VirtualBox Seamless Mode is unusable in Linux Host since 4.3.12r93733 -> duplicate of #13238

[Plastic.Jesus]

The synopsis is that I have been running my Windows 7 guests in seamless mode for the last three years with my current hardware with very few issues. As of 4.3.12r93733, I can no longer run in seamless mode for (at least) the following reasons:

1. The guest never seems to release the keyboard back to the host. I can hit the host key, and all manner of shift combinations to try and get control back to the host to no avail. Even after clicking in a window on the host and seeing that window gain focus with a blinking cursor, keystrokes are still delivered to the last window in the guest.

2. Periodically during my trying to narrow this down, my entire host has completely frozen. I can't even kick out to a terminal session with Ctrl-Alt-(F2-F7). A hard reboot is necessary.

Note that i have since upgraded to VB 4.3.14, and the symptoms remain unchanged.

Some of my system information is below, and I have attached relevant log files as well as the contents of /proc/cpuinfo and other relevant system files.

I am running a Fedora 20 host (Linux 3.15.7-200.fc20.x86_64 #1 SMP x86_64 GNU/Linux) and a Windows 7 guest.

I am running three monitors on native nVidia drivers.

# cat /proc/driver/nvidia/version NVRM version: NVIDIA UNIX x86_64 Kernel Module 331.89 GCC version: gcc version 4.8.3 20140624 (Red Hat 4.8.3-1) (GCC)

# cat /proc/driver/nvidia/gpus/0/information

Model: GeForce GTX 650 IRQ: 48 GPU UUID: GPU-6fe203a0-6da2-7b10-d4f9-f30b919a8c32 Video BIOS: 80.07.35.00.52 Bus Type: PCIe DMA Size: 40 bits DMA Mask: 0xffffffffff Bus Location: 0000:01.00.0

[Plastic.Jesus]

Contents of /proc/cpuinfo

[Plastic.Jesus]

Contents of /proc/meminfo

[Plastic.Jesus]

One more comment. Once in seamless mode, the only way I have found to get back to a state of functionality is to get the little pop-up menu at the bottom, and switch to full screen.

Thanks for taking a look at this, and if you need any more information, please ask.

Regards,

Stephen Punak

[Michael Thayer]

You might want to give this build a try. We fixed a problem there which might potentially have the same cause. It is a shell script installer, so you will need to remove your existing VirtualBox installation before you install it (this will not affect your virtual machines).

https://www.virtualbox.org/download/testcase/VirtualBox-4.3.15-95367-Linux_amd64.run

[Plastic.Jesus]

Michael:

This appears to have done the trick at first look.

I'll let you know after running a few days.

Quick question: I installed the extensions from 4.3.14 so I could use my USB. Is this safe to continue until 4.3.16?

Thanks for your quick response!

Regards,

Stephen Punak

[Michael Thayer]

Sorry for the delay, I was on holiday. Yes, this is expected to work but not actually tested. If you don't notice any problems then assume all is well.

[Plastic.Jesus]

Michael:

Been using this for two weeks now without any problems. I think you can call this one resolved. Good work to yourself the VB team.

Can this fix be expected to be present in 4.3.16?

Regards,

Stephen Punak

[Michael Thayer]

Right, this fix should be in any future 4.3 or later releases.

[Plastic.Jesus]

Michael:

One stupid question.... Now that I am running this build you gave me, how can I uninstall it so I can get back on the normal update method (I use yum from your repo)

I get

An old installation of VirtualBox was found. To install this package the
old package has to be removed first. Have a look at /etc/vbox/vbox.cfg to
determine the installation directory of the previous installation. After
uninstalling the old package remove the file /etc/vbox/vbox.cfg.
error: %pre(VirtualBox-4.3-4.3.18_96516_fedora18-1.x86_64) scriptlet failed, exit status 1
Error in PREIN scriptlet in rpm package VirtualBox-4.3-4.3.18_96516_fedora18-1.x86_64
  Verifying  : VirtualBox-4.3-4.3.18_96516_fedora18-1.x86_64                                                       1/1 

However, I don't have a /etc/vbox/vbox.cfg, nor does one exist anywhere on my system.

Thanks

Stephen Punak

[Frank Mehnert]

Run /opt/VirtualBox/uninstall.sh as root.