [Parallels #1780846] Windows 7 Virtual Disk much larger in Mac/ Parallels than windows and can't reduce

    Hi,

    Thank you for contacting Parallels Desktop Technical Support and taking some time to explain with us the concern.

    Based on the details that you shared with us. We would like to recommend some troubleshooting steps/article that might help us on solving the concern.

    Please follow the advanced troubleshooting part of the article below.

    >ERROR: Unable to delete the snapshot
    http://kb.parallels.com/en/111736

    Warning: We strongly recommend to create a backup copy of your Virtual Machine before applying the solution below!
    Please take into account the size of virtual machine comparing to free space on Macintosh HD.
    Once you created a backup copy, please proceed with the following:
    1. Locate your Virtual machine in Finder
    2. Right click on the *.pvm file of your virtual machine -> choose Show Package Contents
    3. In Mac OS X, go to Applications > Utilities and launch Terminal. Type the following but do not execute:
    prl_disk_tool merge --hdd
    4. Drag the *.hdd file into Terminal and drop it right next to "prl_disk_tool merge --hdd ". In Terminal you will see something like this:
    prl_disk_tool merge --hdd /Users/Username/Documents/Parallels/Windows 7.pvm/Windows 7-0.hdd
    Note: There should be a space between '--hdd' and 'Users/Username...'
    5. Press Enter/Return key to run the command and merge the snapshots.
    6. At the same directory (inside Virtual Machine's bundle) delete Snapshots.xml file

    Afterwards, please try to shrink the Virtual Hard disk size or compress it.

    >Compressing the Disk
    http://download.parallels.com/desktop/v9/ga/docs/en_US/Parallels%20Desktop%20User's%20Guide/33140.htm

  • Network PDF printing from Windows 8

    Update:  I wrote a step by step guide on creating a virtual PDF printer as a new virtual machine. This has been more reliable and has replaced the work around I used below

     

    Our small business is beginning the move from Windows XP to Windows 8. Moving to a new operating system is always a problem. There’s new things to learn, old systems that stop working together and many many hours of hair pulling on my part. It is progress though – I can’t imagine going back to Windows 98!

    The biggest problem I’ve had is making our Network PDF printer work with windows 8. It’s based upon Ghostscript but there are no Ghostscript printer drivers for Windows 8. After two or three days of working through the problem, I’ve solved it.

    Quick version:

    • Setup a CUPS printer service on a linux server
    • Have cups connect to our PDF Print appliance
    • Have the print appliance put the PDF on a new network share

    Pros: We can generate PDFs (some have automatic letterhead backgrounds which I couldn’t do with CUPS alone)
    Cons: It means having another print server set up to look after, It means users will no longer get their PDF’s by email (it will go to a new network share).

    Long version:

    Part 1 – The existing solution
    For several years I’ve used YAFPC (Yet Another Free Pdf Composer). It is a self contained print appliance that runs as an instance on our VMWare server. I can’t remember what I paid for it, but it has been worth every penny. It is the sort of stable appliance that hasn’t needed to be updated for many years. It just works and I like that. Virtual Printers are created (A4_Blank, A4_On_Letterhead_Background, etc) and users can print to those printers.
    The resulting PDF document is emailed to them as well as put in an automatic shared folder in their name on the appliance. It is controlled by a simple web interface. Behind the scenes, it’s a linux server and the print engine is GhostScript. It includes GhostScript print drivers for Windows XP and Windows 7 (and Mac) but Windows 8 has changed things and there is not yet (and may never be) a GhostScript print Driver.

    Part 2 – CUPS (Common Unix Print System)
    CUPS is a print server for networks that runs on unix like systems (Linux and Mac OS X included). There is a plugin called CUPS-PDF and my first thought was this would be all I need.

    We already have a server running Ubuntu so I installed the packages (apt-get install CUPS CUPS-PDF) and set up a PDF printer. That was all pretty straight forward but it really only allowed for blank backgrounds – I couldn’t find a way of having a ‘letterhead’ printer as well as a ‘blank a4’ printer.

    I reasoned in my mind that if I could print from Windows 8 to the CUPS server, I could probably forward the CUPS server to YAFPC PDF Printers. My logic was that CUPS would convert the print file in a way YAFPC/GhostScript would understand.

    Part 3 – Connecting CUPS to the YAFPC

    Through the CUPS web page admin:
    Administration > Add Printer > [Other Network Printers | LPD/LPR Host or Printer ]
    Connection = lpd://networkpdf/PDFLetterhead [alter that path to suit your printer]
    Name/Description/Location as you choose,
    Share this printer.

    For the driver: Generic > Generic CUPS-PDF Printer (en)
    worked for me, I assume any PostScript driver would work.
    Finally > Add Printer.

    You get to set a few defaults based on the driver you chose. EG: I could set the print resolution.

    Part 4 – Changing some YAFPC settings
    YAFPC normally recogises the windows user account name and makes some clever/customisable assumptions in order to email the PDFs to the user that printed them. It also stores them locally in a shared folder with the same name as the user. All very clever, but now the printing user is the CUPS user.
    YAFPC lets you choose to store PDFs in an external storage location. I entered some credentials for a location on our Samba server (which happens to be the same server the CUPS service is running on).
    Each virtual printer had to be updated to copy the file to the external storage.

    Part 5 – Adding the network PDF printer to Windows 8

    Open Control Panel
    Tip: Try shortcut “[Windows Key] + I”
    Add a Printer
    Wait for network printers to be found, select the new network printer
    You’ll see a warning “No driver found”, choose OK to locate one manually
    Choose the driver “Generic” > “MS Publisher Color Printer”
    This is a PostScript Printer driver. I assume any postscript driver will work (a lot of forum comments suggested HP drivers), but this worked for me first time so I’ve stuck with it.
    Decide upon a printer name, Finish.

    Print a test page to see it’s worked.
    Win8PrintTestViaCUPSviaYAFPC

  • After Win 8.1 update display has shrunk

    I’ve been setting up our first Windows 8 PC at work and working through all the bugs and gotchas a new operating system introduces to work.

    Part way through the process the Windows 8.1 update happened and once rebooted there was a black border around the screen. AMD Catalyst wouldn’t start but windows reported the correct screen resolution being sent to the monitor. The monitor was fine when plugged into another PC.

    I reinstalled the catalyst control centre (download from AMD) and started working through the settings to see if I could find the problem.

    In Scaling Options (Digital Flat-Panel), the update had somehow corrupted the setting for underscan. I have a feeling that setting was wrong when I first installed the graphics card and drivers, so maybe the error is the AMD side rather than the Microsoft side.

    Setting the scaling to 0% solved the problem.

    catalyst_overscan

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