After updating to 1.5 the clipboard sharing (bidirectional) no longer works as it should:
Case 1:
Windows program -> Linux program: works well
Case 2:
Linux program -> Windows program: a mess of Chinese (?) letters got pasted
Case 3:
Linux program -> linux program (!!!): : a mess of Chinese (?) letters got pasted
Host: Kubuntu Feisty with KDE 3.5.6
Guest: Windows XP with latest updates
This is a serious show stopper in my opinion. Does anybody know a work around or a bug fix?
Update to 1.5: Shared Clipboard no longer works as it should
-
kernelOfTruth
- Posts: 15
- Joined: 4. Sep 2007, 23:41
- Location: Vienna, Austria; Germany; hello world :)
confirmed !
I work with gnome so can't tell for other DEs
doesn't work with nautilus, thunar and konqueror
it's a pain being forced to copy each and every file / text to the shared folder, to be able to exchange it with the guest os
nevertheless good work - version 1.5.0 is the first release really working with any os I installed so far
in previous releases installation of windows 2000 wouldn't even complete (german version) and also kept on resetting during install
keep up the good work & please try to fix those issues as fast as possible
I work with gnome so can't tell for other DEs
doesn't work with nautilus, thunar and konqueror
it's a pain being forced to copy each and every file / text to the shared folder, to be able to exchange it with the guest os
nevertheless good work - version 1.5.0 is the first release really working with any os I installed so far
in previous releases installation of windows 2000 wouldn't even complete (german version) and also kept on resetting during install
keep up the good work & please try to fix those issues as fast as possible
Please be sure that you have updated your guest additions to the version supplied with VirtualBox 1.5.
Also, regarding clipboard problems affecting Linux guests and hosts, it would help greatly if you could provide a lot of detail as to how to reproduce them. This includes precisely which applications, systems etc were involved and highly step-by-step instructions.
For example: opened OpenOffice writer in Ubuntu 7.04, opened VirtualBox 1.5, started a Windows XP guest with the 1.5 guest additions installed, opened gedit in Ubuntu, typed into gedit, selected and copied the text and pasted into OpenOffice.
The reason for this is that the clipboard in X11 is a rather fragile construction, which tends to be implemented slightly differently by every application using it, and problems which occur with one combination of applications often do not occur with another.
Also, regarding clipboard problems affecting Linux guests and hosts, it would help greatly if you could provide a lot of detail as to how to reproduce them. This includes precisely which applications, systems etc were involved and highly step-by-step instructions.
For example: opened OpenOffice writer in Ubuntu 7.04, opened VirtualBox 1.5, started a Windows XP guest with the 1.5 guest additions installed, opened gedit in Ubuntu, typed into gedit, selected and copied the text and pasted into OpenOffice.
The reason for this is that the clipboard in X11 is a rather fragile construction, which tends to be implemented slightly differently by every application using it, and problems which occur with one combination of applications often do not occur with another.
The bug exists while guest additions 1.5 are installed.michael wrote:Please be sure that you have updated your guest additions to the version supplied with VirtualBox 1.5.
Open kate in Kubuntu Feisty with KDE 3.5.6, open VirtualBox 1.5, start a Windows XP guest with the 1.5 guest additions installed, type something into the opened kate file, select and copy the text and paste in the very same kate file.michael wrote: Also, regarding clipboard problems affecting Linux guests and hosts, it would help greatly if you could provide a lot of detail as to how to reproduce them. This includes precisely which applications, systems etc were involved and highly step-by-step instructions.
Actually I haven't found a case where the bug did not exist (apart from any windows guest -> linux host copy operation).
Case3
It seems for me, that it is everywhere 
For example to state Case 3 from the original post:
I am using Ubuntu 7.10 as host and Windows XP Home as guest including the current guest addistions.
When I open two documents in "gedit" and copy one part of the text of doc 1 to doc2 I just get this:
ŸŸ
For example to state Case 3 from the original post:
I am using Ubuntu 7.10 as host and Windows XP Home as guest including the current guest addistions.
When I open two documents in "gedit" and copy one part of the text of doc 1 to doc2 I just get this:
ŸŸ
strange things happen here 
I just did almost the same like i did a couple of minutes ago, and now it worked fine for me, but anyway I experienced that "bug" a lot of times before, can't tell you what was the difference between these two attemps.
So virtualbox in running with my Win XP Home, I just copied sth from firefox (in ubuntu) and pasted it to a doc in gedit. that worked for me right now (I belief this was the first time that this "bug" didn't happen
)
I just did almost the same like i did a couple of minutes ago, and now it worked fine for me, but anyway I experienced that "bug" a lot of times before, can't tell you what was the difference between these two attemps.
So virtualbox in running with my Win XP Home, I just copied sth from firefox (in ubuntu) and pasted it to a doc in gedit. that worked for me right now (I belief this was the first time that this "bug" didn't happen
)See ticket 611 for more information on this. For me it is only reproducible when Excel (possibly also other Office applications, haven't tried yet) is running in the Windows guest. I suspect that Office may be trying to manage the clipboard itself and confusing our clipboard manager.
-
kernelOfTruth
- Posts: 15
- Joined: 4. Sep 2007, 23:41
- Location: Vienna, Austria; Germany; hello world :)
ok here are my findings (I don't have time for more testing 
):
Host: desktop environment is gnome 2.18
Base system: Gentoo Hardened x86, 2.6
Guest: Windows XP SP2 with either Comodo Personal firewall enabled or disabled same behavior
0.) open some instances of nautilus, (open also were firefox, konqueror, kpdf and gnome-terminal)
1.) modprobe vboxdrv
2.) start virtualbox (via alt + f2)
3.) start virtualmachine
4.) open a bash-script with gedit
5.) copy content with strg + c
6.) paste in VM in notepad / wordpad ==> works
7.) select some files from nautilus (host) with strg + c
8.) try to drag them into the vm (a previously create folder on the desktop == "test") ==> doesn't work
9.) trying to copy the files via strg + v ==> doesn't work (rightclick -> paste : is grayed out !)
shared folders:
1.) devices -> shared folders
2.) create link to a local folder on the host
3.) open up explorer (my computer)
4.) rightclick on "other places" -> "my network places" -> explore
5.) expand entire network -> pull "virtualbox shared folders" onto desktop
6.) rightclick -> explore (this makes sure file are most times shown, some times they don't)
7.) open link to \\VBOXSVR\virtualbox
8.) copy some files into that shared folders from within the host (e.g. some mp3s, powerpoint files, msoffice files) this was tested with: wordpad, winword, powerpoint, videolan client, cmd
9.) try to open them
10.) Message: "The path of file name for \\VBOXSVR\virtualbox\file is invalid. Please check that the path and file name are correct.
11.) the same happens if that network-drive is "mapped" (a drive-letter assigned)
conclusion:
• loading and unloading vboxdrv might help with copying files within the host
• copying simple things (== text) from host to vm works , the other way around too
• complex objects don't (just saw that this isn't a bug, so I request this as a future feature )
• "simple" / native objects can be opened within the guest os (== .exe and text files); whereas "complex" such as mp3, doc, ppt and others can't
):Host: desktop environment is gnome 2.18
Base system: Gentoo Hardened x86, 2.6
Guest: Windows XP SP2 with either Comodo Personal firewall enabled or disabled same behavior
0.) open some instances of nautilus, (open also were firefox, konqueror, kpdf and gnome-terminal)
1.) modprobe vboxdrv
2.) start virtualbox (via alt + f2)
3.) start virtualmachine
4.) open a bash-script with gedit
5.) copy content with strg + c
6.) paste in VM in notepad / wordpad ==> works
7.) select some files from nautilus (host) with strg + c
8.) try to drag them into the vm (a previously create folder on the desktop == "test") ==> doesn't work
9.) trying to copy the files via strg + v ==> doesn't work (rightclick -> paste : is grayed out !)
shared folders:
1.) devices -> shared folders
2.) create link to a local folder on the host
3.) open up explorer (my computer)
4.) rightclick on "other places" -> "my network places" -> explore
5.) expand entire network -> pull "virtualbox shared folders" onto desktop
6.) rightclick -> explore (this makes sure file are most times shown, some times they don't)
7.) open link to \\VBOXSVR\virtualbox
8.) copy some files into that shared folders from within the host (e.g. some mp3s, powerpoint files, msoffice files) this was tested with: wordpad, winword, powerpoint, videolan client, cmd
9.) try to open them
10.) Message: "The path of file name for \\VBOXSVR\virtualbox\file is invalid. Please check that the path and file name are correct.
11.) the same happens if that network-drive is "mapped" (a drive-letter assigned)
conclusion:
• loading and unloading vboxdrv might help with copying files within the host
• copying simple things (== text) from host to vm works , the other way around too
• complex objects don't (just saw that this isn't a bug, so I request this as a future feature
)• "simple" / native objects can be opened within the guest os (== .exe and text files); whereas "complex" such as mp3, doc, ppt and others can't
Not only Office applications cause the problem. In my case also iTunesHelper.exe caused it. After stopping iTunes from starting in background with every system restart the problem went away. The problem still exists while iTunes itself is running. In some not reproducible cases the problem also stayed after I closed iTunes. Unfortunately I couldn't track down the process that was causing it.michael wrote:See ticket 611 for more information on this. For me it is only reproducible when Excel (possibly also other Office applications, haven't tried yet) is running in the Windows guest. I suspect that Office may be trying to manage the clipboard itself and confusing our clipboard manager.
Workaround
I was having the same problem with kubuntu feisty, kde 3.5.6, virtualbox 1.5.0
As a workaround I decided to disable the MS Office clipboard (by creating a registry key (DWORD) named "AcbControl" in:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Common\General and setting this to a value of 1, see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/207438/EN-US/ ). After that I didn't have any more problems.
As a workaround I decided to disable the MS Office clipboard (by creating a registry key (DWORD) named "AcbControl" in:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Common\General and setting this to a value of 1, see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/207438/EN-US/ ). After that I didn't have any more problems.