Recently I attempted to use my Boot Camp partition in hopes of reducing my dual windows setup on my system and saving space. Everything went fine (though I did need the sp2.cab trick) except when Parallels gets to the XP desktop it refuses to accept the mouse and keyboard inputs so I can't install the tools or click anything. I assumed that this might be an issue with XP and installed it again, once through Parallels which worked until I reboot at which point it refused to detect or accept input, and once through the good old fashioned direct way with the same result. I have a CD MBP 2.0Ghz, 1Gb ram with Boot Camp 1.3 installed. I'm not sure if 1.3 is the issue, as the most recent release of P3.0 adresses BC issues and others seem to be doing fine with similar systems. Anyone have any idea what's going on? Is there any way to install Parallels Tools without having to do it through Parallels so that I could maybe install drivers for the Parallels virtual hardware in Boot Camp (or possibly an automated install/unattended option?)
A lot of folks have had trouble with the mouse not working at first and having to install by use of the keyboard. I think you may be the first with BOTH issues. Perhaps if this is a macbook, try to use a USB keyboard? I am not sure that will do anything, but I think I recall someone suggesting that on an older archived thread. Let us know.
No such luck, unfortunately. It appears that no USB devices are detected or accepted, as if it hasn't detected any USB compliant hardware at all. The strange thing is even when I boot into XP directly the mouse and keyboard refuse to function after Parallels washes on detecting them. Both approaches bring a slew of device detections, Parallels ends up waiting on input for a disk driver and XP directly ends up flashing a black screen and waiting after the ati x1600 driver's installation. So far I've tried to locate the actual hardware configuration file in XP, but no luck. My thinking was that if I could delete that it'd force a complete fresh hardware detection and side-step this issue entirely.
Interesting development. I installed an copy of XP that wasn't slip-streamed with more recent patches (this one is from about Nov. 04) and in turn found the proper sp2.cab file (17.9 mb.) After launching in Parallels I only had the no mouse issue, but had keyboard support! Thankfully I've been able to install the Parallels Tools drivers and achieve proper mouse and keyboard support. The only trouble I had this time was having to phone in for windows activation, but that went without a hitch too. I've been reading other threads and think my issue with losing mouse and keyboard support when booting directly into XP was the result of a forced shutdown (due to being unable to access anything) in my VM. Thanks for the assistance, Rachel!
Boot Camp install vs. Parallels Desktop Guest OS In the beginning when we got my MAC, we got what we could afford, so that in a month or so we could add more RAM and buy Parallels. We tried to install Boot Camp but found that the Blue Tooth keyboard and mouse would not work. My son deleted the install and reinstalled OS X so that we could wait until we got the RAM. Having the guest OS is more convenient for me since I can share information with shared folders live and also use the clipboard. I do graphic arts and there are some programs I use on each that the other doesn't have. Haveing both running at the same time, then the Blue Tooth keyboard and mouse have no problem. I did have an issue with my pressure sensitive tablet, but I have one now that I use in Windows XP VM and one I use when using OS X. I unplug my Windows tablet when I exit the VM and then I have full pressure sensitivity in both and there is no apparent conflict.
