Clipboard sharing

[tinkster]

Hi,

What do I need to do to make clipboard sharing on a Ubuntu 18.04 with a Windows 10 guest work?

Host installed using the instructions on the official downloads page

This is what's installed

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aptitude show virtualbox-6.1
Package: virtualbox-6.1                  
Version: 6.1.0-135406~Ubuntu~bionic
New: yes
State: installed
Automatically installed: no
Priority: optional
Section: contrib
Maintainer: Oracle Corporation
Architecture: amd64
Uncompressed Size: 216 M

On the guest I have done "Devices -> Insert guest additions CD image ..." and run the windows installer as Administrator.

Also under "Devices -> shared Clipboard -> bidirectional"

But clipboard sharing isn't working, in neither direction.

Post here on the forums suggest

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VBoxClient --clipboard

should remedy this - alas, there's no such executable.

[scottgus1]

What kind of data are you attempting to pass via the clipboard? Historically, clipboard sharing was text only, possibly picture data cut/pasted from an image program. Virtualbox 6.1.0 was supposed to have introduced file sharing through the clipboard, but that got turned off in the official release, with no other info why. Perhaps it will come soon.

[tinkster]

What kind of data are you attempting to pass via the clipboard?

Plain text, log file snippets, mainly ... looking at getting stuff from a Linux terminal into Windows Notepad ...


Not fussed about "file sharing", there's a) no real need and b) I can work around that using a shared folder or a shared network drive.

[scottgus1]

Please zip and post a guest vbox.log, using the forum's Upload Attachment tab.

[tinkster]

Please zip and post a guest vbox.log, using the forum's Upload Attachment tab.

Sorry for the delayed response ... here it comes.

[scottgus1]

Thanks for posting the log, but it's not complete.

Try again, this time please try a clipboard text transfer of a short sentence from Text Editor on host to Notepad on guest, then from Notepad on guest to Text Editor on host.

Then shut down the guest using Windows 10's Shut Down Button, then zip and post the log.

Also, please tell how many seconds after the guest is started that you try the clipboard transfer.

[tinkster]

Thanks for posting the log, but it's not complete.

Try again, this time please try a clipboard text transfer of a short sentence from Text Editor on host to Notepad on guest, then from Notepad on guest to Text Editor on host.

Then shut down the guest using Windows 10's Shut Down Button, then zip and post the log.

Also, please tell how many seconds after the guest is started that you try the clipboard transfer.

Back at work today, here you go, did as you said (tried to copy both ways):

attempt to copy & paste roughly at an uptime of 2:30 minutes.

[WarrenBafer]

I confirm issue with clipboard. Parrot OS, kernel 5.4, VirtualBox 6.1.0-dfsg-3, installed virtualbox virtualbox-ext-pack virtualbox-guest-x11

Host>VM Debian 10 copy-paste does not work
VM Debian-Host copy-paste works

issue happened after update to new kernel and VB upgrade

[tinkster]

Update ... for shits & giggles I downgraded virtualbox to 5.2.8 and I still have no clipboard sharing going

[WarrenBafer]

Also tried downgrade to old kernels, downgraded to old Vbox, clipboard still not working on Debian 10. Pls do something with this crap

[scottgus1]

Pls do something with this crap

We aren't the developers, just fellow users. We can't fix anything, only try to show what may be configured wrong.

Tinkster, thanks for the log! I've been sick this week, forgot about this thread. Your log contains something interesting and pertinent:

00:00:57.762974 Shared Clipboard: X11 DISPLAY variable not set -- disabling clipboard sharing

A Google on:

Shared Clipboard: X11 DISPLAY site:forums.virtualbox.org

showed this post: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=69545

Clipboard does currently not work for "separate" VMs, for the exact reason which was posted above (no X11 display passed to the process). ATM I cannot estimate the effort to fix this.

A "separate" VM, as frank mentions, is a guest running headless or detachable. From your log:

00:00:00.014189 Executable: /usr/lib/virtualbox/VBoxHeadless

You're running the guest headless, hence no shared clipboard.

WarrenBafer, I look back through the post and see that Tinkster made a quite commendable effort to post a guest log that contained a shared-clipboard-attempt. You cannot yet be likewise commended. Maybe you could get your crap moving and do the same?

[tinkster]

Pls do something with this crap

We aren't the developers, just fellow users. We can't fix anything, only try to show what may be configured wrong.

Tinkster, thanks for the log! I've been sick this week, forgot about this thread. Your log contains something interesting and pertinent:

00:00:57.762974 Shared Clipboard: X11 DISPLAY variable not set -- disabling clipboard sharing

A Google on:

Shared Clipboard: X11 DISPLAY site:forums.virtualbox.org

showed this post: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=69545

Clipboard does currently not work for "separate" VMs, for the exact reason which was posted above (no X11 display passed to the process). ATM I cannot estimate the effort to fix this.

A "separate" VM, as frank mentions, is a guest running headless or detachable. From your log:

00:00:00.014189 Executable: /usr/lib/virtualbox/VBoxHeadless

You're running the guest headless, hence no shared clipboard.

WarrenBafer, I look back through the post and see that Tinkster made a quite commendable effort to post a guest log that contained a shared-clipboard-attempt. You cannot yet be likewise commended. Maybe you could get your crap moving and do the same?

Well ... I'm not running Windows headless ... but "detachable" must be doing this under the hood. Thanks for the time taken, and
glad to see you back; hope you have fully recovered!

And I can confirm that picking "normal start" instead of "detachable" has resolved this issue. Again - thank you SOOOO much!


Cheers

[scottgus1]

Glad your clipboard is shared again! Almost over the sickness, thanks, gotta clear off the barking cough, then I should be good.

Detachable and Headless are both handled by the 'headless' executable. In this case, the guest window runs as a different Virtualbox process ('detachable') or can be remoted into with VRDP, or both.

[Gutchi]

Hello since i have upgraded to VirtualBox 6.1.4 r136177, i haven't any shared clipboard between my host (Linux Debian buster) and the Guest (also a Debian). It worked just before the upgrade and the option is still enabled.
In the VM i can see the Clipboard option is enabled

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00:00:00.520369 Shared Clipboard: Service loaded
00:00:00.520376 Shared Clipboard: Mode: Bidirectional
00:00:00.520404 Shared Clipboard: Service running in normal mode
00:00:00.588523 Shared Folders service loaded
00:00:00.627808 SharedFolders host service: Adding host mapping
00:00:07.423977 HGCM: Restoring [VBoxSharedFolders]
00:00:07.424123 HGCM: Restoring [VBoxSharedClipboard]

[scottgus1]

@Gutchi, tinkster's problem has been fixed. Do not hijack other threads, create your own. Choose your title carefully.

And notice what tinkster did to get help. Do the same in your New Topic.