Missing window manager frame on VirtualBox 2.0.4

Wild penguin · Post by **Wild penguin** » 24. Dec 2008, 13:03

I'm running MS windoz guests under Gentoo Linux with Xfce window manager

VirtualBox version 1.6.6 had a regular windows manager frame, just like other applications, so i could move all windows around

Due to problems with networked drives i uninstalled 1.6.6 and installed 2.0.4. I did not ask VirtualBox to remove window manager frames.

However, when starting emulated OS in non-fullscreen, the new window has no standard frame (drawn by Xfce4 window manager) around, it sticks to the upper-left corner of my desktop, and i don't know how to move it to another place.

Is there a configuration item relating to interaction between VirtualBox and X window manager?

Does VirtualBox 2.0.6 or whatever recent version respect window manager?

Post by **stephanecharette** » 24. Dec 2008, 14:00

Can you take a screenshot so we can better understand?

Stéphane Charette

Post by **Sasquatch** » 24. Dec 2008, 21:51

It sounds like your window manger isn't started completely. Open a terminal, or hit Alt+F2 to get a run program window, and type xfwm4 to start the window manager with it's borders. If you do it from a terminal, you might get more debugging info. Leave the terminal running to keep the titlebars etc.

Wild penguin · Post by **Wild penguin** » 25. Dec 2008, 11:44

stephanecharette wrote:Can you take a screenshot so we can better understand?

Stéphane Charette

guest os inside xfce window frame

guest os in upper-level corner, without frame, unmovable

Wild penguin · Post by **Wild penguin** » 25. Dec 2008, 12:21

Sasquatch wrote:It sounds like your window manger isn't started completely. Open a terminal, or hit Alt+F2 to get a run program window, and type xfwm4 to start the window manager with it's borders. If you do it from a terminal, you might get more debugging info. Leave the terminal running to keep the titlebars etc.

did it but saw no diagnostic except "another window manager running"

and i strongly suspect that another WM was xfwm4 itself

Do you mean to say that you or someone else see the standard frame around windowed guest with virtualbox 2.0.4 and xfce?

Post by **Sasquatch** » 26. Dec 2008, 14:29

Wild penguin wrote:
Sasquatch wrote:It sounds like your window manger isn't started completely. Open a terminal, or hit Alt+F2 to get a run program window, and type xfwm4 to start the window manager with it's borders. If you do it from a terminal, you might get more debugging info. Leave the terminal running to keep the titlebars etc.
did it but saw no diagnostic except "another window manager running"

and i strongly suspect that another WM was xfwm4 itself

Do you mean to say that you or someone else see the standard frame around windowed guest with virtualbox 2.0.4 and xfce?

Yes, I see it when windowed and when maximized. There is another thread about this, I will lock that one so we can continue here, as it seems to have more info (thanks to the pic). The other thread is http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=12168

Wild penguin · Post by **Wild penguin** » 26. Dec 2008, 15:09

Sasquatch wrote: Yes, I see it when windowed and when maximized.

i guess "maximized" corresponds to "maximize window" window manager command. And how do i get it "windowed"?

Post by **Sasquatch** » 26. Dec 2008, 15:11

Wild penguin wrote:
Sasquatch wrote: Yes, I see it when windowed and when maximized.
i guess "maximized" corresponds to "maximize window" window manager command. And how do i get it "windowed"?

Windowed is the oposite of maximized, meaning it doesn't fill the whole screen, but you can resize it to a desired size. See the terminal window in the picture as an example. The VB GUI (that lists the VMs) is also windowed.

Some say that Windowed is the oposite of fullscreen. That is also true.

Setya · Post by **Setya** » 26. Dec 2008, 16:42

Hi,

I'm the original poster of the other thread, here's is my the screenshot:

Regards,

Setya

djswartz · Post by **djswartz** » 2. Feb 2009, 19:07

I am also experiencing the same problem. I just upgraded my VirtualBox to version 2.1 and have no window frame in xubuntu.

Here is a screen shot:

Any one find a fix to this yet?

Post by **Sasquatch** » 2. Feb 2009, 20:53

Try killing your Window manager and start it again. Another thing that is possible, is that the window manager thinks the window is in fullscreen. I use the beta of 4.6 and I can set a window on full screen from the window context menu.

watagan · Post by **watagan** » 3. Feb 2009, 10:51

I have the same problem as djswartz. Can't post a screen dump as away from my openSUSE box at the moment, but it would be no different to the above screenshot.

The missing borders problem occurs when switching from seamless to windowed.

Config: VB 2.1.2, openSUSE 10.3, kde4.2 with desktop effects enabled, XP SP2 VM, nvidia.

VB 1.5.4 works perfectly. 2.1.x is better at seamless than any version since 1.5.4 but the above issue remains.

Thanks in advance.

djswartz · Post by **djswartz** » 7. Feb 2009, 13:03

I fixed it!

The problem is not that there is no window frame, but it is just off of the screen.

I clicked the bottom of the window and held ctrl+shift+alt+arrow keys, and I was able to move my window down. It is kind of a pain because you have to click the window in just the right spot to get it to move.

Post by **Sasquatch** » 7. Feb 2009, 20:21

djswartz wrote:I fixed it!

The problem is not that there is no window frame, but it is just off of the screen.

I clicked the bottom of the window and held ctrl+shift+alt+arrow keys, and I was able to move my window down. It is kind of a pain because you have to click the window in just the right spot to get it to move.

You can also disable the keyboard capture (hit the Host key once) and move the window with the modifier key you set in the Window Manager Tweaks. Hold that key, click on the Statusbar and drag it. I have my key set for 'super', but I think it's Alt by default.

erik777 · Post by **erik777** » 26. Jul 2009, 21:47

I don't see how this is simply a problem of the window not being completely on the screen. For one, when a window happens to open in the middle instead of top-left, it is missing the window border and cannot be dragged anywhere.
Windows cannot be resized. If it was just slightly off-screen, you could still resize it via its bottom right corner. I had to move the top panel to the bottom to stop application menus from overlapping the top panel. When you fullscreen (f11) Firefox it takes the same amount of space, only about 1/3 the desktop when the VBox is maximized, suggesting it doesn't know the current screen size.

In the screenshot, I opened the Networking dialog while the VBox window was maximized. It centers. I then restored the VBox window, opened Firefox, and put it in (F11) full screen mode. Nothing is dragable or sizable. The Minimize on Firefox's full screen doesn't even work. This is not an off-the-screen issue. It might have been for one guy, but not for the rest of us.

This is VBox 3.0.2. Since installing Centos 5 yesterday, I haven't had any problems with it, yet. Only Ubuntu has this and other issues (runaway CPU; mouse coordinates quit working - had to restore snapshot to undo this problem.)

ubuntu-8.10-desktop-i386.iso

Missing window manager frame on VirtualBox 2.0.4

Missing window manager frame on VirtualBox 2.0.4

Re: Missing window manager frame on VirtualBox 2.0.4