Clipboard in headless mode status?

[Suncatcher]

Hi everybody.
I wanna ask the users if the clipboard is working for you in headless, moreoever, to put the question wider, has it ever worked for anybody in headless mode? I searched across the board extensively and found similar problems (1, 2, 3) but as I am not sure they are all related to my issue, I don't want to connect them and lump everything together.
I ask particularly about working of clipboard on Windows host in headless mode. The dysfunction of clipboard is true both for Linux and Windows guests. Clipboard sharing is enabled and GA services (VBoxTray and vboxsf daemon) are started successfully on guests.

My ticket was created long long ago but I see no progress and even any motion on it. The problem persists from the very beginning (as far as I can remember from versions 4.0.3X) and no positive changes I've ever seen.
Am I the only person with the above problem?

[socratis]

found similar problems (1, 2, 3)

• #1 doesn't talk about headless and there was never a follow-up.
• #2 doesn't talk about headless and it was resolved.
• #3 doesn't talk about headless and there was never a follow-up but it was going towards being solved.
• Ticket #14964 doesn't talk about headless (it's the first one referenced in your ticket). You and I had a discussion about this. As I told you in ticket 14964:

  You've been posting comments on everything that has "Clipboard" in the description, and you're linking to your bug report (#15986). This bug here is NOT about a headless operation, so you cannot "confirm or deny" the bug. It simply does not apply; it's not the same bug.

to put the question wider, has it ever worked for anybody in headless mode?

This I guess is the gist of your question/ticket.
• Where do you copy from?
• Where do you paste to?
I'm not getting it, could you explain how you'd think it should work if there is no interface to copy/paste?

To me it seems that you're labeling something as a bug, when it should be "Doesn't apply"/"Invalid"?

[Suncatcher]

To me it seems that you're labeling something as a bug, when it should be "Doesn't apply"/"Invalid"?

I see no ambiguity in my words. Working clipboard for me means that when I copy text on host and can paste it on guest. And vice versa.

• Where do you copy from?
• Where do you paste to?

The answers to the above questions are:

• From guest to host, from host to guest.
• From guest to host, from host to guest.

I.e. in either direction. It doesn't work in either direction.

Moreover following answer can be applied to both questions above:

• From guest to guest, from host to host, i.e. I cannot use clipboard even within VM.

Am I expressing the idea clearly?

[socratis]

Not really. I understand what you want to do clearly. To that there is no ambiguity. The question that is the core one is:

I'm not getting it, could you explain how you'd think it should work if there is no interface to copy/paste?

That's where the "where from/where to" was referring to:
• Where do you paste text to the guest, when there is no interface to paste it to?
• Where do you copy text from the guest, when there is no interface to copy it from?
That's what headless means; no interface. I really hope you're not talking about RDP...

[Suncatcher]

I really hope you're not talking about RDP...

Of course I am talking about VRDP. Otherwise how can we control headless VM?
RDP protocol itself support clipboard, so it's cannot be stated that "there is no interface". The question is how it is implemented in Vbox. Is it a bug (it is implemented in VB, but not working for me) or is it a feature (it is not implemented in VB headless by design)?

[socratis]

OK, and here's how we ended here. A series of mistakes:

1. Your mistakes: Not once in your complaints have you talked about RDP. You don't mention which RDP client, which guest, what settings you have, nothing. A simple "Clipboard does not work in headless".
2. My mistakes: I didn't poke you far enough to get to this point, like asking full details. Mea culpa.

I have two computers at my disposal, and OSX 10.9.5 and a Win7. I run an XP guest on both of them. From my OSX host I connected to both of them using Microsoft's RDP. The clipboard is working perfectly, in all directions.

So, if we now make this "Clipboard in RDP xyz does not work" we can be in symphony. And the question(s) becomes, what's your "RDP xyz" viewer that you're using? Does it support remote clipboard? What are your settings? That's where you should start looking.

The thing is that this does not seem like a VirtualBox bug, because as I said the VirtualBox part is working as it should.

My details:

• Hosts: OSX 10.9.5, Windows 7 SP1
• Guest: Windows XP SP3
• VirtualBox: 5.1.10
• Microsoft RDP: 8.0.35

[Suncatcher]

Your mistakes: Not once in your complaints have you talked about RDP

In the ticket I mentioned RDP several times. And as we talk about Windows host so RDP client can be guessed easily.

So, my details are:
Hosts: Windows 10 Pro 1607, Windows 7 SP1 Ultimate
Guest: Windows 7 SP1 Ultimate, Bodhi Linux (Ubuntu 16.04)
VirtualBox: 5.1.10
Microsoft RDP: 8.0.35

It doesn't work.

[socratis]

In the ticket I mentioned RDP several times.

I can't be following all of your reports. It's way time consuming to follow the trail.

And as we talk about Windows host so RDP client can be guessed easily.

No we can't. Do not assume things that do not mean too much. VirtualBox has an RDP server built-in, so it could be on a Solaris, OSX, or Ubuntu host.

It doesn't work.

Well, it works over here, so it is definitely not VirtualBox, it's the RDP setup that you have. I'm going to go the other way and utilize my Win7 computer. I don't have an RDP viewer, but I'm going to install one and test it, just for kicks.

Now, does copy/paste work on plain (non-VirtualBox) situations? I noticed that you have two hosts. What happens if you use RDP straight on each other? Can you copy/paste between them?

[Suncatcher]

What happens if you use RDP straight on each other? Can you copy/paste between them?

Perfectly can. It works like a charm.
And I see the problem wider than just problem of RDP interoperability of Host and Guest, because in my case clipboard is disabled even on operations inside guest machine, i.e. I cannot copy/paste text from guest to guest.

P. S. From Win7 host it occasionally works. The keyword is "occasionally", I cannot find out the rule and that drives me crazy.

[socratis]

in my case clipboard is disabled even on operations inside guest machine, i.e. I cannot copy/paste text from guest to guest.

Then this definitely rules out VirtualBox's shared clipboard. You should check for Microsoft RDP clipboard problems. From a quick search, there seem to be plenty of them...

[Suncatcher]

Then this definitely rules out VirtualBox's shared clipboard. You should check for Microsoft RDP clipboard problems.

Clipboard in RDP between hosts works perfectly. I see nothing related to RDP clients here.

[socratis]

Let me repeat, with some emphasis added:

this definitely rules out VirtualBox's shared clipboard.

It doesn't come into play. At all.

Again, start looking at your RDP client and/or your setup. Something is not right. I'm not an RDP expert by all means, but I don't see where VirtualBox is involved. And even if it is, I already tested it on my side and it works perfectly on both ways with no problems.

[Suncatcher]

And even if it is, I already tested it on my side and it works perfectly on both ways with no problems.

Ok. And could you please test WIn7 and Ubuntu on your setup, 'cause WInXP is somehow obsolete to put it mildly. I assume cause of the problem may be in (in)compatibility of host with some types of guests.
I can test smth with clipboard with Win-guest, but what can I test with Unix guests where the concept of RDP is absent per se and it is nothing than virtual add-on?

[socratis]

OK, I will try it out (not that I expect any different outcome), but I'd like to see a VBox.log from one of your guests that fails.

Launch the guest, connect with RDP, fail to copy/paste, shut it down, right-click on the VM in VirtualBox Manager, show log, save the 1st one, zip it, attach it.

[socratis]

I tried it with both Windows 7 and Ubuntu 12.04. Copy/paste via RDP works as advertised. Host2guest, guest2host, and guest2guest.