I've had this problem for many months now, across two different machines, where the host Slack (windows 10) will temporarily hang when I am using an Ubuntu guest (both 18lts and 20lts). Generally takes about 30s to resolve itself but take that number w/ a large grain of salt. Doesn't always hang, but pretty regularly.
It's due in some part to mouse and/or clipboard integration because if I turn off mouse integration (so I have to click to leave) or if I disable clipboard (usually set to bidirectional) in the Guest settings, then Slack does not hang.
I've had the hang in Chrome as well in past, but not sure I've seen it recently.
Is there an open ticket on this, or some solution other than the mildly annoying work-arounds above?
Thanks...
--cg
Slack on Windows 10 host hangs w/ Ubuntu guest
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henrikj242
- Posts: 12
- Joined: 15. Jun 2012, 10:53
Re: Slack on Windows 10 host hangs w/ Ubuntu guest
I'm having the same issue (Host: Windows 10; Guest: Ubuntu 20.10)
Disabling the mouse and/or clipboard integration did not work for me, but it appears to work fine if I just launch Slack *before* starting the VM.
UPDATE: Launching Slack before starting the VM worked for a while - but after some time the issue was back. Not sure if it's related to the host machine going into "sleeping" mode, but in any case it doesn't seem like a stable workaround.
For now I'll be using the guest OS in headless mode.
Disabling the mouse and/or clipboard integration did not work for me, but it appears to work fine if I just launch Slack *before* starting the VM.
UPDATE: Launching Slack before starting the VM worked for a while - but after some time the issue was back. Not sure if it's related to the host machine going into "sleeping" mode, but in any case it doesn't seem like a stable workaround.
For now I'll be using the guest OS in headless mode.
Re: Slack on Windows 10 host hangs w/ Ubuntu guest
Having this issue as well. Think it started when I upgraded to the latest version (think I was using 6.1.10 before, on 6.1.18 currently).
I've managed to narrow this down to the clipboard - specifically the act of copying something into the clipboard on the virtual machine and then focusing the Slack window. This causes the freeze. If you then copy something into the clipboard on the host machine (after Slack is done being frozen, seems like that state keeps the clipboard occupied) and focus the Slack window, it will work with no problems.
It's possible to freeze the browser-based Slack client as well using this method, though you actually need to hit CTRL+V in order to trigger it, just focusing the window is not enough. Other programs seem to be affected by this problem in various ways, pasting into VSCode or even Notepad appears to make the programs freeze (at least for me).
So for a temporary workaround, make sure to copy some text on the host machine into your clipboard before using Slack.
I've managed to narrow this down to the clipboard - specifically the act of copying something into the clipboard on the virtual machine and then focusing the Slack window. This causes the freeze. If you then copy something into the clipboard on the host machine (after Slack is done being frozen, seems like that state keeps the clipboard occupied) and focus the Slack window, it will work with no problems.
It's possible to freeze the browser-based Slack client as well using this method, though you actually need to hit CTRL+V in order to trigger it, just focusing the window is not enough. Other programs seem to be affected by this problem in various ways, pasting into VSCode or even Notepad appears to make the programs freeze (at least for me).
So for a temporary workaround, make sure to copy some text on the host machine into your clipboard before using Slack.
Re: Slack on Windows 10 host hangs w/ Ubuntu guest
YES! Thank you for this post. I have been having this exact issue for ages! It drives me crazy.
Same situation, Windows 10 host with Ubuntu 20lts guest. Slack is consistently hanging and is mostly unusable until I stop the VM. I have noticed minor weirdness with other apps(electron-based I think) but only get the complete freezing in Slack. I have been grabbing the latest guest additions and virtualbox in the hopes it would fix the issue multiple times over the past 6 months or so.
I was using the bidirectional copy-paste setting. Changing it to host -> guest seems to have fixed the issue with slack hanging, though I haven't been testing it for long. Thank you so much for this workaround! This has been a thorn in my side for so long. I'll post again if I find that this didn't fix the issue.
Same situation, Windows 10 host with Ubuntu 20lts guest. Slack is consistently hanging and is mostly unusable until I stop the VM. I have noticed minor weirdness with other apps(electron-based I think) but only get the complete freezing in Slack. I have been grabbing the latest guest additions and virtualbox in the hopes it would fix the issue multiple times over the past 6 months or so.
I was using the bidirectional copy-paste setting. Changing it to host -> guest seems to have fixed the issue with slack hanging, though I haven't been testing it for long. Thank you so much for this workaround! This has been a thorn in my side for so long. I'll post again if I find that this didn't fix the issue.