Seamless XP-VM always on top under Xfce

boz · Post by **boz** » 24. Mar 2009, 01:39

I'm running VBox 2.1.4 on Debian Squeeze. (I include that for completeness, althought I don't think it matters.) The problem is this:

* If I use Gnome as my desktop, running an XP desktop in seamless mode works as I'd expect it to, namely, when a host window gets focus, the entire XP desktop moves behind the host window. You can still see any portions not covered by the host window, but you can see the entire host window. When ANY XP program has focus, the entire XP desktop moves on top, and portions of the host windows are covered by the XP windows, the taskbar, &c.

* If I use Xfce as my desktop the XP desktop in seamless mode always remains on top, sometimes blocking portions of the host windows. Under Xfce if I run in windowed mode it will move fully behind host windows when the host window gets focus.

Can anybody tell me what the solution might be?

boz · Post by **boz** » 24. Mar 2009, 01:47

Interesting...if I set a particular host window to be "always on top" then it behaves as I want it to with respect to the virtual desktop, but stays on top of all other host windows (which is obviously unacceptable).

LOL...ok, if I set ALL host windows to be "always on top", then everything works as expected.

This is very weird.

boz · Post by **boz** » 26. Mar 2009, 03:57

bump...setting all the host windows to "always on top" really isn't a valid solution.

boz · Post by **boz** » 1. Apr 2009, 06:17

bumpity-bump

Post by **Sasquatch** » 1. Apr 2009, 11:16

It doesn't help you, but I see the same on my Hosts, but not found a work around. Though I think that it doesn't happen when you run Compiz-Fusion. That's on my PC anyway, and IIRC, it didn't happen there like on my laptop. Don't have time to check that now, might check when I have and run a VM.

boz · Post by **boz** » 2. Apr 2009, 22:10

Sasquatch wrote:It doesn't help you, but I see the same on my Hosts, but not found a work around. Though I think that it doesn't happen when you run Compiz-Fusion. That's on my PC anyway, and IIRC, it didn't happen there like on my laptop. Don't have time to check that now, might check when I have and run a VM.

Yeah, it definitely has something to do with Xcfe, because under Gnome it's "normal". Haven't tried it under compiz. Maybe it's time to try fluxbox.

Post by **Sasquatch** » 2. Apr 2009, 22:50

Ok, I ran my Jaunty VM, put it into seamless mode. No problems with on top. Now I also disabled Compiz and put on seamless again. This time, it was put as always on top. So it's an Xfce issue. Looking for a work around, other than running Compiz.

Edit:
Couldn't find it in the settings.

TiCPU · Post by **TiCPU** » 2. May 2009, 18:51

I confirm this issue exist with XFCE 4.4.3, did anyone create a bug report at VirtualBox or XFCE yet?

FrancisT · Post by **FrancisT** » 7. Jan 2010, 17:58

Just wondering if anyone has looked at this. It's occurring to me under Xubuntu 9.10 and VirtualBox 3.1.2 both of which are a good number of versions ahead of the ones around last March.

I'm quite willing to help with any info gathering and will raise bugs if no one else responds but I'd prefer not to duplicate effort

acidice333 · Post by **acidice333** » 2. Feb 2010, 03:58

I had the same problem with XFCE as my WM.

My fix was to kill`xfdesktop` and use a different desktop manager such as `nautilus`, still using the XFCE WM

virtualbox.org

Seamless XP-VM always on top under Xfce

Seamless XP-VM always on top under Xfce

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Re: Seamless XP-VM always on top under Xfce

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