Hi,

I am running Xubuntu 20.04.2 from an external usb hdd. This has proved reliable and allows me to dual boot it with Linux Mint 20.1 which is installed on the desktop computer to which the hdd connects.

I have a Canon Canoscam 4200F flatbed scanner, which although old, works well. However there are no drivers for Linux. I can run it from Windows 7 which I have dual booting with Linux Mint on another desktop but would like to have it available in the other system. I have an installation cd of Windows XP Professional so tried installing VirtualBox and adding XP to it. That worked to a point but I obviously had missed something because I could not get XP to find the scanner which was connected by usb cable (the Canon drivers and software had been successfully installed into XP). Also I could not move any data files between the guest operating system (XP) and the host (Xubuntu). In addition XP did not recognize any usb memory sticks - it did recognize the desktop DVD drive from which XP had been installed and it allowed me to read data files from cds and dvds but not to edit them or use drag and drop.

I had found things a bit confusing from the beginning so it is very likely I've missed something important. I installed VirtualBox via the Synaptic File manager where I found several VirtualBox related items listed and believe I installed the following three which I thought were necessary: virtualbox 6.1.16 base binaries, virtualbox-ext-pack 6.1.16 and virtualbox-qt 6.1.16 qt based user interface. Since having only partial success with my virtualbox installation I removed it completely from my system via Synaptic and cleared residue manually. I would like to have another go soon so would appreciate advice. I want to be able to run XP Professional (with networking/internet disabled of course), be able to run my scanner and be able to move and edit data files between XP and the host system. Hopefully this is possible if I install the right components and set up VirtualBox appropriately.

Thanks.