Seamless broken since moving to Oracle

[appye]

Since the earliest version with the Oracle (vs Sun) brand, I have had problems running seamless XP guests on any Linux host running Gnome. When hovering on gnome panel menus (Applications, Places, System), the mouseover highlight works, but the menu will not pop up when clicked. I have to click on a host window or on the desktop to give focus back to the host OS so I can open the menus.

For months now, the only relevant result that google has been able to for me is an unanswered post here:
http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&p=146938

This is troubling because it leads me to believe that the post was forgotten or ignored and the devs are unaware of this problem...

I am currently still running Virtualbox 3.1.6 (non-ose version) because any version newer than that produces the problem.

I am running archlinux.

It occurs on a variety of different machines with or without compositing wm's, it is NOT a compiz problem. I have not tried to see if the problem is reproducible under any other desktop environments.

Thanks for your time...

[Perryg]

There have been so many fixes in this area since 3.1.6 you would be well advised to upgrade. Your problem might just go away.

[appye]

Unfortunately it does not. I have continued to upgrade on a machine where I do not require seamless, yet the problem remains. The machine running the latest version is running 64-bit archlinux on a core2duo...

[Perryg]

I don't know what to tell you. I have seamless working as it should on all of my machines Windows, Ubuntu, and Debian.
If you want more help or information you would need to post the guests log file (as an attachment) so we can see if it shows an error.
Host system info and all guest settings.
This will get us the guests settings: From the host terminal VBoxManage showvminfo <VM Name> --details and post here. Replace <VM Name> with the actual name of the VM. Use "" if the name has a space in it.

[VB_Is_Way_To_Go]

Are you running Compiz ?
Try a different manager whist in seamless. Worked for this machine.

[frakka]

I've got the same issue with ORACLE VirtualBox 3.2.8 64bit tested on Ubuntu 9.10 x64, Debian Squeze x64 and ArchLinux x64 as host with gnome as DM and no compiz effect.
As guest OS I've tried Vista SP2 32bit and Win7 Enterprise 32bit.

It worked fine up to Jan 2010 for PUEL version. I don't remember the version number...

[frakka]

Here the log requested by Perryg.

Guest: ArchLinux x64.
Hw: Intel Q8400 + Asus X38 + 6Gb DDR2 + Ati HD3870

Same issue also with 2D and 3D acceleration disabled.

[BernS]

I do have the same issue here on Ubuntu 10.04 64-bit with Windows XP Guest. Seamless mode currently is total unusable cause when I went into it, there is no Start menu. Ok, there is a bar where the start menu should be, but it's unclickable and in the Windows background color.
The other behaviour is like the thread starter pointed out.

[Jeetendra]

Hi All,

I also have same issue here as posted above i am using Ubuntu 10.04 64 bit desktop edition. with a windows xp guest. Please help to resolve.

Thanks & Regards
Jeetendra

[Perryg]

OK I can reproduce this too now so I will see what can be done about it. I don't know how I missed it but if the host does not have focus the drop downs are covered with the overlay.

[Perryg]

Reported and confirmed ticket was actually made on this already and I have added to it.
Bugtracker ticket 7422

[frakka]

Tnx!!

[BernS]

Thanks a lot! If any additional information is required regarding this issue - please contact.

[Technologov]

What went wrong ?

Is this a VBox or Ubuntu regression ? On my Windows XP host, VBox 3.2.8 works PURRFECTLY.

[Perryg]

I would think that would need to be determined by the DEVs. I don't see this issue on Windows hosts either, only *NIX hosts.
But it appears that the overlay is on top of the drop downs if the host has focus. When you click on the guest title bar the drop downs show up. IIRC prior releases did not show this behavior and clicking the action part on the title bar was enough to bring the guest into focus, but now it appears that the guest needs to actually be in focus (click the title bar first) to get the drop down on top of the overlay.

Note: I do not use 3D/2D or any desktop eye candy so we can safely say it has nothing to do with compiz Etc.