copy/paste broken on guest (Windows 7 64bit)

[matteosistisette]

Hi,

I have Windows 7 (64bit) installed as a guest on an Ubuntu 10.04 (32bit) host and VirtualBox 3.2.6

Every once in a while it happens that copying and pasting WITHIN THE GUEST stops working.
I can copy from the host and paste in the guest, but when I copy in the guest, noting is copied and I cannot paste it anywhere within the guest (the clipboard seems to keep its previous content).

Sometimes it starts working again when I copy something from the host to the guest, then copying from guest to itself starts working gain.
Other times i can't find a way to get it working and I have to restart the guest.

I guess this is some issue with the guest additions that interfere with the guest's copying/pasting and sometimes they SPAM_SEARCH up the clipboard some way.

Does anybody have the same problem? Is there a fix?

thanks
m.

[matteosistisette]

I have to rectify:

The workaround of copying something from the host and pasting to the guest NEVER works, it does not unblock the situation. I always have to restart the guest (or some application in the guest) to get it working again.
I was under the impression that it sometimes fixed the problem because i had not realised the following.

When the copy/paste of the guest gets (Censored) up, it is only some specific kind of copying/pasting.
For example, sometimes it is Explorer, so I cannot copy a file from a folder and paste it into another folder (which I usually can).
Other times it is Flash CS5: so I cannot copy something from/to the stage, such as copying a movieclip from a layer into another layer, or copy/paste frames, or whatever.
I'm always talking of copy/pasting WITHIN THE GUEST. It seems it is the COPY that stops working.

Restarting just the affected applications seems to fix the problem: for example when it is Flash that stops copying, I restart flash and it works.

But note that it is not just Flash: as I mentioned it happened to me it was Window's Explorer (i.e. browsing folders) that couldn't copy and paste files (and not only from/to shared folders) so probably I could have "fixed" it by restarting explorer instead of rebooting the guest.

However is this a known issue and is there any patch for the guest additions that fixes it?

thanks again
m.

MOD Edit: Censored (improper language)

[matteosistisette]

Restarting just the affected application does NOT always (nor even often) fix the issue.
Most of the time I have to restart the guest OS.

COPY-PASTE IS BROKEN ON THE GUEST, this is almost certainly caused by the guest additions that allow host-to/from-guest copy-paste, and it seems to me pretty CRITICAL. Isn't anybody going to say something? Are you working on this? When is it expected to be fixed?

By the time is there a way to turn off ONLY THIS feature of the guest additions without uninstalling all the guest additions (it would be annoying to have to give up seamless window resizing, mouse integration etc). I'd rather renounce to host-guest copying and pasting than be unable to copy-paste within a same guest application.

[matteosistisette]

Ouch, sometimes even shutting down the guest, restarting Virtual Box and restarting the guest does not fix the problem!!!!!!!!

[drsilk]

i have same issue. I run latest virtual box on ubuntu jaunty x64 with guest win7 x64. copy from guest to host works but from host to guest has been broken the past 2 releases. has worked for past year fine.

[matteosistisette]

In my case what is broken is copying FROM GUEST TO GUEST, often within a same application.

Clearing the guest clipboard with echo off | clip in a cmd seems to help sometimes.

[drsilk]

i think my problem comes from the guest additions. If i uninstall the 3.2.8 guest additions and reboot the 3.2.6 guest additions are still there. I have no way to uninstall them as there is no entry in add/remove programs, no program files folder and no uninstall.exe to be found for it. Is there a manual uninstall or utility i can use to clean off all guest additions? I feel if I could clean install 3.2.8 the problem would be fixed.

[jpduckwo]

I have been battling with this annoying problem for years with Windows XP guest on Ubuntu various versions. Each time VB is updated I pray they fix this but alas the problem always comes back. I find that a sure fire way to replicate the breaking of the clipboard is to save the machine state then restart it again, then usually the clipboard wont work from guest to host. I find that only rebooting will fix it. Current versions are

Host: Ubuntu 10.04 32bit
VB 3.2.8

Guest windows XP 32bit latest hotfixes/service packs
Guest additions 3.2.0r61806

I'd love to see this resolved once and for all... any workarounds that fix it without rebooting would be awesome. I'm wondering if it has anything to do with the office clipboard. I know that's a bit funny sometimes with it's clipboard history and stuff.

[Perryg]

http://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/5266

Read down toward the bottom.