changes to Fullscreen on 4.3.10 running on Mavericks host

[Nils 01]

I updated to 4.3.10 today and was disappointed to see that Fullscreenmode (Host + F) now uses the OS X standard fullscreen functionality of creating a "separate" desktop for the fullscreened mode.

This is terrible for my workflow because I can't switch to the virtual box desktop using my hotkeys. It goes to a "special" desktop which does not have a number assignment, and so switching to it is not hotkey-able.

As a result, I have reverted to 4.3.8. Just wanted to point out this change, and how it negatively affects at least one user! If this functionality were toggle-able, I'd update, but otherwise, frankly, I can't!

Not a complaint, just a user comment! Otherwise, VirtualBox is a lifesaver for me!

[loukingjr]

Did you try changing the settings in Mission Control?

[agodfrin]

Same here. I am usually cautious when upgrading virtualbox: been burned too many times with undesirable features and bugs in the past.

I foolishly upgraded to 4.3.10. I have read the release notes, but had not realized the impact of this line: "GUI: Mac OS X: experimental native full screen support for Mountain Lion and Mavericks (bug #12292)"

I am hit too with the problem. I have all my VMs set to automatically go to full screen, which allows me to switch between them with a simple flip on the touch pad. No longer so. It took me multiple flips through CMD-F that first got me a "full" screen with a tiny VM window, then to a "fuller" screen with empty space at the top.

I finally got back to the original behavior (full full screen) by setting the VM to both CMD-F (Full Screen) and CMD-G (Auto Resize Guest Display).

So it is not back to 4.3.8. for now ...

> Did you try changing the settings in Mission Control?

Would love that - but what setting do I need to change ?

[loukingjr]

> Did you try changing the settings in Mission Control?

Would love that - but what setting do I need to change ?

since you already have it working the way you want with 4.3.8 there is no need to change but I was asking if you tried to disable any such as "Displays have separate Spaces"

Something to keep in mind is the developers of VirtualBox are always playing a catch up game. No sooner do they get VirtualBox working with a version of OSX, Apple makes changes that can break VB.

[agodfrin]

since you already have it working the way you want with 4.3.8 there is no need to change but I was asking if you tried to disable any such as "Displays have separate Spaces"

Thanks. I had this setting disabled all along.

Somehow the change in 4.3.10 changed the full-screen behavior when I started my VMs. But like I said, I was able to get back to the same behavior as 4.3.8 by twiddling the view settings (CMD-F + CMD-G). I think I flipped those all on and off multiple times until I got the proper behavior back.

Like I said: I stayed on 4.3.10. I was going to go back to 4.3.8, but since everything works back the way I wanted, I am a happy camper now.

[loukingjr]

since you already have it working the way you want with 4.3.8 there is no need to change but I was asking if you tried to disable any such as "Displays have separate Spaces"

Thanks. I had this setting disabled all along.

Somehow the change in 4.3.10 changed the full-screen behavior when I started my VMs. But like I said, I was able to get back to the same behavior as 4.3.8 by twiddling the view settings (CMD-F + CMD-G). I think I flipped those all on and off multiple times until I got the proper behavior back.

Like I said: I stayed on 4.3.10. I was going to go back to 4.3.8, but since everything works back the way I wanted, I am a happy camper now.

glad you have it working. I missed the "not" in front of going back

[agodfrin]

There is actually still a problem with all this.

I just accidentally clicked CMD-C (easy to get confused between CMD-C in MacOS and CTRL-C in Linux). That switched the VM to scaled mode. The trouble is that once in scaled mode, there is no going back to any other display mode: hitting CMD-C to exit scaled mode is ignored. Here is one change from 4.3.8: in 4.3.8 when I hit CMD-C by mistake, the dialog box asked for confirmation. Now it no longer does so but just goes ahead and does it: the dialog box still offers a "cancel" and a "switch" button, but at that time, the VM is already in scaled mode, and "cancel" has no effect.

In fact, once set to scaled mode, ALL changes to the view option (full screen, seamless, scaled, ...) whether using the menu or the keyboard are ignored: the screen remains in scaled mode.

The only way I found to get back is to kick the VM: save its state then restore it.

So I may still go back to 4.3.8 since hitting CMD-C by mistake is something I do quite often

[loukingjr]

There is actually still a problem with all this.

I just accidentally clicked CMD-C (easy to get confused between CMD-C in MacOS and CTRL-C in Linux). That switched the VM to scaled mode. The trouble is that once in scaled mode, there is no going back to any other display mode: hitting CMD-C to exit scaled mode is ignored. Here is one change from 4.3.8: in 4.3.8 when I hit CMD-C by mistake, the dialog box asked for confirmation. Now it no longer does so but just goes ahead and does it: the dialog box still offers a "cancel" and a "switch" button, but at that time, the VM is already in scaled mode, and "cancel" has no effect.

In fact, once set to scaled mode, ALL changes to the view option (full screen, seamless, scaled, ...) whether using the menu or the keyboard are ignored: the screen remains in scaled mode.

The only way I found to get back is to kick the VM: save its state then restore it.

So I may still go back to 4.3.8 since hitting CMD-C by mistake is something I do quite often

actually, hitting control-c switches to scaled mode as well. I put in a ticket at bugtracker. the next time you accidently hit command-c, you might try hitting control-c to see if it toggles back.

[agodfrin]

I am getting closer to understand what happens:

- I hit CMD-C
- the window switches to scale mode
- *after that* I get the box that prompts me to confirm that I want to switch to scale mode
- since I don't want to switch, I hit cancel.
- the window then does not switch back to full screen. Instead it stays locked in scale mode. All view changes (whether using the View menu or using a CMD-x key) are ignored. The only way out is to close the VM (save state) and resume.
- but if I clicked 'switch' in the dialog box, then I can switch back to full screen using CMD-F.

The problem seems just that VB switches to scale mode *before* I confirm the change in the dialog box.

[agodfrin]

OK, that's it. I have had enough of this nonsense: every time I wake up a VM that was in full screen mode, it goes into this "weird windows mode" where it thinks it is full screen but is actually not.
I then have to
- uncheck full screen mode
- save state
- re-awake
- switch back to full screen mode

I am going back to 4.3.8 and will only upgrade to 4.3.10 when this gets fixed.

[agodfrin]

Something must have happened in the combination of OSX 10.9.3 and VirtualBox 4.3.12. Now when I restart a VM that was in full screen, it does come up in actual full screen (no longer in the "weird windows mode"). That is much better.

HOST-C still sets the VM into the "weird windows mode" and canceling the confirmation box still locks it in this mode, but this is less of a problem now that I have set the HOST key to the right-side OPTION key, so nothing bad happens when I click CMD-C by mistake (intead of CTRL-C)