Avoid screen resize event when accessing host OS?

[NedRagdnuos]

I'm running Ubuntu as a guest within a virtual machine in fullscreen,
on two physical screens, and for the most part it works fine.
The puzzle comes when I need to use the host operating system
(Microsoft "Windows 7" operating system).

When I press the "host" F combination to go back to the Microsoft operating
system, all of the windows within the Ubuntu guest windowing environment get
"messed up" (either they move to the wrong physical screen, or get resized)
because the screen is resized when "host" F is pressed, and the guest operating
system (Ubuntu) sees a screen resize event due to the VirtualBox dropping
back to non-fullscreen mode when the "host" F key combination is pressed.

What I'd like to be able to do instead, is to just temporarily "hide" the currently-running
Ubuntu guest virtual machine, so that it doesn't receive any "screen resize" event.

Is that possible?

That way I'd be able to switch back and forth between using the host operating
system (Microsoft's operating system) and the guest operating system (Ubuntu).
Ideally, if there were a "host key combination" to do this kind of thing, that'd
be best, as I'd prefer not to need to hunt around in the host operating system for
the VirtualBox window to bring the fullscreen Ubuntu guest back again.

[NedRagdnuos]

Also, is there a way to prevent the host operating system (Microsoft "Windows 7") from
popping up the messages "Do you want to activate sticky-keys" when
I click too many times on the Shift key?

Also, is there a way to disable the yellow message "CAPS LOCK ON" which
pops up in the bottom-right corner of the screen when the Caps Lock key is pressed?
This message doesn't normally appear in the Ubuntu operating system,
when the Caps Lock key is pressed, and it's distracting to see it when running
Ubuntu as a guest within VirtualBox.

[NedRagdnuos]

Also (sorry, wrong forum for this), on a Apple OSX host, when running
in fullscreen mode, when I move my mouse to the very top of the screen
the apple menubar appears, hiding the guest's menu bar. Is there a way to
switch this off? I've found some OSX-specific workarounds, but it's be
better to have this be "designed-in" as part of VirtualBox's port to OSX,
rather than to have to use any workaround. Basically, what I'm usually
trying to do is just run Ubuntu with as little "interference" from the
host operating system as possible, but up to now I haven't found
any straightforward way to do this on the Apple operating system,
whereas on the Microsoft operating system is is "somewhat" possible.

[NedRagdnuos]

As regards the difference in graphic performance between running Ubuntu
as a guest and running it natively on the same hardware, the most
immediately obvious one is when switching virtual desktops, is there
any way to improve this? I've allocated as much video menory as
possible to the guest operating system, but still switching back and
forth between desktops in the guest is extremely slow, compared to
how Ubuntu behaves on a physical machine. The delay appears
to be due to the guest operating system sending a refresh event
to every window, rather than simply blitting the destop state back
from the video menory (as it appears to do on a physical machine),
although I could be completely wrong on this.

[NedRagdnuos]

Also, is there a way to prevent the host operating system (Microsoft) from
popping up the messages "Do you want to activate sticky-keys" when
I type SHIFT SHIFT SHIFT SHIFT SHIFT without pressing any other
keys in between? The annoying message from the Microsoft host operating
system is like this (it even talks about a non-existent keys called the
"Windows Logo" keys, which do not exist on a standard keyboard.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Do you want to turn on Sticky Keys.

Sticky Keys lets you use the SHIFT, CTRL, ALT, or Windows Logo keys by pressing
one key at a time. The keyboard shortcut to turn on Sticky Keys is to press the
SHIFT key five times.

Go to the Ease of Access Center to disable the keyboard shortcut

[Yes] [No]"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Despite having disabled the shortcut in the "Ease of Access Center", the
SHIFT SHIFT SHIFT SHIFT SHIFT shortcut still kicks in. Could the VirtualBox
software have a setting to disable the SHIFT SHIFT SHIFT SHIFT SHIFT interference?

[noteirak]

@ Post #2 => There is, look into Accesibility & Help
@ Post #3 => You will need support from Apple to see if it is possible and how
@ Post #4 => You will need to take this to the devs, it is related to the Additions
@ Post #5 => #2, and virtualbox cannot do anything about it, it is not related to Virtualbox, but to Windows

My friendly recommendation : make one post per issue/question, this is just a mess to answer to.

[NedRagdnuos]

Hi noteirak,

Thanks for your advice.

I tried disabling the "Sticky Keys" again in Accesibility & Help,
it seems to be working this time. Perhaps it comes back after every reboot...
I guess I'll have to test that out later, out to see.

Sorry about the multiple posts, you're right, it is messy, especially
as it doesn't appear to be possible to reply to an individual post separately
using this forum interface.

Overall, with this thread, I was just trying to point out that,
in a sense when I'm running Ubuntu in full-screen mode,
I'd really like just "one big switch" to be provided by the
VirtualBox software, so that I could disable "all interference" from the Microsoft
or Apple host operating system, even pop-up messages from other applications
running on the host should not pop up "on top" of an Ubuntu guest running in full screen.

I want to be able to relax when using Ubuntu, not be worried that I'll be suddenly
confronted with some weirdness from the host operating system, after all the user
of the guest operating system might not even be myself.

Any ideas about my very first question, right at the beginning? Perhaps (if you're
running Debian as the host OS), you don't notice this issue? But for me, when I run Microsoft
Windows 7 as the host operating system, I'd like to be able to quickly switch back to
the host OS without sending the Ubuntu guest OS any "resize events", which is what currently
happens when I press the "host" F hey combination to drop out of fullscreen mode.

Cheers,
Ned.

[noteirak]

I tried disabling the "Sticky Keys" again in Accesibility & Help,
it seems to be working this time. Perhaps it comes back after every reboot...
I guess I'll have to test that out later, out to see.

I know from experience that it might not stick, very much border line of bug I would say, so I feel your pain.

Overall, with this thread, I was just trying to point out that,
in a sense when I'm running Ubuntu in full-screen mode,
I'd really like just "one big switch" to be provided by the
VirtualBox software, so that I could disable "all interference" from the Microsoft
or Apple host operating system, even pop-up messages from other applications
running on the host should not pop up "on top" of an Ubuntu guest running in full screen.
I want to be able to relax when using Ubuntu, not be worried that I'll be suddenly
confronted with some weirdness from the host operating system, after all the user
of the guest operating system might not even be myself.

I see what you mean, you could post in suggestions for this, and if enough people requests this, it might be done!

Any ideas about my very first question, right at the beginning? Perhaps (if you're
running Debian as the host OS), you don't notice this issue? But for me, when I run Microsoft
Windows 7 as the host operating system, I'd like to be able to quickly switch back to
the host OS without sending the Ubuntu guest OS any "resize events", which is what currently
happens when I press the "host" F hey combination to drop out of fullscreen mode.

I personally don't use Virtualbox for any desktop mode but have you tried disabled Guest Display autoresize (Host + G) after setting full screen maybe?

[NedRagdnuos]

Hi noteirak,

Thanks for your advice.

The Host + G doesn't appear to have any effect on the
Virtual Box version 4.1.6 r74713 that I'm running here.

It doesn't seem to list Host + G in the host key list in the doc
at this page:
https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch09.html#guitweaks
where did you see the Host + G combination mentioned?

It does sound vaguely familiar, perhaps I have it disabled
somehow at the moment, but it'd be great to be able to
just temporarily disable the guest display, sounds like just
what I need...

Thanks,
Ned.

[noteirak]

Like this but I am in 4.2.4 under Win 7 host at the moment

[NedRagdnuos]

Hi noteirak,

Wow, awesome, thanks!

So I got it working as follows:

First I enabled the "Mini ToolBar" menu, by going into

Settings -> General -> Advanced tab and enabling the following checkbox

Mini ToolBar: [x] Show in Fullscreen/seamless

Then I rebooted my Ubuntu guest operating system into fullscreen
mode (so it now uses both monitors at the proper resolution
of each separate monitor). Apparently, it sometimes needs a reboot
to get this to work correctly ("your mileage may vary").

Then I went to the Mini ToolBar and clicked on the "View" menu
as you explained, and I did see that there was a checkmark on the

Auto-resize Guest Display Host + G

So I clicked on that item to remove the checkmark.

So now when I use the Host + F to drop out of fullscreen,
VirtualBox no longer sends the guest any "resize events" and
when I go back into fullscreen later on, everything is just as I left it. Yay!

Thanks again for your patience in reading through all my messages,
I really appreciate your help, doubtful if I'd ever have figured this
out on my own!

Cheers,
Ned.

[noteirak]

Glad I could help