Unable to change workspace on Host when Guest is Full Screen

[sheksis]

Configuration:
1. Fedora 19 - Host
2. Fedora 19 or Windows 7 - Guest
3. Cinnamon Desktop Environment on host(I havent tested on other DEs)
4. VirtualBox RC1

When the guest (Fedora 19 / Windows 7 - I've tried both) is in full screen mode and I try to switch workspace on the Host by a shortcut(Ctrl 1, Ctrl 2, Ctrl 3...) ... the screen flickers as if changing to the desired workspace but comes back to the workspace on which the Guest is in full screen mode.

Eg:
The guest is running in Full Screen mode on Workspace 3(say)
Then I try switching to workspace 1 on Host by pressing Ctrl 1... thats when the screen flickers but remains on Workspace 3 itself. Its impossible to switch the workspace without bringing the guest out of Full Screen Mode. Moreover, everytime I do this and fail... the VBoxSVC log gets errors like these:

Code: Select all

"39:04:53.187570 nspr-6   Log continuation - Log started 2013-10-11T12:49:25.662290000Z
39:04:56.458318 nspr-5   ERROR [COM]: aRC=VBOX_E_IPRT_ERROR (0x80bb0005) aIID={480cf695-2d8d-4256-9c7c-cce4184fa048} aComponent={SessionMachine} aText={Saved  screenshot data is not available (VERR_NOT_SUPPORTED)}, preserve=false
39:04:57.992200 nspr-5   ERROR [COM]: aRC=VBOX_E_IPRT_ERROR (0x80bb0005) aIID={480cf695-2d8d-4256-9c7c-cce4184fa048} aComponent={SessionMachine} aText={Saved  screenshot data is not available (VERR_NOT_SUPPORTED)}, preserve=false
42:35:51.889531 nspr-3   ERROR [COM]: aRC=VBOX_E_IPRT_ERROR (0x80bb0005) aIID={480cf695-2d8d-4256-9c7c-cce4184fa048} aComponent={SessionMachine} aText={Saved  screenshot data is not available (VERR_NOT_SUPPORTED)}, preserve=false
43:39:58.166218 nspr-6   ERROR [COM]: aRC=VBOX_E_IPRT_ERROR (0x80bb0005) aIID={480cf695-2d8d-4256-9c7c-cce4184fa048} aComponent={SessionMachine} aText={Saved  screenshot data is not available (VERR_NOT_SUPPORTED)}, preserve=false
43:39:59.220322 nspr-6   ERROR [COM]: aRC=VBOX_E_IPRT_ERROR (0x80bb0005) aIID={480cf695-2d8d-4256-9c7c-cce4184fa048} aComponent={SessionMachine} aText={Saved  screenshot data is not available (VERR_NOT_SUPPORTED)}, preserve=false
43:40:04.056868 nspr-5   ERROR [COM]: aRC=VBOX_E_IPRT_ERROR (0x80bb0005) aIID={480cf695-2d8d-4256-9c7c-cce4184fa048} aComponent={SessionMachine} aText={Saved  screenshot data is not available (VERR_NOT_SUPPORTED)}, preserve=false
43:51:15.846665 nspr-4   ERROR [COM]: aRC=VBOX_E_IPRT_ERROR (0x80bb0005) aIID={480cf695-2d8d-4256-9c7c-cce4184fa048} aComponent={SessionMachine} aText={Saved  screenshot data is not available (VERR_NOT_SUPPORTED)}, preserve=false
44:00:12.645693 nspr-6   ERROR [COM]: aRC=VBOX_E_IPRT_ERROR (0x80bb0005) aIID={480cf695-2d8d-4256-9c7c-cce4184fa048} aComponent={SessionMachine} aText={Saved  screenshot data is not available (VERR_NOT_SUPPORTED)}, preserve=false
44:00:19.591009 nspr-5   ERROR [COM]: aRC=VBOX_E_IPRT_ERROR (0x80bb0005) aIID={480cf695-2d8d-4256-9c7c-cce4184fa048} aComponent={SessionMachine} aText={Saved  screenshot data is not available (VERR_NOT_SUPPORTED)}, preserve=false
~                                                                         "

I think that this is a regression since the 4.2.x series. If theres anything that I can do to help debug this then please let me know.

[bqbauer]

Tested this with a Solaris 11.1 host using your keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl 1, Ctrl 2, etc), a Windows 8 guest, and an Ubuntu 13.04 guest. Workspaces on the host change without issue

Could you have overlapping keyboard shortcuts with the guest? Or it could just have something to do with Fedora. Unlikely that both Windows & Fedora guests have those keyboard shortcuts reserved.

[sheksis]

bqbauer,
Thanks for testing it out. After your post, just to make certain that it wasnt a false alarm, I installed 4.2.18 on the same host and left the guest unchanged too(of course I changed the Guest Additions in Guest)
Attaching the url of a video of the transiton: (The guest is fedora running Gnome shell - with the pen wallpaper ... the transition happens because I pressed Ctrl 1 to go to the 1st workspace where I have firefox running with the virtualbox forum site open)

http://temp-share.com/show/Pf3mp8Hj2

After that I reinstalled RC1 and repeated the experiment... (so the guest and host are unchanged config wise... - the guest having been updated to RC1 Guest Additions)
Heres the video of the stuck transition

http://temp-share.com/show/f3Y6AbKXn

In the meantime, I also found a workaround that if you just long press Ctrl-1 then it flickers for a few times but then goes to workspace 1 on host eventually.


So clearly its some sort of a regression and not Fedora Host or Guest specific.

[sheksis]

Any way by which I can help debug this? This is really inconvenient trying to long press a key combination just to change workspace fast. The 4.3 GA also has this regression.

[bqbauer]

I'm guessing you've tried this, but just for testing--have you tried assigning a different key combination to see if it's some odd interaction with VB on your host? How about a different physical host and/or host OS just for repeatability testing? You might already have answered these questions & I missed them in rereading your posts.

I couldn't reproduce with my hosts or guests, but I don't have a Fedora host to try this with myself. My brief tests implied only that Windows & Solaris hosts don't have this quirk with Solaris or Ubuntu guests.

Sorry I didn't help much with reproducing the problem, but that might still help the developers get to the root of the issue?

[sheksis]

bqbauer,
Thanks for replying. I tried changing the key combinations. It didnt work. Even Ctrl+Alt+Right/Left arrow to move to the workspace to right/left doesnt work. It seems as if the the full screen Guest VMs are almost held in place by a spring. They try to move out of the way so that workspace switching can happen - but come back.

I dont have access to any other system for now so unfortunately cannot test it. However, if you or the developers want me to experiment on this system or provide some logs then I'll be happy to do so.

The point is that this thing broke around the 2nd or 3rd beta of 4.3