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[Resolved] Kali: Bidirectional Clipboard Issue

Posted: 20. Dec 2019, 03:55
by infinity_gaze
Hi there,

I understand that this issue was raised in a thread on 11 Feb 2019, titled "i cant copy paste and dont have a mini tool bar". I am sorry for not being able to post the direct link here as this account has just been created.

I am experiencing the same issue; Here is a snippet from my VM's VBox.log (I have also attached it in a zip file to this post):
00:00:01.759231 VirtualBox VM 6.0.14 r133895 win.amd64 (Oct 10 2019 19:44:31) release log
00:00:11.266233 VMMDev: Guest Additions information report: Version 6.1.0 r135406 '6.1.0_Debian'
I understand that in the other thread's case, his Guest Additions was older than his VirtualBox installation. I have observed in my case that it is the opposite case(?)

I had just ran apt-get upgrade and apt-get update this morning (and the copy-and-paste feature was still working fine previously), before the 2-way clipboard stopped working. Afterwards, I ran a series of these commands as well (found from a Kali forum post which many claimed worked out for them), but to no avail:
apt-get purge virtualbox-guest-x11
apt-get autoremove --purge
reboot
apt-get update
apt-get dist-upgrade
reboot
apt-get update
apt-get install -y virtualbox-guest-x11
reboot
Running

Code: Select all

lsb_release -a
shows me that I am on the fourth 2019 Kali Rolling release.

Really appreciate any help - thank you so much for your patience.

Re: Kali: Bidirectional Clipboard Issue

Posted: 20. Dec 2019, 12:59
by socratis
infinity_gaze wrote:
apt-get install -y virtualbox-guest-x11
That's the step that you should not be doing. By doing that, you're getting the Guest Additions (GAs) from your distribution's repository. You need to install the Guest Additions that match your main VirtualBox program.

With the VM window having the focus, go to the host's menu "Devices" ยป "Insert Guest Additions CD Image...". If not prompted by auto-run, run "VBoxLinuxAdditions.run" from the CD. Make sure there are no errors or suggestions during the install. You can safely ignore the "modprobe vboxsf" one.

Image

Re: Kali: Bidirectional Clipboard Issue

Posted: 20. Dec 2019, 14:09
by infinity_gaze
Thanks socratis for pointing me in the correct direction to work on - I managed to get my bidirectional clipboard up and going again.

Going to list the issues/situations I faced here just in case I face such a thing in future (and also hopefully this might help others if they encounter the same problem):

After clicking on "Insert Guest Additions CD image...", I get the message saying that ""VBox_GAs_6.0.14" contains software intended to be automatically started. Would you like to run it?"

I pressed Run, and the next thing coming up was "Oops! There was a problem running this software. Unable to locate the program.". There was only an "OK" button to hit, and attempting to "Insert Guest Additions CD image..." resulted in a VirtualBox error message.

After various rounds of trial and error, I decided to hit the "Cancel" button instead of "Run" when encountering the first prompt, and went to the /media/cdrom0 directory, before running sh ./VBoxLinuxadditions.sh. Another thread on this forum titled "./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run: Permission Denied" helped me out with my invalid command of running just ./VBoxLinuxadditions.sh.

Afterwards, executing "reboot" ensured that all functions were now working properly.

P.S. Kudos and thanks to socratis for taking your time out to answer forum members' many, many questions/issues - I've seen many a cases where I would've been guessing that you might just be tearing your hair out for how questions might be asked/phrased - thanks for your patience!

Re: Kali: Bidirectional Clipboard Issue

Posted: 20. Dec 2019, 14:35
by socratis
The errors that you're seeing are due to Debian's security policy unfortunately. I'm glad that you found the solution to that issue as well, marking as [Resolved].

And thank you for your comments, much appreciated. ;)

Re: Kali: Bidirectional Clipboard Issue

Posted: 30. Jan 2020, 12:33
by Arthur Black
socratis wrote:The errors that you're seeing are due to Debian's security policy unfortunately. I'm glad that you found the solution to that issue as well, marking as [Resolved].

And thank you for your comments, much appreciated. ;)
Dear socratis,

I do really need your help. My clipboard on Debian 10 is not working on host>VM machine since beginning of January. From VM > host i can copy any plain text, but from host not. Tried everything is possible on forums but didnt work. Also tried on same machine with Dual-Boot Kali > VM machine (tails, debian, whonix), biderectional mode of clipboard doesnt work. Can you please help? You can save my life, really need your help sir

I am not an expert, but i blame nvidia driver in theory or changes in Debian security policy, the solution is not found :roll:

I attached zip file with logs in order to help you understand what is an issue

Thank you in advance!

Re: [Resolved] Kali: Bidirectional Clipboard Issue

Posted: 27. Feb 2020, 22:41
by Jamesasddsa
I have also clipboard problems since the latest update. Interesting thing my shared folders works how they should, including the drag and drop files! I have problem only with the clipboard.

Yes /devices/shared clipboard is set to bidirectional.
Yes I installed it with VboxLinux guest additions from the Vbox mount.

https://i.imgur.com/MBu9L6C.jpg

Tried:
remove all virtualbox guest additions and reinstall. Didn't help.
apt-get remove -y virtualbox-guest-x11
apt-get remove -y virtualbox-guest-dkms
apt-get remove -y virtualbox-guest-utils

Re: [Resolved] Kali: Bidirectional Clipboard Issue

Posted: 28. Feb 2020, 15:29
by Jamesasddsa
On top of this today I tried with a FULL fresh Kali install, downloaded the latest Vbox image, using the latest Virtualbox.... And have exactly the same problem... The clipboard doesn't work, only the shared folders and the drag and drop.

https://i.imgur.com/ovHkCcK.png

is it possible to roll back only the guest additions part until this will be fixed?

Re: [Resolved] Kali: Bidirectional Clipboard Issue

Posted: 29. Feb 2020, 03:10
by AndyCot
I am using W10 1909 with latest MS patches and VB 6.1.4 and Ubuntu 14.04 and 18.04 and Mint 19.3.

Ubuntu 18.04 and LM 19.3 are using Kernel 5.5.5 with GCC 9.2.1-17
Ubuntu 14.04 is using Kernel 4.4.38 with GCC 4.8.x

Bi-directional clipboard works fine with VB 6.1.2 and guest 6.1.2.
Bi-directional clipboard works fine with VB 6.1.4 and guest 6.1.2.

BUT fails with VB 6.1.4 and guest 6.1.4. If I roll back the gust to 6.1.2 the clipboard starts to work again/

So can confer the clipboard problem is with the gust additions.

Re: [Resolved] Kali: Bidirectional Clipboard Issue

Posted: 29. Feb 2020, 22:14
by johncoast
After several hours trying to troubleshoot a similar clipboard issue on a W10 host with a kali 2020.1 guest, I have rolled back to virtualbox 6.1.2 and installed VirtualBox 6.1.2 Guest Additions, which had me with clipboard working again.

Re: [Resolved] Kali: Bidirectional Clipboard Issue

Posted: 2. Mar 2020, 23:01
by Takahiro
I also have the same issue with Windows 10 host and Fedora 31 guest also on Window 10 host and Cento OS 6 guest.
On 6.1.4, the shared clipboard doesn't work.
I re-installed 6.1.2, the corresponding extension pack and linux addition, then everything is fine.
I re-installed 6.1.4, the corresponding extension pack and linux addition, then again the clipboard doesn't work.

Maybe something to do with the extension pack or the linux addition.

Please fix the 6.1.4.

Re: [Resolved] Kali: Bidirectional Clipboard Issue

Posted: 2. Mar 2020, 23:46
by Matihood1
Takahiro wrote:I also have the same issue with Windows 10 host and Fedora 31 guest also on Window 10 host and Cento OS 6 guest.
On 6.1.4, the shared clipboard doesn't work.
I re-installed 6.1.2, the corresponding extension pack and linux addition, then everything is fine.
I re-installed 6.1.4, the corresponding extension pack and linux addition, then again the clipboard doesn't work.

Maybe something to do with the extension pack or the linux addition.
I had this problem with Ubuntu today and downgrading from 6.1.4 to 6.1.2 and installing the appropriate guest extension solved it instantly so there's definitely something to it.

Re: [Resolved] Kali: Bidirectional Clipboard Issue

Posted: 4. Mar 2020, 21:47
by panomax
It seems to be the problem of 6.1.4 guest modules. I was running Virtualbox 6.1.2 on Windows host with Manjaro guest updated to 6.1.4-2, and found copy and paste not working. I thought it was due to mismatch between host and guest version. So I upgrade Virtualbox to 6.1.4, and guest modules to 6.1.4-3. The problem still exists.

I have another Manjaro box which still has 6.1.2 version of virtualbox-guest-utils. Running on the same 6.1. 4 host, the copy and paste between guest and host is working fine. That can approve that the cause of this issue is virtualbox-guest-utils.

On that 6.1.4 box that had this issue, after downgrading guest-utils back to 6.1.2, copy and paste work again. So definitely this issue is caused by guest-utils 6.1.4.

Re: [Resolved] Kali: Bidirectional Clipboard Issue

Posted: 20. Mar 2020, 05:25
by clintonm8
I had the same issue as people above.

Here is what I did to fix it:

Code: Select all

apt-get remove -y virtualbox-guest-x11
apt-get remove -y virtualbox-guest-dkms
apt-get remove -y virtualbox-guest-utils
reboot
wget https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/6.1.2/VBoxGuestAdditions_6.1.2.iso
mkdir /media/iso
mount VBoxGuestAdditions_6.1.2.iso /media/iso -o loop
/media/iso/VBoxLinuxAdditions.run 
yes
reboot

Re: [Resolved] Kali: Bidirectional Clipboard Issue

Posted: 24. Mar 2020, 11:16
by Ceos3c
Hey,

I had the same issue. The steps above are not enough, you also need to downgrade the VirtualBox Extension Pack.

I put together a step-by-step tutorial on this. You can find it on my website. I can't post the link, just google Ceos3c and look on the frontpage :)

Re: [Resolved] Kali: Bidirectional Clipboard Issue

Posted: 22. Apr 2020, 02:33
by panomax
Still have this issue with virtualbox-guest-utils 6.1.6-1. Have to downgrade to 6.1.2. Very annoying. Thinking of switching to other virtualization tool.