Allow "Restore current snapshot" from right-click Close in Manager

[RafSchietekat]

When a VM window is closed, there are 3 options (save, shut down, power off), and the last option "Power off the machine" has a checkbox for "Restore current snapshot [...]".

It would seem appropriate to give the same checkbox choice when closing from Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager, and also to use the same option names instead of, e.g., "Send the shutdown signal" vs. "ACPI Shutdown".

[RafSchietekat]

It would also seem appropriate to provide these same commands in the "Virtualbox VM" Machine menu, which now only has the command "ACPI Shutdown" to (ultimately) close a VM.

While you are at it, for ease of use, maybe also add an option to make a snapshot at that time, as the equivalent of first explicitly making a snapshot and then closing with "Restore current snapshot [...]".

[Socratis]

These are two distinct operations; one is a peaceful request to the guest OS to shut down, the other is a violent "I'm pulling the rug under your feet". You say "When the VM window is closed", which is different from when you peacefully shut down the guest OS via the ACPI signal.

If you want to see the same dialog, you're looking at the wrong menu. You should be looking at the "VirtualBox VM" menu and the "Quit VirtualBox VM" option. That is the effect that you have when you close the window. You "violently" close the guest OS.

You are right about the difference in the terminology used in the "Machine" menu and the close dialog. It should be a ... combination of the two methinks, something like "Send the ACPI shutdown signal", in both places.

I'm not sure where exactly you want to have the option to take a snapshot...

[RafSchietekat]

(Slightly edited.)

Replying to socratis:

These are two distinct operations; one is a peaceful request to the guest OS to shut down, the other is a violent "I'm pulling the rug under your feet". You say "When the VM window is closed", which is different from when you peacefully shut down the guest OS via the ACPI signal.

I suspect a miscommunication: "When the VM window is closed" simply meant "when the red close button is clicked", and the user can then still choose what happens from the dialog that appears.

If you want to see the same dialog, you're looking at the wrong menu. You should be looking at the "VirtualBox VM" menu and the "Quit VirtualBox VM" option. That is the effect that you have when you close the window. You "violently" close the guest OS.

Oh, right, a VirtualBox VM application can only run a single client at a time... that's not like "normal" applications, and I don't usually run multiple clients at a time, so I had not noticed that. But even so I would still favour more consistency across menus and dialogs (VirtualBox: Machine menu, right-click on machine; VirtualBox VM: Machine menu, clicking close button, quitting), so the user doesn't have to remember, e.g., not to use right-click if the intent is to restore the current snapshot. (See above about "close the window".)

You are right about the difference in the terminology used in the "Machine" menu and the close dialog. It should be a ... combination of the two methinks, something like "Send the ACPI shutdown signal", in both places.

Probably better to just add "ACPI" to the dialog option while keeping the menu command short as it is now.

I'm not sure where exactly you want to have the option to take a snapshot...

Whenever the client is stopped (whether from a menu or with a dialog), there could be a new option "Take Snapshot". If I closed off a session with a snapshot, it is strange to later come back to the application and see a changed current state (did I forget to take a snapshot? should I examine and perhaps take a new snapshot?), and avoiding that now takes multiple steps.

[RafSchietekat]

There's also something that doesn't look right about having "Send the ACPI shutdown signal" as just another one of the Close options, currently lodged between Save and Power off, because the user may yet have the opportunity to do something else from inside the client. On a Mint client, I can Suspend and send another ACPI to resume, I can Restart which also doesn't close the client, and I can simply Cancel. Only Hibernate and Shut Down will lead to closing the client.

It seems better to lift this out of the Close submenu, and qualify it in the dialog (as first or last option and maybe even visually separated), and with the other options ordered by amount of information saved (I would order from less to more instead), something like:

• Just send the ACPI shutdown signal (client determines outcome)
• Restore current snapshot 'Name'
• Power off the machine
• Save the machine state
• Take snapshot