Shared Clipboard/Drag & Drop

[loukingjr]

First off, LTNS

Installed Linux Mint XFCE 21.1 as a Guest in VirtualBox 7.0.8 on an IMac 2015 running Monterey 12.6.6. The install went fine, the guest additions installed fine. The problem is despite being set to bidirectional, the shared clipboard and drag & drop only work from host to guest.

Any thoughts?
TIA
edit: oops the shared clipboard does work in both directions. Sorry

[loukingjr]

Interesting. 90 views and no insights forthcoming.

[scottgus1]

Hey there, Lou! Please post a log from the VM showing the failure happening, let's see what we can do.

[loukingjr]

Hey Scott

It's been so long since I've used VirtualBox I've forgotten how. lol I guess i can look it up.

I should add, I can drag images from the host to the guest.

[scottgus1]

A little rusty, eh? I get like that looking at my old VBscripts: "I know I wrote this! Why can't I figure out what it's doing?!"

Here's my copypasta on getting a log:

Start the VM from full normal shutdown, not save-state. Run until you see the problem happen, then shut down the VM from within the VM's OS if possible. If not possible, close the Virtualbox window for the VM with the Power Off option set.

Right-click the VM in the main Virtualbox window's VM list, choose Show in Explorer/Finder/File Manager. In the "Logs" subfolder, zip the VM's "vbox.log", and post the zip file, using the forum's Upload Attachment tab. (Configure your host OS to show all extensions so you can find the "vbox.log", not "vbox.log.1", etc.)

[loukingjr]

Don't know if this helps. Thought I'd see before getting too far into the issue.

Drag and drop operation from guest to host failed.

DnD: Error: Requesting pending data from guest failed (VERR_TIMEOUT).

Result Code:VBOX_E_DND_ERROR (0X80BB0011)
Component:GuestDnDSourceWrap
Interface:IGuestDnDSource {dedfb5d9-4c1b-edf7-fdf3-c1be6827dc28}
Callee:IDnDSource {d23a9ca3-42da-c94b-8aec-21968e08355d}

[scottgus1]

Reading back through, it looks like the only problem you're having is DnD from guest to host. DnD from host to guest and full shared clipboard work. OK, I suspect a log might be superfluous, since DnD is working at least one way. (However, those that know tons more than me might still glean something from it.)

I begin to think this might be an Apple permissions problem, maybe? Linux lets you drop something in, Mac won't. The VERR_TIMEOUT error shows Virtualbox tried the DnD but never could complete it.

Maybe there's some master permissions page that can show what the Mac OS blocks and why? The VboxSVC.log (see /Users/username/Library/VirtualBox ) may also show what got in the way.

[loukingjr]

Thanks. I looked at the permissions to drag something to the Mac Desktop which looked okay. I didn't mention it but I also have VMWare Fusion 13 installed using the same guest and have no DnD issue so who knows.

[scottgus1]

OK, I guess if VMware can do it then Apple's OK with the concept, or there's indiviual permissions VMware vs Virtualbox.

I haven't diagnosed too many DnD issues, aside from whether Guest Additions have been installed. Haven't used DND much either, I use old school Shared Folders instead. Going to have to declare this one beyond me.

[fth0]

Coming out of hiding from behind the bush where I overheard the veterans.

I don't have much experience with DnD either, but I can give some information that could be of use:

1. The VirtualBox DnD implementation has some longstanding issues (one is even known for at least 7 years). The priority of DnD issues seems to be not very high so far, but:

2. In VirtualBox 7.0, several new log messages (yours is one of them) have been added to the DnD implementation, so there is a chance that somebody would be interested in logs.

3. Many of the new log messages aren't automatically written. I'd suggest to try the following method to start the VM from within a terminal:

Code: Select all

export VBOX_RELEASE_LOG_FLAGS+=" thread flag group"
export VBOX_RELEASE_LOG+="+GUEST_DND.e.l.l2.l3.f"
VirtualBoxVM --startvm "VM" &

Inside the Linux Mint guest OS, use the following commands to enhance the logging of the guest-side DnD component, then reproduce the issue:

Code: Select all

sudo pkill -fx "/usr/bin/VBoxClient --draganddrop"
VBOX_RELEASE_LOG_DEST="file=/tmp/dnd.log" VBOX_RELEASE_LOG_FLAGS="time tid thread" VBOX_RELEASE_LOG="all.e.l.l2.l3.f" VBoxClient -d --draganddrop

I haven't tried this exact procedure so far, so perhaps you'll have to tweak the commands a bit. Please let me know if you have any questions.

[loukingjr]

First, I'd like to thank you for your response and your insight. However, spending much effort to nail down the problem is more effort than I care to expend. I just posted to make the powers that be aware of the issue.

[fth0]

Thank you for the kind words!

We're like-minded in that I too think that it's not worth the effort. But I would have made an exception for you, of course.

PS: English language question: "I too think" or "me too thinks" or better "I also think"?

[granada29]

PS: English language question: "I too think" or "me too thinks" or better "I also think"?

"I too think" - very formal English, but absolutely correct.
"me too thinks" - nah. Incorrect
"I also think" - colloquial English.

[scottgus1]

I also think that "I also think" is the best English in that usage.

[fth0]

Thanks guys for the feedback!

In my mind "I also think" sounded like an additional thought instead of a like-minded thought, that's what made me unsure about it. But I see now that both meanings can be read from it.