Pause/Freeze on y key-press

[spbrereton]

I'm pretty sure no one is going to take this seriously, but I have to try - I have enough anecdotal evidence.

Running Ubuntu 9.04, VirtualBox 3.0.10 (though to be honest it was in the previous version too - 3.06). Windows XP is the guest.

Not every time, but at least 4 out of 5 times, I type a 'y' in the guest (email, skype, etc) there is a short pause. Sometimes up to 3 seconds before the application responds.. The y is then not displayed and the subsequent keypresses (quite a lot if I'm typing quickly), all appear at once after some lag. This means when I type "you" I more often than not end up with "ou".

I don't know what you need to pin this down - I'm using the host browser to create this ticket and haven't had a single issue with all the y's in this post. The key is seated properly and functions fine in the host session.

[Frank Mehnert]

Could you have a look at #2836? This could be the same problem on your computer.

[spbrereton]

Replying to frank:

Could you have a look at #2836? This could be the same problem on your computer.

Frank - the saints be praised someone actually looked at this. I have more info. I've read 2836 pretty carefully, and I don't have that issue. And I've never had that issue. When I first started using this setup - (i.e. Macbook, running Ubuntu, with an XP guest, I had 2Gs of system memory (and 2Gs in swap). I allocated XP 1024Ms and it was happy - although Virtualbox did give me a warning.

I've since increased my system memory to 4Gs (and swap to 4Gs), although Ubuntu only seels 3009M even though I'm running the PAE kernel to try and address that. But I have 1500Ms assigned to guest and I have no problems with guest lag (although I did yesterday, but as a general rule, not).

What is strange, and why I'd like to press on with this bug is that I have new information. I had some other keyboard (physical) issues and eventually I swapped the hard drive out to a different MacBook so now I'm sure that it isn't a some sort of wiring/circuit issue. Also, it appears that hitting the y key makes the mouse click - thus, I often end up continuing to type in a completely different area or even window. It's mildly annoying, given that I actually use the guest XP for "real" work - though it has had the benefit that I have now moved as much as I can to the host.

[Michael Thayer]

Would you be able to try instaling another guest - or a second, fresh XP guest - to see if they are also affected by this?

[spbrereton]

Replying to michael:

Would you be able to try instaling another guest - or a second, fresh XP guest - to see if they are also affected by this?

Interesting idea. I'll try that when I have some time. I don't have XP to hand, so I'll start with an Ubuntu or debian guest and report back (it would be interesting if it happened in an Ubunut guest since it's not happening in the ubuntu host)..

[spbrereton]

Replying to spbrereton:

Replying to frank:

Could you have a look at #2836? This could be the same problem on your computer.

Frank - the saints be praised someone actually looked at this. I have more info. I've read 2836 pretty carefully, and I don't have that issue. And I've never had that issue.

Of course as soon as I said that, I experienced some of the symptoms. But I think I know why that is. I'll leave a note in the other ticket.