Unable To Copy/Paste/Drag/Drop Between Host/VBox

[Doc Strange]

Having problems getting drag n drop and shared clipboard to work. I'm using Windows 7.

Have installed VBox Additions

Set Up Virtual Folder on My Host Desktop& configured via VB settings

Tried the options in 'Devices' such as H to G, G-to H & BiDirectional

Still I am not able to transfer/copy/paste from my Virtual Folder onto Desktop of BT5/VBox

Clearly I am overlooking something obvious,can somebody please advise? Many thanks. Doc Strange

[mpack]

Set the option to bidirectional.

Drag and drop only works with Linux guests.

Copy and paste only works with text and graphics. I.e. not files or any other kind of OS object.

I assume that "VBox Additions" means Guest Additions (installed in the guest), and doesn't e.g. mean the extension pack installed on the host. These features require the former.

[Doc Strange]

Hi mpack, thank you for your helpful and prompt reply...

Previously I had no issues using VBox/BT5 on my Windows 7 and could copy/paste no problem..for example could, when setting up Proxychains in BT5, copy text from my host desktop notepad file and paste into terminal window of BT5

Have installed 'Guest Additions' which displays on my BT5 desktop as VBoxAdditions 4.2.16

I have also installed VBox extension pack

Just tried again using the BiDirectional option....still does not allow any copy/paste/drag n drop

Doc Strange

[mpack]

Sorry, copy and paste works for me, so I don't know what else to tell you: I would try rebooting the guest. I do not enable drag and drop.

You say that the guest additions "displays on my BT5 desktop". If you mean that the CD icon appears on the desktop then that wouldn't mean it was installed. OTOH if the GAs icon appears on the toolbar then that would indicate that the GAs were installed. Did you follow the user manual instructions for installing Linux Guest Additions?

You could answer some of these doubts by providing a VM log file. Make sure to close down the VM the click the VM in the GUI and choose "show log". Zip the log before attaching it to a message here.

[Doc Strange]

Hi by BT5 I mean Linux-based Backtrack 5 which I have running in VBox and has its own 'Desktop'. As I mentioned previously I had no issues in copy/paste/drag/drop, so am baffled. If anyone can help resolve this would be most grateful. Thanks

[Doc Strange]

Hi here's the LOG, hope it helps

[mpack]

The log shows several suspend/resumes - and while it shows that the GAs ISO as mounted, I'm not certain that it shows the GAs installed correctly.

I would start by rebooting the VM to get rid of all that suspend/resume stuff.

[Doc Strange]

Hi mpack thanks so much for looking over the LOG, really appreciated your support. So best for me to re-download VB?

[mpack]

Eh? No, just shut down the VM and restart it.

Also make sure that the GAs are installed properly, as described in the user manual. At present I think you have very old GAs installed.

[Doc Strange]

Okies..gotcha..restart..will do

Thanks

[Doc Strange]

mpack tried the reboot and another careful install of GA but still the issue remains. Doc Strange

[Doc Strange]

So I removed BT5 and VBox entirely from my netbook...rebooted and then reinstalled both again.

I followed the procedure carefully and loaded Guest Additions and an Extension Pack

Then I created a folder on my host desktop called 'vrtual'

Set the devices shared clipboard/drag n drop to Bidirectional.

Having done all that it was time to see if it would now allow a transfer of a file from my host desktop to the VBox/BT5 desktop.

I have a .pl file on my host desktop but no matter the steps above I still cannot copy/move that to VBox/BT5

It's all very annoying as previously it worked fine and I could copy/paste between the two. Somebody please help Doc Strange

[Perryg]

AFAIK drag n drop still only works to a Linux guest and only from the host to the guest, so you should set the DnD to host-to-guest. The clipboard should be set to bidirectional and of course you must use copy/paste for it to work.

[Doc Strange]

Perryg

Thanks very much for your suggestion, shall try that, meanwhile when trying to re-add Guest Additions now getting a msg that reads:

unable to mount the cd/dvd image C: would you like to force mounting of this medium?

[Perryg]

That means the CD has something in the drive. Usually the guest additions because if it were the install media you would be continually installing the guests OS.
Just access the CD and run the install manually.