virtualbox.org

For some time now I am successfully running Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit guests on a Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit host, a HP 8540w laptop. Seamless mode has always worked flawless and I must say I quite like that! Also VB rocks full stop! So much about that.

Now, a week or two later, and this is without having used VB during that time at all, when I try to run any of the Windows guests, Seamless Mode is simply not selectable in the VM any more.

Since I passionately use Macrium Reflect Free (very much recommended) to make regular system images of states of the OS and installed software that please me, I restored an older image of the OS when I just started using VB with the Windows host and Windows guest and Seamless Mode was still working 100%.

All other images following that first image exhibit the same behaviour, where Seamless Mode used to work just fine, in all those previous images and the current state of the OS, Seamless Mode is not selectable.

This is also what puzzles me. What could possibly be the cause for something that worked in an earlier image to not work any more upon restore? Hardware error? I would understand if perhaps the current OS state had a few commands given to vboxmanage to the Win guests, but nothing at all was changed on the Win guests and no commands were directed at the Win guests.

I am happy to post logs or VB and VM settings I am using to be able to get Seamless Mode working again. I use VB irregularly, but when I do I use it intensely and need it for the work I do, so it means a lot to me to get Seamless Mode for the Win guests working again.

Upon recommendation from here I am using version VirtualBox-4.2.16-86992-Win.exe from here https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Download_Old_Builds_4_2 .

Please help me get Seamless Mode working for the Windows guests again. Thank you.

Short read or what I did to resolve this:
To resolve the issue that users here and myself cannot locate so far, I had to delete the entire VM folder, so lost all VMs and VDIs unfortunately.
On the positive side the old version VB worked again with Seamless Mode once I created a new VM and VDI in the VM folder.
In the end I also successfully updated VB to the now latest version, 4.3.28 and updated the Guest Additions to the same version as well.
Now Seamless Mode works again. What caused this issue is not know.
Later in the thread sunlover, a user from Oracle Corp., asked weather VBoxTray.exe is running in the VM but at that time it was too late since I had deleted the entire VM folder.

In another thread I learned that

mpack wrote:..seamless mode is not a VM setting, its done by a display driver in the guest.. source

so for Seamless Mode to work again the Windows guest would need a display driver or something else has caused the display driver of the guest to not work any more. Though no new software was installed on the host or any of the guests.

This now is quite strange since no new software was installed on the system, if so I sandbox most software so that it does not leave traces on the real OS but this was not the case any ways. As mentioned all the old OS images of when VB was working 100% with Seamless Mode show the same behaviour, no Seamless Mode.

Is it worth a shot making a new Windows guest and checking if that helps?

I am just trying to pin down what could have caused a perfectly fine running VM to not be able to use Seamless Mode when it did work just so fine all the time.

Hard to tell anything without having a VM log file - see Minimum information needed for assistance.
My first guest is that the Guest Additions no longer match the installed VBox version in the host. The log would tell us if it does or not.

OraOra wrote:so for Seamless Mode to work again the Windows guest would need a display driver or something else has caused the display driver of the guest to not work any more.

That was not what I said in the other topic. I only said that a software change was a likely common factor given your statement (there) that multiple VMs demonstrated the same symptom.

Things like this don't happen for no reason. A software change was involved, whether you were aware of the change or not. A whole chain of software elements have to work.

Dear noteirak I will provide a log file in due time. I did not even know about providing a log, though I did mention I could provide one, was not sure if it is needed since VB and VMs are obviously not my daily trade as you can see. Late here and tired so will get the log and all info to this thread soon. Thank you for letting me know and thank you for being so understanding with me.

Dear mpack I guess I did not fully understand your reply and wanted to get further by being able to rule out errors that could have caused this.

Am I right by understanding that not the command to one particular VM could have caused this (yes we ruled that out), but by something that did change on the real host OS, like you mention, new software?

That would actually make sense with the latest state of the host OS here, though when going "back in time" and using an earlier clean image of the host OS where Seamless Mode was still working with VB and the VMs I thought that by doing such a restore the 100% exact state of the OS would be restored, so all changes that could have happened willing or unwillingly would be redundant since those changes are not restored with a previous image of the host OS.

This is what really really confuses me and I must say this is also a first time this happens here. So far, always, when running into issues with something I simply do a restore to the latest safe and clean image of the host OS and bang I have all my troubles sorted (naturally keeping all work and personal files in non OS partitions, I do a know a little bit how to work computers..) Though this approach did not work with VB and the VMs and that kinda really makes me wonder, since, as mentioned, any changes to the host OS would have been eradicated. All this leads to me thinking my hardware is about to fail. Hope not, fingers crossed. Anyhow, thank you for your input! This is really much appreciated, you have no idea how much I miss Seamless Mode, hehe.

Are your VMs located on the host OS partition? Do they get reset to the same time as the host OS?

noteirak wrote:Are your VMs located on the host OS partition? Do they get reset to the same time as the host OS?

No, they are on a separate partition from the host OS otherwise I could not go back and forth with the host OS restores. All data, work, etc is on a separate partition from the host OS here.

I do not know if the VMs get reset to the same time as the host OS, how do I check that? When I use them you mean in the bottom right the date and time of the VM should be the same as the one of the host OS, so to speak the actual date and time?

Sorry, I have not yet had the time to provide a log, I will try to do so soon.

I was just wondering if the VMs were on the same partition but maybe were part of an exclude list - so you've answered my question: there is no reason for them to reset in the first place
VM logs might tell us more so I'll wait for that first.

Minimum information needed for assistance

Using VirtualBox-4.2.16-86992.

No guest additions installed.

Host Windows Ultimate 64Bit SP1 with 6144MB and Guest Windows Ultimate 64Bit SP1 with 2048MB.

Host OS is C and VMs are on D. C and D are separate partitions.

Hope this helps.

Don't you need the GAs for seamless mode?

from the user manual

4.6 Seamless windows
With the “seamless windows” feature of VirtualBox, you can have the windows that are displayed within a virtual machine appear side by side next to the windows of your host. This feature is supported for the following guest operating systems (provided that the Guest Additions are installed):

GA are installed and version is matching the host VB install, but they do not report capable of seamless :

00:01:05.555304 Guest Additions information report: Version 4.2.16 r86992 '4.2.16'
00:01:05.555367 Guest Additions information report: Interface = 0x00010004 osType = 0x00037100
00:01:05.566118 Guest Additions capability report: (0x0) seamless: no, hostWindowMapping: no, graphics: no

Why are you using this specific version of 4.2.16 and not the latest of the branch? and why not a 4.3 version?

OraOra wrote: …
No guest additions installed.
…

well this is new, users usually claim they installed the guest additions when they haven't.

I didn't bother to look at the log because of the OP's statement. bad me.

I have a feeling he was refering to the ext pack.

probably.

noteirak wrote:Why are you using this specific version of 4.2.16 and not the latest of the branch? and why not a 4.3 version?

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=62697#p293620

Yes I must have confused Guest Additions with Extension Packs since I now remember starting the virtual CD from inside the VM.

Should I upgrade VB?