virtualbox.org

While I know that this is not a VB problem exactly, it only happens when you switch to full screen or seamless mode in a VM. Since when running Ubuntu (or most OSes) on bare metal, the resolution of the display does not usually change after booting, so this really only happens when running inside a VM.

So here is the problem. I am running Ubuntu 9.04 inside a VM. When it boots in normal windowed mode, the icons on the taskbar such as shutdown, lock screen, etc. are all arrange at the right end of the taskbar like I want them. But then when I switch to full screen or seamless mode, they either appear somewhere in the center of the taskbar (not at the right end) or they do stay at the right end, but they have been scrambled.

Does anybody know of a way to control this?

Thanks,
Dave

That's a Gnome Panel problem. The icons, or applets actually, are placed on the panel on a strange way. If you would install Xfce and use that, your panel applets will stay where they are, at the exact same proportional location. If it's at the side, it stays at the side. Install Xfce4-panel and replace it with your Gnome-panel. There is a package that allows you to add Gnome applets to the Xfce panel. That's the only solution I can think of, other than not switching modes.

Man you know I hate to disagree but here I must. I use Gnome on my Ubuntu and when I go full screen or even seamless (I have U 9.04 seamless at all times) the icons are where they are supposed to be. Now maybe it could be a compiz issue I don't know because I don't use it, but Gnome? Not mine.

Perry, that is interesting. No, I don't use Compiz.

What is the resolution of your Ubuntu when it starts up, it is full screen before you switch to seamless?

Nope. I have it set to about 50% of the screen so when I need to take it out of seamless it is small enough for me to work in Vista as well.
I do not use 3D or any custom effects in it because in seamless that stuff gets torked. Full screen on Karmic with 3D and full compiz works good but the eye candy got tiring so I turned it off too.

Now there is another possibility here that can cause this behaviour. Perry, how do you have your applets on your panel? Are they locked in place or freely movable? Same question for you dmcgraw.

They are locked of course. That's they way they come pre-installed.
When I add one that I want I always lock them as well, but that is a good question, and very well could be dmcgraw's problem.

I also have the same problem as dmcgraw. I'm not sure how to reproduce it, but it happens more frequently when I turn on compiz effects.

Here's what I did:
If the notorious panel applets stray to the center, I just manually move them around to the correct position. I also turned off all the eye candy. IMO it's still a graphics issue with virtualization that you can't take full advantage of compiz's effects.

Perryg wrote:They are locked of course. That's they way they come pre-installed.
When I add one that I want I always lock them as well, but that is a good question, and very well could be dmcgraw's problem.

Darn, I was hoping you were going to say that yours were NOT locked, because mine are LOCKED.

Only difference is Compiz. Perry doesn't have 3D enabled, so Compiz doesn't pop up with it's effects. It does seem that Compiz is the cause of the problem, because mo0nykit has the same problem only when Compiz is running. Work around is my idea, install Xfce4-panel and use that instead of Gnome-panel .

Another observation
I think it's not exclusively because of Compiz. My panels for Audio, Date & Time, and User Switch keep getting mixed up at the upper right, even though they had been locked during the previous session.

I'm running a Ubuntu 9.10 guest on a Windows XP Host. And after the update to VirtualBox 3.0.6, it started happening to me. Never happened in Version 3.0.4.

After updating VirtualBox 3.0.6 on the Windows XP partition on my Netbook. I noticed that after shutting down with the linux virtual machines at full screen. I start the virtual machine up and it's no longer in fullscreen and in Ubuntu 9.10 when I go out of fullscreen and back in to fullscreen, all my links on the top toolbar are screwed up.

And yes, the additions are installed.

It's weird and frustrating at the same time.

This has happened to me often, in 3.02 and 3.04. Not on every boot, but on some. Sometimes with compiz, sometimes without; I mostly leave the applets unlocked, but only because it happened originally with them locked.

Yeah, fyi, I don't have compiz installed (but did previously), and this happens to me in both cases.

In short, gnome-panel sucks.