Where is the machine ?

[AALLeeXX]

Hi,

The machine started (Ubuntu) but the windows is just ... nowhere ! I was expanding it to full screen with cmd+F, then... vanished ! I can see the snapshot in the VB manager but even I try to show it, show all, it does not show up ! It is not in any of my desktops, in none of my screens, where is it ?! How to get it back without having to shutdown (abruptly) the guest ?? It seems to be running somewhere out of a visible area and cannot be moved back in a visible region....

Host iMac, macOS 10.12.1
Guest Ubuntu 16.04
VirtualBox 5.1.8

(

[socratis]

First of all, I don't think that this is a VirtualBox problem, but...

It is not in any of my desktops, in none of my screens

- How many are we talking about? Real monitors and virtual screens/desktops that is.
- Are you using Spaces? Have you enabled Mission Control? Hot corners?

[AALLeeXX]

You might be right - this is also what I was thinking since I installed latest macOS 10.12.1 , but I did nothing else then switching from windowed mode to full screen mode.
Not sure this will help, but I use 3 screens (monitors), one with 3 spaces desktops (the iMac), one with one unique Space desktop (thunderbolt external monitor) and the last one with a single Space too (on iPad with Duet display).
Mission control is enable, hot corners are not.

Curious to know how we can recover of such a strange behaviour - none of the VBox show function could restore this. Are there some logs that can be used even before a proper shutdown ? (in that case I forgo to keep it :/).

[socratis]

Full Screen mode utilizes its own space (these days). Chances are that you're not using the "Show all Spaces" shortcut. This is by default F3 (or Fn-F3). What I usually do in the hot corners is to assign top-left to Mission Control (show all spaces), top-right to Desktop and bottom-right to Desktop, so it's easier with the mouse.

How to recover from this strange behavior? First of all, it's not strange, it's the default, by design. 1) Don't go Full Screen. 2) Show all your Spaces; shortcut or mouse, your choice. 3) Change the active space. Shortcuts and other goodies, in the System Preferences, Mission Control.

Example from another thread (re-using attachments), where all spaces (6) are shown with the VM on its own space (7, top right):

[AALLeeXX]

Well, I know in full screen it creates a dedicated space, and no it was on none of them, I have checked all Spaces and even remove them one by one to force the relayout, in case....
Call it normal if you want but for me it's not. Entering full screen is a feature I'm often playing with and it usually works fine.
Too bad I could not get any useful information from that.

[socratis]

There are two threads that came up today with disappearing/vanishing guests, that both, apparently, continue to run, they just ... disappear as a "window" (technically, they're both Full Screen):

1. Where is the machine ?, by AALLeeXX and
2. guest os disappears from display, by zetro.

Similar symptoms, completely different setup:

•               AALLeeXX        zetro     
  Host:         OSX 10.12.1     Arch ???
  VBox:         5.1.8           ???
  Guest:        Ubuntu 16.04    Windows 7
  Full screen:  Yes             Yes

Here's what I need both AALLeeXX and zetro to do: grab and post a zipped log after the VM has disappeared. I want you to shut down the VM gracefully. Please configure your guests to respond to an ACPI shutdown signal (search for it, they both can handle it). Start the VM, go Full Screen, if "Houdini" shows up, issue the command:

• VBoxManage controlvm "<Your_VM_Name>" acpipowerbutton

As mentioned before, go to the VM in the VirtualBox Manager, right-click on the VM, Show Log, save it, zip it and attach it.

Also, if you could look at the host's logs to see if there's anything out of the ordinary, that might provide us with some clues.


PS. I'm posting this message in both threads. If they have the same case of the Houdini's I'm going to merge the two topics.

[AALLeeXX]

Ok will try this. Too bad I read it only now, when Houdini is already back
I currently cannot shutdown gracefully since I did not configure the ACPI signal. Will do for next time, in case I can get it again.

Some info however. In my case I feel it's related to Duet display - I will also open a ticket there - because it happened when I tried move a window from the duet screen (iPad) to one of the "normal" monitors. Effect was a bit strange: it locked my session and when I unlocked it, the VM space did not show up, and like reported, I cannot make it come back by any mean...
About mac OS logs, it's a bit confusing to me which one you might need, there are a lots and not sure yet where to search. Some hints here too ? :/

NEWS: I found a way to recover ! In the VirtualBox appli, save the VM, quite VB, reopen VB and restart the VM. This at least allows to recover... without damage to the VM.
Now will try to setup the ACPI - need to search indeed...

[AALLeeXX]

More... got it again when invoking the Show All spaces short cut (F3). It halted everything for a while, shutdowned (show all black) the displays then quickly returned to a lock screen prompting the password to open the session. Once the session is reopened, the VB Space is not visible anymore. (This also halted the Duet session).
Saving state and restoring....

I dumped the MacOS log in case it's useful to you. I cannot attach it here (too many restrictive rules on sizes and files extensions....) but here a pastebin url:
https://www.zerobin.net/?140988388d019f ... pCSibOXvA=
Seems the OS got many exceptions, probably a Sierra problem...

[zetro]

I was facing the same problem. I managed to solve it by reinstallation of Guest Additions. But this time I have left the option "D3D Support (Experimental) uncheck.
You can try the same, reinstall guest additions but do not include D3D, I think it is causing the problem.
Regards