Can't get mouse or keyboard to work in the VB window

[GaryF]

I am running Windows 8 and yesterday, I installed version 4.2.18 of VB.

I am trying to access files on a .vdi file.

I start up a new VM using the .vdi file at the input and it appears to be loading an version of Ubuntu. Sometimes the VM starts up and runs to the point where it is asking me for a login ID before allowing me to access the content of the .vdi file. Many times, the VM never starts up completely and I have to shut it down and restart it. In all cases, I am never able to get my mouse or keyboard to ever work inside the VM guest window.

I have read and re-read the documentation and instructions and it seems that all I should need to do is to put my mouse over the guest window and it should work in the guest environment. However, when every I put my mouse over the guest window, it disappears.

The documentation says that running the guest window in full screen mode should also allow my mouse to work in the guest window but this does not seem to work for me.

Every time I start up the guest machine, I get a pop-up window that says auto capture is on which seems to imply that my mouse and keyboard should be working inside the guest window but they don't.

Please help,

Thanks,
Gary

[Perryg]

Post the guests log file (as an attachment)
See Online Users Manual for the location of the file.

As well as:

From the hosts terminal/command window type 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.

Note if the host is Windows you need to be in the directory that has VBoxManage.exe for the command to work.

[GaryF]

Thanks Perry, I will work on getting this information for you.

[GaryF]

Here is the guest log file

[GaryF]

I don't see any options for "terminal/command" so I can't even try the VirtualBoxvminfo command.

I am still seeing the same issue as last week, the guest window starts up and successfully loads the .vdi file but then I can never get the guest window to recognize the keyboard or the mouse. Even when I click on the right "ctl" button I get the pop-up window that says that the guest is now capturing the keyboard or mouse, but nothing changes. I put the mouse over the guest window and it disappears. I see the Linux prompt but I can't input anything.

[Perryg]

http://ark.intel.com/products/43122/

Code: Select all

00:00:08.525239 HWACCM: No VT-x or AMD-V CPU extension found. Reason VERR_VMX_NO_VMX

Since the processor says it supports VMX but VBox can't see it, make sure that it is enabled in bios and that something else (like hyper-v) is not using VMX

I would also install the Extension Pack How to install Extension Pack

I don't see any options for "terminal/command" so I can't even try the VirtualBox vminfo command.

Windows 8 has it but they decided to make it hard to find like everything else. But this is what Microsoft says is what you want. Personally I don't remember saying I wanted every good tool, easy of use, snappy desktop, Etc. removed. Anyway I have until 2020 for them to fix this mess before I have to deal with it.

[GaryF]

Nothing I see seems to match the links you refer me to. It doesn't look like a lot of the VBox documentation has been updated to include Windows 8 specific items.

When I try to install the extension pack, I go to Settings but on the left sidebar I don't see an "Extensions" option like the one shown on the "How to install the extension pack" link

I am not sure exactly what you mean by "make sure that VMX is enabled in the Bios". Can you be more specific or tell me how to get to where I can check this in Windows 8?

Thanks,
Gary

[GaryF]

I installed the extension pack. I found the "extensions" option under "File/preferances/" in the vbox host window. But I can't find the .vbox-extpack file that the Extensions feature is asking for and I have looked for it in both my personal /users/gary/VirtualBox VMs/ folder and under the /program files/VirtualBox folder.

Can you tell me where the .vbox-extpack file gets installed to?

[Perryg]

bios is not specific to windows 8. It is the PCs bios where you set various settings. Usually assessable by key stroke/s when you first power on the PC. See your owners manual for details. Look for hardware virtualization and make sure it is enabled.

You download the Extension pack from the same place that you downloaded the VBox program. Just be sure that the versions are an exact match.

[GaryF]

Thanks Perry, I am pretty sure that I already have Virtualization turned on in the Windows bios because I have use some other VM products in the past.

I have successfully downloaded the Extension Pack and when I execute it, it installs the Extension Pack but it doesn't tell me what directory it is installing it to and that is why I can't locate the file with the (.vbox-extpack) extension.

In the VirtualBox host window I click on "File" menu option then select "Preferences". Then in the left side bar, I click on "Extensions". Then a window opens that allows me to select the extensions pack to install. When I click on the icon that opens the Windows File Navigation window, it tells me that I need to locate a file with a suffix of (.vbox-extpack). This is the file that I cannot locate on my computer. Can you tell me where the Extension Pack install file puts a file with a (.vbox-extpack)?

[GaryF]

...one more thought. It seems that the fact that the Vbox VM Guest machines start up and run would confirm that I have virtualization turned on. This sort of gets back to my original problem, once the VM Guest is up and running, I can't get the Vbox Guest to capture my mouse or keyboard.

[Perryg]

You down load the file as I indicated before
You click to add the extpack and you navigate to where you saved it when you downloaded it.
Then you click on the file to install it.

I have no idea where you save the file but you should know where you downloaded it to. You can use the search feature of the file manager to find where it is.

All of this is an attempt to get your issues fixed. A lot of the times various things do not work properly due to these little issues.
I can tell you that if in fact the hardware virtualization is enabled in bios then something else is using it and that will not work.

[GaryF]

Thanks for your time and help Perry.

Since I was able to get what I needed by running Virtual Box on a Windows 7 computer I am OK for now. I don't have a pressing need to get Virtual Box running on my Windows 8 computer and I have a lot of other pressing tasks I need to get to so I am going to let this go for now.

Thanks again for your extra after hours help last week.