Serial Port Options

Parallels Workstation allows up to four serial ports to be connected to a Virtual Machine.

Serial Port Options in Windows primary OS:

Device status:

If you wish to temporary disable operations with serial port without deleting it from configuration, deselect the Enabled checkbox.

Note: If you start the operating system with the serial port disabled, it can not be connected/disconnected while VM is running.

If you have enabled the port, you can select the Connect at startup checkbox to start the guest OS with this port connected.

Emulation:

Parallels Workstation suggests three methods of serial port emulation:

• connect it to a physical device (Use port option),
• use an output file (Use output file option),
• the third option is different in the Windows and Linux versions of Parallels Workstation. In the Windows primary OS it will be a named pipe (Use pipe option). In the Linux version socket technology instead of pipe is used (Use socket option).

These methods are described below:

1. If you have selected Use port, the drop-down list COM - Port displays the list of available real COM ports. Select one of them to connect to the virtual port.

   Note: In Linux primary OS to be able to connect Virtual Machine serial port to a real serial port, you should have system privileges to access the real device. Otherwise the real serial port will not appear in the list of available devices despite it is installed on your computer.

2. If you have selected Use output file, you can attach the existing file using Browse button or create a new one.
3. Windows primary OS. If you have selected Use pipe, the Pipe name field appears containing a default pipe name. Use it or type a new name that should subject to the following rules.The name should begin with \\.\pipe\, i.e. it should be in the form \\.\pipe\<name>. If a name doesn't conform to this rule, you will get the error message: "<Port name> will be disconnected. Reason: The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect" when the Virtual Machine is started.

   In the second field select a role at this end of the pipe.

   Linux primary OS. If you have selected Use socket, the Socket Name field appears containing a default socket name. Use it or type a new name that should subject to the following rules. The name should begin with /tmp/, i.e. it should be in the form /tmp/<socket>. If a name doesn't subject to the rule, then after Virtual Machine is started you will get the error message: "Com Port <number>: Unable to open <port name> device".

   In the second field select a role at this end of the socket.