VirtualBox

Opened 13 years ago

Closed 13 years ago

Last modified 12 years ago

#8212 closed defect (wontfix)

ISO images loaded in VMM no longer show in context menus

Reported by: ebonweaver Owned by:
Component: other Version: VirtualBox 4.0.2
Keywords: Cc:
Guest type: other Host type: Windows

Description

You can no longer choose a disk image from the CD device menus as you could before. This is a downgrade, the ability to select any loaded CD/DVD image in the media manager needs to be restored. Making you browse for the ISO you already loaded in the VMM makes the VMM pointless and creates a less usable environment than previous versions.

Change History (8)

comment:1 by Frank Mehnert, 13 years ago

Resolution: wontfix
Status: newclosed

Your description is not consistent so I will describe the current situation. As of VirtualBox 4.0 the last mounted CD/DVDROM images are available in the CD devices menu as well as in the CD context menu. This is useful if a CDROM which was previously mounted to the VM should be mounted again (e.g. for installing additional components from an installation CD/DVD). If the desired medium is not part of that list, a file dialog can be opened for choosing an image from the hard disk. Next time you open that dialog it will start at the same directory (if the VM was not terminated in the meantime). This change makes registering CD/DVD images superfluous and was done by intention.

comment:2 by ebonweaver, 13 years ago

Resolution: wontfix
Status: closedreopened

If this was done by intention, it was in my opinion a poor choice (take that as feedback). By doing this, you make it less convenient to use ISO images that may be in a variety of locations, and you add more clicks to the mount process for any given ISO. Before it was very user friendly, you load in a list of images, and can one click select them from a hot menu. Now you have to spend several clicks browsing for the image you want. If by design it was also only partially implemented as you left the CD/DVD management part of the GUI in place, resulting in the impression things are broken. If you reject this request to restore previous feature functionality that is your choice, but this is an inconsistent implementation currently and a step backward in user friendly interface.

comment:3 by Frank Mehnert, 13 years ago

Resolution: wontfix
Status: reopenedclosed

What you describe as less user friendly and a poor choice was a demand from a wide variety of users. And I cannot agree with you. If the image is part of the last used list, then you have exactly two clicks (one right click to open the context menu, the other click to select the image). If the desired image is not part of that list you normally have an additional click for opening the file dialog (before it was the media manager), then select the desired image from the hard disk. Presuming that all images are stored in the same directory.

comment:4 by ebonweaver, 13 years ago

Resolution: wontfix
Status: closedreopened

Your reply is inconsistent with actual behavior. You mention a "last used list" but there is no such thing. There is no hot list any more, you can only choose the currently mounted image (in the settings for the VM) or browse for another image. What used to be a list populated by the VMM is now always empty save for the currently configured ISO. Even if it retained a list of previously used ISO images, that being an uneditable list would again not be friendly as you could have dead items in there that you no longer want and can't remove if there is no interface for editing the list. Also, it is unclear if you think this should be a list retained per VM or across VMs, but neither is true at this time. If the behavior is supposed to be something other than what is occurring, there is an issue that needs to be fixed regardless of opinions on what the better design would be.

comment:5 by Christian Pötzsch, 13 years ago

Just checked 4.0.2 again and there is such a list (both in the Device Menu of the VM and in the storage settings of the VM). The list is populated separately for Disks, Floppies and DVD's. Please check this again and make sure you are really using the latest version. If this is not the case its ofc a bug. In the next minor version also the last used folder will be saved.

About the change in general: The decision to remove any global registry is done and will not be reverted. Currently the VDM is only there for legacy reasons and to make the users work with there old VM configs. We have ideas to reintroduce the VDM for other disks task (such as cloning or other stuff) in the future. But there is not time-frame, yet. In most cases the use of a "recently used items" list is sufficient. Your argument for not being able to delete old entries counts for any software using this kind of stuff (word, ...). If you know some better approach (beside the VDM und beside being to complicated), we are open for useful feedback.

comment:6 by Frank Mehnert, 13 years ago

Resolution: wontfix
Status: reopenedclosed

Please could you keep this ticket closed? Thank you! I already said that we will not restore the old behavior. I will answer you in more detail when I have time but my time is really limited and there are a lot of other tickets waiting for comments.

comment:7 by ebonweaver, 13 years ago

I have confirmed that after a system restart the menu does retain disks in the context menu, it did not at first install for some reason. Being that this is an uneditable menu that can now be populated with dead items, I maintain this is a downgrade from a menu where you could customize it and keep it fresh so to speak. If you made it like the recent items in the Windows Start Menu where you can removed "pinned" recent items, that would be a suitable replacement. If you choose to downgrade functionality and stick by that, there is nothing more to be said here, I tried to help.

comment:8 by positron96, 12 years ago

Despite this ticket being closed, I also think that selecting images from Media Manager in VM properties window was very convenient, and would be great if such functionality is restored. It does not contradict with new 4.* functionality and as these 2 features can co-exists. For example, this feature could be restored in a form of "Choose image from Media Manager" list item in a drop-down list, which will not break this list's current behaviour. Recently-used list is good, but when the image is not there, it's better to choose it from VMM rather then from fs (E.g my images are not in 1 folder, even not on 1 physical disk, but all are loaded into VMM)

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