Mouse cursor disappears in full screen Mint 17.2

[Xian]

I am running Virtualbox 5.0.16 and Linux Mint 17.2 as a guest and everything works fine in windowed mode, but when I switch to full screen mode, the mouse cursor disappears. It is still there, as I can see icons highlighting when it passes over them, just not visible. I have also noticed that Host + Home does not bring up the Virtualbox menu and neither does moving the invisible cursor to the top of the screen.

If I reboot and start in full screen mode, the cursor is visible at the login screen, but as soon as the desktop appears, it disappears again. I have to use Host + F to run in Windowed mode to get it back, but I am wanting to run in Full Screen.

Any idea why this is happening and how to fix it?

[Perryg]

Post the guests log file ( as an attachment ). Right click on the guest in the Main Manager then click show log. Save and post as an attachment. Compress if it is too large to post.

[Xian]

Thank you for looking at this.

I switched in and out of full screen mode from windowed a couple times so I would assume that would be at the end of the log before I compressed it.

[Perryg]

VirtualBox VM 5.0.16 r105871 win.amd64 (Mar 4 2016 16:28:58) release log
08:21:05.754316 VMMDev: Guest Additions information report: Version 4.3.10 r93012 '4.3.10_Ubuntu'

The first thing I would do is upgrade the guest additions to match the running version of VirtualBox.

[Xian]

Guest additions have been updated, though no noticeable change, the mouse cursor is invisible when switched to full screen mode. I rebooted the VM in case the additions would need it.
Newest log attached
I appreciate you looking at this, I can run Windowed but prefer to have it full screen

[Perryg]

00:00:16.629910 VMMDev: Guest Additions information report: Version 4.3.10 r93012 '4.3.10_Ubuntu'

Still says the old guest additions. I would remove them and install the ones that come with your version of VirtualBox. Use the device menu and insert guest additions to select the proper ones.

[Xian]

I have removed the ones that came with Mint now instead of just upgrading with sudo apt-get purge virtualbox* then reinstalled from the device menu
Line 2182 in my log now shows: 10:33:00.240127 VMMDev: Guest Additions information report: Version 5.0.16 r105871 '5.0.16'

No change in behavior when switching to full screen, the mouse cursor is still invisible

[Perryg]

The new log that you posts still says the old GAs are installed. Did you reboot the guest after the new install?

00:00:16.629910 VMMDev: Guest Additions information report: Version 4.3.10 r93012 '4.3.10_Ubuntu'

08:21:05.754316 VMMDev: Guest Additions information report: Version 4.3.10 r93012 '4.3.10_Ubuntu'

10:33:00.240127 VMMDev: Guest Additions information report: Version 5.0.16 r105871 '5.0.16'

[Xian]

Yes, I rebooted. The log appears to be everything from today, so the first entries do show the older version of the additions, but starting at line 2182 it shows the newer ones. When I was running the installer for the guest additions it said it did not find the older ones to remove.

[Perryg]

The weird thing is the log should be replaced with a real reboot. Shut the guest completely down and wait for a few seconds and the start it and post the new log.

[Xian]

Thanks, I have did that and shut down virtualbox too. Now the log is just the current session, though no change.

[Perryg]

Looks much better. The log does not show a reason for your issue but there are a couple of things that you can try.

1) install the newest drivers for you nVidia GPU on the host.
2) try a test build to see if helps. https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Testbuilds

[Xian]

PerryG, thank you very much for taking the time to assist me with this.

I have figured out the problem, if you have pointer trails enabled in Windows, then the mouse cursor disappears in Full Screen mode. I use this in Windows because I often lose track of the mouse and this makes it easier to see when I move it. I disabled it and now the mouse if visible in full screen mode, renable it and it disappears again. Whether I use the standard Windows pointer trails in Control Panel or the Logitech Setpoint software, enabling pointer trails makes the mouse invisible in Full Screen mode.

It appears to be a bug then in Virtualbox and the pointer trail function in Windows.

However, this still didn't fix the Virtualbox menu appearing in full screen - if I press Host + Home I still don't get it in full screen and do not see it at the top of the screen if I mouse over there.

[Perryg]

I have done all I know since I don't use Windows. You can still try the suggestions I provided, but other than that you will need to wait for someone that knows Windows. I can tell you that it may or may not be a bug as such but just the way the screen is being drawn. Try disabling 3D and see if all of the functions return. If so then make sure the host drivers are new.

Feel free to report a bug bugtracker if you think VBox is the issue but it may be a while before it gets fixed.