virtualbox.org

[*]Windows 7 Host
[*]Virtualbox Version 5.1.4 r110228 (Qt5.5.1)
[*]Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack 5.1.4r110228
[*]Guest Additions 5.1.4 (installed on all guests)
[*]Guests:

• CentOS 7 with Gnome 3

• CentOS 7 with Xmonad

• CentOS 7 with i3

• Solus with Budgie

I have been having issues with using the bidirectional shared clipboard between my Host and any of its guests that do not use Gnome 3. I did a NetInstall of CentOS 7 Minimal then tacked on the Desktop Environment and other groupinstalls that setup X Windows, and desktop stuff. I can easily share the clipboard between my Host and the Guest. However, when I went back through and reinstalled the Guest as a minimal install, and this time only installed X Windows System and Xmonad or i3, the clipboard did not work. So then I decided to try the clipboard out on another desktop environment, this time on Solus, but I had no luck. I went back to CentOS 7, and thought that maybe it was urvxt, so I installed Gnome Terminal. I am able to copy and paste inside the VM, but nothing between the Host and Guest. I am able to mount the Host's location, so I've been just saving to files in a folder location and opening them to share data between the VM, but its definitely not a sustainable method.

Is there something I need to do differently and some other package installed on the guest that the full desktop system has that I don't know about, or is it just those Display Managers don't play well with VirtualBox?

Moving to "Linux Guests".

And my humble opinion, maybe it's an issue with this specific window manager, but I'm no Linux expert. That's BTW why I'm moving the topic, in the hopes that more Linux experts lurk there.

clipboard depends on Xorg and Freedesktop IIRC. I hate Gnome and KDE and never use them unless it is on an Alpha guest that does not support anything other than Gnome at that point. I pretty much never have an issue with 3D, clipboard, and the like, so I would make sure that you have installed all the necessary packages and verify it twice.

You may also find additional information on how to debug this HERE

Thank you Perryg. You had given me an idea in that I had to startup the VBoxClient, but I kept looking at the SystemD unit files for VirtualBox guest additions, and kept seeing

• vboxadd-service.service

• vboxadd-x11.service

• vboxadd.service

but I never saw anything about VBoxClient. Then I kept looking for how to start it in a unit file, but I'm not booting directly into Run mode 5. So, I had to figure out how to get i3, or xmonad to start it when I started it. Under the User's directory who's starting the DE, I had to edit the .xinitrc and add in the /usr/bin/VBoxClient-all command in there. So now, that has started, I am able to use the clipboard and copy and paste both ways now, at least for i3, or Xmonad. I haven't tried Budgie for Solus yet, but as of now, this forum post is solved.