Upgrading from 6.1.38 to 6.1.40 brings strange window behavior in Windows 10 guest

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linus100
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Joined: 2. Aug 2012, 20:55
Primary OS: Fedora other
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Upgrading from 6.1.38 to 6.1.40 brings strange window behavior in Windows 10 guest

Post by linus100 »

My host system is Fedora 35 KDE spin running a 6.0.9-100 kernel with dual monitors, one 4k and the other 1920x1200.

Running a Windows 10 guest on VirtualBox 6.1.38 runs normally.

Running that same Windows 10 guest on VirtualBox 6.1.40 results in flickering windows (I see this on the 4k display but have not tried it on the smaller one), seeming to warp left and right by several hundred pixels. The mouse pointer appears mainly at the right-hand warp but will appear sporadically at the left-hand warp. If you can manage to catch the edge of a window with the left-hand incarnation of the pointer, you can drag it left or right, but if you release it at where you think the right-hand warp is because you think that is the predominant image, it will immediately warp to the corresponding left-hand warp position.

I'm not saying the warp positions are fixed. Just that for any position of the pointer on the screen, there is a right-hand and left-hand position and the right-hand position is what you see most of the time, but treating a windows as if that is its actual position doesn't jibe with the pointer.

A few weeks ago, I upgraded to the first or second general release of VirtualBox 7 and it also had similar display issues, so reverted to 6.1 almost immediately.

Has anybody else seen this kind of behavior? Or is there a way to fix the issue?

Thanks.
Linus
fth0
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Re: Upgrading from 6.1.38 to 6.1.40 brings strange window behavior in Windows 10 guest

Post by fth0 »

In the VM configuration, please try if setting System > Motherboard > Pointing Device to PS/2 Mouse makes a difference.
incident41
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Joined: 14. May 2012, 18:50
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Re: Upgrading from 6.1.38 to 6.1.40 brings strange window behavior in Windows 10 guest

Post by incident41 »

Interesting - I think I have the same; I posted earlier in October (not here) this report:
Linux OL8 host, Windows10 VM guest, 2 monitors, VBoxSVGA, 3D accel on

6.1.40 with 6.1.38 guest additions starts exhibiting the problem in the form of pointing the cursor to icons shows highlighting of a different place (slightly above and to the left, in general) - but pressing where the cursor IS still does the "right thing", despite highlighting being elsewhere

upgrading additions to 6.1.40 breaks completely the GUI, in that the displacement of pointer and area being selected makes it impossible to press icons on the taskbar

moving to 7.0 still reproduces, both with native additions and going back as far as 6.1.36 additions

disabling 3D accel doesn't make any difference in any of the setups tested

uninstalling 7.0, moving back to 6.1, downgrading to 6.1.38 + 6.1.38 additions brings everything back to normal
and never had an answer - I will give a shot at the VM config suggestion by fth0 and post back later or next week.
incident41
Posts: 58
Joined: 14. May 2012, 18:50
Primary OS: Linux other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows 10 64-bit
Location: Italy

Re: Upgrading from 6.1.38 to 6.1.40 brings strange window behavior in Windows 10 guest

Post by incident41 »

Well, turns out the suggestion works for me - pointer behavior is OK after changing from the "Tablet" mode (presumably a default as I haven't ever changed it) to PS/2 mouse; now VirtualBox 7.0.4 correctly behaves pointer-wise with my Windows 10 VM.

Too bad the upgrade broke 3D acceleration on VBoxSVGA: Powerpoint displays as a blank window, and will only get back to work disabling 3D acceleration (used to do this a while ago with Windows transparency effects turned on in the VM, checked and they're still off since). But that's another bug, so I'll see if/when I get the chance to follow up on that.

In the meantime, thanks fth0 for the valuable tip.
linus100
Posts: 10
Joined: 2. Aug 2012, 20:55
Primary OS: Fedora other
VBox Version: OSE Fedora
Guest OSses: Windows, Linux, Solaris

Re: Upgrading from 6.1.38 to 6.1.40 brings strange window behavior in Windows 10 guest

Post by linus100 »

Sorry for the delay in responding - I had a disk controller failure along with other work pressures.

After upgrading from Fedora 35 to 36, changing to the PS/2 mouse, and installing 7.0.4 vbox, I don't get the bad behavior.

All good, thanks.
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