Mouse Pointer doesn't track

[JKyleOKC]

I use a remote-display setup to train my backup personnel; I publish a 40-page quarterly magazine for a non-profit of which I'm a director, and need to have at least one person qualified to do that job in case I become disabled. To do this job, I use a Windows XP guest machine running under a Xubuntu 14.04.4 host, which has Word and Publisher installed. To train someone, I connect that VM to a second box on my home office LAN, via rdesktop.

The last time I set up for a training session, several years ago, the mouse pointers on both displays were synchronized at all times. When I moved the mouse, the student's pointer followed the movement exactly, and if the student moved the mouse at that station, my display followed its motion.

Now, however, that does not happen. If I actually do something via the mouse, such as clicking a file icon in a directory display to open it, the student's pointer jumps to that point and the file opens as expected, but my movement of the mouse to start the action does NOT happen on the student's display. Apparently the mouse motion events are duplicated as expected, but are not displayed.

I've not been able to find any setting that might control this. A look at the details of the VM provides this information with regard to VRDE settings:

Code: Select all

VRDE:            enabled (Address 0.0.0.0, Ports 3390, MultiConn: on, ReuseSingleConn: off, Authentication type: null)
Video redirection: disabled
VRDE property: TCP/Ports  = "3390"
VRDE property: TCP/Address = <not set>
VRDE property: VideoChannel/Enabled = <not set>
VRDE property: VideoChannel/Quality = <not set>
VRDE property: VideoChannel/DownscaleProtection = <not set>
VRDE property: Client/DisableDisplay = <not set>
VRDE property: Client/DisableInput = <not set>
VRDE property: Client/DisableAudio = <not set>
VRDE property: Client/DisableUSB = <not set>
VRDE property: Client/DisableClipboard = <not set>
VRDE property: Client/DisableUpstreamAudio = <not set>
VRDE property: Client/DisableRDPDR = <not set>
VRDE property: H3DRedirect/Enabled = <not set>
VRDE property: Security/Method = <not set>
VRDE property: Security/ServerCertificate = <not set>
VRDE property: Security/ServerPrivateKey = <not set>
VRDE property: Security/CACertificate = <not set>
VRDE property: Audio/RateCorrectionMode = <not set>
VRDE property: Audio/LogPath = <not set>

And here's what appears to be the pertinent portion of the most recent log file:

Code: Select all

00:00:00.620845   Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack (Version: 5.0.26 r108824; VRDE Module: VBoxVRDP)
00:00:00.622755 Console: Machine state changed to 'Restoring'
00:00:00.653057 GUI: UIMediumEnumerator: Medium-enumeration finished!
00:00:00.653191 Using XKB for keycode to scan code conversion
00:00:00.678064 VRDP: Statistics created: [full], enabled: 0.
00:00:00.694946 VRDP: VRDP: VD: Frames=10 MinMS=15 MaxMS=300 HistoryMS=2000 VideoMS=300
00:00:00.703437 VRDP: TCP server listening on port 3390 (IPv4 and IPv6).
00:00:00.712933 VRDP: Audio: rate correction mode 0x3.
00:00:00.714941 VRDE: loaded version 4 of the server.
00:00:00.715086 VRDE: [IMAGE]
00:00:00.715095 VRDE: [MOUSEPTR]
00:00:00.715099 VRDE: [SCARD]
00:00:00.715102 VRDE: [TSMFRAW]
00:00:00.715106 VRDE: [VIDEOIN]
00:00:00.715109 VRDE: [VRDE::INPUT]
00:00:00.765927 SUP: Loaded VMMR0.r0 (/usr/lib/virtualbox/VMMR0.r0) at 0xffffffffa101e020 - ModuleInit at ffffffffa103d610 and ModuleTerm at ffffffffa103dae0
00:00:00.765989 SUP: VMMR0EntryEx located at ffffffffa1040ff0 and VMMR0EntryFast at ffffffffa1040820
00:00:00.783139 Guest OS type: 'WindowsXP'

Is there any way for me to regain the original full-sync action? Its absence makes it impossible for me to use the mouse pointer to direct the student's attention to a specific area of the screen. While not fatal to the training process, this definitely hampers our progress!