Windows 8 x64 Host, Ubuntu 13.04 guest

[DuckPuppy]

Everything seems to be working, with an anomaly...

I have 4 host machines, two Windows 7 and two Windwos 8, all 64-bit. I've created and installed (not cloned - full create and install) Ubuntu 13.04 guest VMs on all of them. On 3 of them everything is fine. On the newest one, an i7 laptop with an nVidia 660M using the newest WHQL driver, I see a "phantom" window when 3D acceleration is enabled for the guest titled "Chromium render spu" when using a 3D session (like Unity). In addition, if I run it fullscreen, I don't have the mini bar and ctrl-home doesn't work (which is an old problem with VirtualBox and Ubuntu that I've learned to deal with). The final problem is that if I can minimize the window (usually by ctl-alt-delete, run task manager) and then bring the VM to the foreground again, I have to click the screen once to get it to actually render, like maybe there's a focus issue. It seems to be running with acceleration - the Unity interface is fast and

Code: Select all

/usr/lib/nux/unity_support_test -p

shows 3D acceleration.

My biggest question is what is that phantom window, and why do I see it only on this one machine? I feel if that gets resolved, the other weirdnesses might go away... my gut feeling is that this is indicating software rendering on the host somehow.

EDIT: Forgot - the problematic laptop is using VBox 4.2.16 with extension pack installed, and the guest additions installed in the guest OS. The others are using 4.2.12, extensions and guest additions installed.

[Perryg]

Can you provide a screen shot of this phantom window? I have never seen one and I work on Ubuntu guests daily.
Also post the guests log file ( as an attachment )

[DuckPuppy]

Can you provide a screen shot of this phantom window? I have never seen one and I work on Ubuntu guests daily.
Also post the guests log file ( as an attachment )

"Phantom window" is possibly the wrong wording - it's only shown as an empty window thumbnail in the taskbar in addition to the VirtualBox Manager GUI and the actual VM window. I also work with Ubuntu guests daily (two of the hosts in my post are long-term hosts that have been running ubuntu VMs since roughly 10.10 or so) and have never seen this. I'll have to recreate the guest - since it was new and reconfiguration isn't that difficult, I deleted it and intend to recreate it to see if this was a fluke. If the thumbnail shows up again, I'll post a screenshot. Worst case, I guess I'll disable 3D acceleration and run in fallback mode - that's the only way to get the VB mini bar to work reliably when in fullscreen in my experience.

[Perryg]

I suspect your phantom what-ever is a gpu indicator which was added to the VBox taskbar showing that 3D is enabled and working. ( I don't use the VBox taskbar so I don't know when this was introduced but may not have been with the older GAs you are using ) If you can reproduce this and post a screen shot I will investigate for you.

As far as fallback that would not be a good idea with 13.04. Canonical did away with true fallback mode and instead started using gallium software rendering which is very CPU intensive. ( as much as 30% to 40% overhead continuous )

As for the mini toolbar placement can cause the issue if you try it at the top it may work better, or use the host+home key instead of fallback is preferred.

[DuckPuppy]

I suspect your phantom what-ever is a gpu indicator which was added to the VBox taskbar showing that 3D is enabled and working. ( I don't use the VBox taskbar so I don't know when this was introduced but may not have been with the older GAs you are using ) If you can reproduce this and post a screen shot I will investigate for you.

As far as fallback that would not be a good idea with 13.04. Canonical did away with true fallback mode and instead started using gallium software rendering which is very CPU intensive. ( as much as 30% to 40% overhead continuous )

As for the mini toolbar placement can cause the issue if you try it at the top it may work better, or use the host+home key instead of fallback is preferred.

Sorry, I was referring to the Windows taskbar, not the VBox taskbar - it's showing up there like an open window, but there's no actual visible "window" on the desktop that corresponds to it. I'll try to get a screenshot.

Running the "Gnome Fallback (no effects)" session is pretty performant for me, and doesn't actually require 3D acceleration to be on for any of the hosts I use it on. It's certainly not applicable for everyone, but it works in my case pretty well. Failing that, I can always install the Mate desktop.

[DuckPuppy]

Here is a screenshot showing the window thumbnail I'm talking about. You may have to click the image to see it fully - the important bit is at the bottom.

[Perryg]

I now see what you are talking about. I have to say I don't run/have windows host any more. I do have a few Windows guests that I nest another VBox in to test but none with Win8 since I totally loath the design and decided to stick to 7. I would actually post this question to the DEVs at bugtracker. Be sure to post the guests log file and the screen shot.