Virtalbox: Can't paste an image to winxp guest

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Linux hosts.
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briwood
Posts: 1
Joined: 1. Aug 2009, 19:48
Primary OS: Ubuntu 8.04
VBox Version: OSE Debian
Guest OSses: Windows XP

Virtalbox: Can't paste an image to winxp guest

Post by briwood »

My HostOS is ubuntu 8.04. My guestOS is Windows XP. I have vbox guest additions installed. I can paste text copied from any application on the host into any application on the guest. I cannot past an image copied to clipboard on the host to the guest. Is copying images supported by vbox?

Here's what I've tried:

Host: goto webpage in firefox select/copy text
Guest: paste
Works

Host: in firefox right click image > Copy Image.
Guest: clipboard is empty

Host: in gimp open jpg. select all > copy
Guest: clipboard is empty.

In the previous two tests I've confirmed that the copied image appears in the Host's clipboard.

My ultimate goal is to copy a screen capture on the host into OneNote running on the guest.

Thanks for any help.

Brian
Perryg
Site Moderator
Posts: 34369
Joined: 6. Sep 2008, 22:55
Primary OS: Linux other
VBox Version: OSE self-compiled
Guest OSses: *NIX

Re: Virtalbox: Can't paste an image to winxp guest

Post by Perryg »

AFAIK text is the only thing supported at this time using the shared clipboard.
SecretCode
Posts: 67
Joined: 17. Jul 2009, 10:20
Primary OS: Ubuntu other
VBox Version: VirtualBox+Oracle ExtPack
Guest OSses: Ubuntu, XP, other
Location: Finland

Re: Virtalbox: Can't paste an image to winxp guest

Post by SecretCode »

Clipboard operations for more complex objects than plain text are typically not done by placing the entire object in shared memory at once - especially not when there could be multiple formats offered (the ones you'd see with a "Paste special"). Instead, the copying application posts a reference. When a pasting application retrieves it, the system calls the original application to get the object.

This could technically be supported by guest additions, but it would be a lot more complex to support, because messages would have to go from the guest application, to guest additions, to the host application that copied the image, back to guest additions (with a large amount of data) and back to the guest application.
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