Mouse bug in debian

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Linux hosts.
Dau
Posts: 1
Joined: 8. Jun 2022, 23:46

Mouse bug in debian

Post by Dau »

The problem it presents is that when I start virtual box 6.1 with windows 10 in debian 11 (host), when working on windows 10 a few minutes later the mouse pointer stops working in windows and in debian at the same time and I have to restart virtualbox to get it working again. :shock:
gusnan
Posts: 26
Joined: 24. Feb 2014, 13:32

Re: Mouse bug in debian

Post by gusnan »

What desktop environment are you using on Debian? My host is on Xfce (on X, not wayland) and see similar problems (also on Debian 11 host, and seemingly independent on what guest OS), this kind of problems has been reported here several times. Asking what DE, since it could help the developers to finding the core of the problem.

It has also been reported in the virtualbox bug tracker, but there one bug regarding this seems to have very little activity for something like a year.

https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/20386

In addition to what is said there, I can give the additional information that not only doesn't mouse clicks work, also it doesn't change the mouse pointer depending on what you move it above. In normal cases the mouse pointer changes to a different style arrows when moved over the window edges, but this it doesn't do for me when locking up.

As a minor workaround I have made scripts to close and savestate for my most used VMs, which kinda helps to some extent.
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: Mouse bug in debian

Post by mpack »

Make sure that you don't have any USB filters configured. In particular the mouse is intended to be shared with the host and VirtualBox doesn't need help with that, so you should NOT assign mouse or keyboard ownership to the VM.
markd89
Posts: 34
Joined: 4. Sep 2016, 22:54

Re: Mouse bug in debian

Post by markd89 »

I'm seeing this also, Host is Mate desktop under Debian 11.

It's weird how the mouse clicks are lost in the host.

This was happening to me rarely -- every few months, but happened a couple of days ago and again today so I came to the forum. I'll take the advice of the earlier poster and make a script to suspend my VMs as a workaround.
gusnan
Posts: 26
Joined: 24. Feb 2014, 13:32

Re: Mouse bug in debian

Post by gusnan »

markd89 wrote:I'm seeing this also, Host is Mate desktop under Debian 11.
Thanks - can we start to nail down what we have in common to help the developers? I'm on X on the host (and also on the guest) when I see the problem, any of you on wayland, or is it X-specific?
markd89
Posts: 34
Joined: 4. Sep 2016, 22:54

Re: Mouse bug in debian

Post by markd89 »

I'm using x.org, not Wayland.
fth0
Volunteer
Posts: 5668
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Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Linux, Windows 10, ...
Location: Germany

Re: Mouse bug in debian

Post by fth0 »

gusnan wrote:Thanks - can we start to nail down what we have in common to help the developers?
That's a good idea, since the developers couldn't reproduce the issue (according to 20386#comment:1). BTW, can any of you reproduce the issue at will, like it's described in the ticket?

@markd89: You posted the wrong link in 20386#comment:3 ;)
markd89
Posts: 34
Joined: 4. Sep 2016, 22:54

Re: Mouse bug in debian

Post by markd89 »

Thanks, fixed link in the ticket.
gusnan
Posts: 26
Joined: 24. Feb 2014, 13:32

Re: Mouse bug in debian

Post by gusnan »

fth0 wrote:BTW, can any of you reproduce the issue at will, like it's described in the ticket?
I cannot, but I run into the problem every now and then (It does seem to have been a bit lower frequency lately though, it is a while ago I ran into it).

Another point of data - I am running using a on Nvidia graphics card, this might be interesting for the developers too. (I have forgot to mention this previously).
markd89
Posts: 34
Joined: 4. Sep 2016, 22:54

Re: Mouse bug in debian

Post by markd89 »

My laptop has an Nvidia card but I have that disabled and am using the Intel graphics.
fth0
Volunteer
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Re: Mouse bug in debian

Post by fth0 »

I'd rather suspect a mouse button event getting lost, so I'd focus on the last mouse button event before the issue. Consider if you did something different at the last working mouse button event, like clicking faster than usual or clicking somewhere you don't click often or something else like that.

Perhaps a VBox.log file could be of interest, because the VirtualBox developers added some log messages for focus in and out events, but that's just a guess.
gusnan
Posts: 26
Joined: 24. Feb 2014, 13:32

Re: Mouse bug in debian

Post by gusnan »

I actually haven't seen the problem after the Debian 11.4 update which updates the kernel from 5.10.120-1 to 5.10.127-1.
If some wants the changelog it's here:

https://metadata.ftp-master.debian.org/ ... _changelog

I'll post here if I run into the problem again.
gusnan
Posts: 26
Joined: 24. Feb 2014, 13:32

Re: Mouse bug in debian

Post by gusnan »

Does anyone else see it on an updated Debian 11.4, or is it fixed with the Linux upgrade like mentioned in my post just above?
fth0
Volunteer
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Re: Mouse bug in debian

Post by fth0 »

https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel ... g-5.10.127
- random: schedule mix_interrupt_randomness() less often
FWIW, this change perhaps reduced the frequency of the occurrence of the VirtualBox bug.
gusnan
Posts: 26
Joined: 24. Feb 2014, 13:32

Re: Mouse bug in debian

Post by gusnan »

gusnan wrote:Does anyone else see it on an updated Debian 11.4, or is it fixed with the Linux upgrade like mentioned in my post just above?
Now I did run into it myself again,so the 11.4 Debian update of the Linux package didn't fix it. To me it seems to be way longer between times now though.

I have Slack and Steam running at the time when running into this problem, I thought it might be good to mention (If I remember correctly I pretty much always have those running when running into the problem).

Another point of data is that I only need to do a savesate on the VM to fix the problem, I don't need to shut down virtualbox completely.
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