Modifier Keys getting dropped every 10 seconds

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Linux hosts.
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billyboy999
Posts: 6
Joined: 23. May 2016, 22:42

Modifier Keys getting dropped every 10 seconds

Post by billyboy999 »

I am running a RHEL5 guest on a Ubuntu host. Approximately every 10 seconds, modifier keys such as shift, ctrl, and alt are dropped. For example, if I were holding down shift and pressing the left arrow key to select some text, after a few seconds, it will be as if I released shift (even though it is still being pressed physically).

Non modifier keys are affected too, but not as badly. For example if I hold an arrow key, every 10 seconds there will be a small pause (0.5 second or so), but afterwards it will start going again.

Does anyone have any tools or tips on how to debug this? It makes working really annoying because I can't trust my modifier keys anymore. This problem does not happen in the host OS. Only in the guest OS.
Perryg
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Re: Modifier Keys getting dropped every 10 seconds

Post by Perryg »

Post the guests log file ( as an attachment ). Right click on the guest in the Main Manager then click show log. Save and post as an attachment. Compress if it is too large to post.
billyboy999
Posts: 6
Joined: 23. May 2016, 22:42

Re: Modifier Keys getting dropped every 10 seconds

Post by billyboy999 »

Here's the latest log file.
Attachments
RHEL5 64-bit desktop-2016-05-24-17-31-08.log
VM log file
(107.86 KiB) Downloaded 8 times
Perryg
Site Moderator
Posts: 34369
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VBox Version: OSE self-compiled
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Re: Modifier Keys getting dropped every 10 seconds

Post by Perryg »

4.3.10 is really outdated. Consider upgrading to a newer version to get all the fixes.

Code: Select all

VirtualBox VM 4.3.10 r93012 linux.amd64 (Mar 26 2014 20:12:06) release log
While you are not beyond the memory as long as the host is not used for anything else I would suggest lowering it some.

Code: Select all

00:00:00.099467 Host RAM: 15939MB total, 15376MB available
00:00:00.189449   RamSize         <integer> = 0x000000036b000000 (14 680 064 000, 13 GB)
Allocating all of the cores can actually cause this and many other issues. Drop it by one and see if it helps.

Code: Select all

00:00:00.189446   NumCPUs         <integer> = 0x0000000000000004 (4)
00:00:00.358446 Physical host cores: 4
189:18:07.289905 Display::handleDisplayResize(): uScreenId = 0, pvVRAM=00007f7aa4000000 w=2495 h=1394 bpp=32 cbLine=0x26FC, flags=0x1

Approx 8 days up time. What happens right after a reboot? does it still behave the same every 10 seconds?
billyboy999
Posts: 6
Joined: 23. May 2016, 22:42

Re: Modifier Keys getting dropped every 10 seconds

Post by billyboy999 »

The version of virtualbox is controlled by IT so that might be difficult to upgrade. Some of my coworkers are on even older versions...

I also forgot to mention, if I log in to the guest using a remote desktop thing like nomachine, the problem doesn't happen. It only seems to happen when I'm using the keyboard and display physically hooked up to the host. (I don't have the host configured for nomachine)

Otherwise, I made all the other suggested changes. Lowered memory to 12.5GB, made it use 3 cores, and rebooted it. The problem seems to be fixed. I will play around with memory and cores to see if they were the culprit.
michaln
Oracle Corporation
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Re: Modifier Keys getting dropped every 10 seconds

Post by michaln »

billyboy999 wrote:The version of virtualbox is controlled by IT so that might be difficult to upgrade.
Why are you even asking for help then? If there was some bug fix, it would be delivered in a newer version that you couldn't install. If "IT" controls your VirtualBox installation, you need to get them to help...

(Yes, I see that reconfiguring the VM seems to have helped.)
billyboy999
Posts: 6
Joined: 23. May 2016, 22:42

Re: Modifier Keys getting dropped every 10 seconds

Post by billyboy999 »

Well, the problem is back after at most 21 hours of uptime. I will try to upgrade the VirtualBox version to see if that helps. Will report back...
billyboy999
Posts: 6
Joined: 23. May 2016, 22:42

Re: Modifier Keys getting dropped every 10 seconds

Post by billyboy999 »

I upgraded to version 5.0.20, problem is still occurring. Somewhere between 4 hours to 21 hours of uptime it starts happening (however uptime may be irrelevant if you read below). There aren't any weird looking processes currently running that weren't running when I first rebooted.

Furthermore, I discovered that switching out of fullscreen mode seems to make it go away for a while. I'm not sure if I just need to pop in and out of fullscreen, or if I need to also interact with the host OS in some way. Also not sure on the timing of when the problem will come back. If the fix is to toggle fullscreen every few hours, I can probably live with that, but it's still really weird.
billyboy999
Posts: 6
Joined: 23. May 2016, 22:42

Re: Modifier Keys getting dropped every 10 seconds

Post by billyboy999 »

Sorry for the consecutive posts, but I think I figured out the cause. I usually have the VM in fullscreen mode all the time. When I leave my computer, after 10 min, both the host and guest are configured to lock. However, when I come back, only the guest seems to be locked (I enter password, continue to use guest OS). The host hasn't actually locked. This is when the problem starts happening. After this, if I switch out of fullscreen, the host seems to realize it needs to lock and goes to lock screen in a split second.

So in summary, the problem is that VirtualBox in fullscreen seems to prevent the host OS from locking. But the host OS "wants" to lock, if that makes sense. When VirtualBox releases focus, the host OS will immediately lock. In the meantime though, modifier keys are lost every 10 seconds.

This isn't a big deal, I just need to remember to unlock the host OS too when unlocking the guest (Ubuntu is the host). I tried searching for this problem and there are a few mentions, but I couldn't find any solutions that would allow the host to lock as well.
michaln
Oracle Corporation
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Re: Modifier Keys getting dropped every 10 seconds

Post by michaln »

If you are reasonably confident that you identified a reproducible scenario (sounds like you have), the best thing is to open a ticket on the public bug tracker: https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Bugtracker
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