Adding a Serial Port

You can set up the virtual serial port in a virtual machine to use a physical serial port on the host computer, an output file on the host computer, or an application running on the virtual machine or another virtual machine on the host computer.

To add a physical serial port to the virtual machine's configuration

1. Make sure the virtual machine is powered off.
2. Click Add Hardware.
3. Click Serial Port and click Next.
4. Choose Use a physical serial port to connect to a physical port on the host machine and click Next.
5. Select a port for the virtual machine to connect to from the drop-down menu.

   To connect this virtual machine to the host's physical port when the virtual machine is powered on, select Connect at power on and click Next.

6. Under I/O Mode, select whether to Yield CPU on poll and click Next.

   The kernel in the target virtual machine uses the virtual serial port in polled mode, not interrupt mode.

7. Click Finish.

To add an output file serial port to the virtual machine's configuration

1. Make sure the virtual machine is powered off.
2. Click Add Hardware.
3. Click Serial Port and click Next.
4. Choose Output File to send serial port output to a file on the host computer and click Next.
5. Enter the location of the output file or browse for a location in the Output File field.

   To connect this virtual machine to the host's output file when the virtual machine is powered on, select Connect at power on and click Next.

6. Under I/O Mode, select whether to Yield CPU on poll and click Next.

   The kernel in the target virtual machine uses the virtual serial port in polled mode, not interrupt mode.

7. Click Finish.

To add a named pipe serial port to the virtual machine's configuration

1. Make sure the virtual machine is powered off.
2. Click Add Hardware.
3. Click Serial Port and click Next.
4. Choose Use a named pipe to send data from one application in a virtual machine to another application in a different virtual machine on the host computer and click Next.
5. To specify a named pipe, enter the pipe name.
6. Under Near End, choose whether the application running in the guest operating system will function as a server or a client.
   • Is a server starts this end of the connection first.
   • Is a client starts the far end of the connection first.
7. Under Far End, specify where the application the virtual machine will connect to is located.
   • Select Is a virtual machine if the application the virtual machine will connect to is located on another virtual machine on the host.
   • Select Is an application if the application the virtual machine will connect to is running directly on the host machine.
8. To connect this virtual machine to the named pipe when the virtual machine is powered on, select Connect at power on and click Next.
9. Under I/O Mode, select whether to Yield CPU on poll and click Next.

   The kernel in the target virtual machine uses the virtual serial port in polled mode, not interrupt mode.

10. Click Finish.