virtualbox.org

First off, I'm using VB 1.6.6 (PUEL, I believe) on Ubuntu 8.04 (64-bit) and the gust OS's I've tried so far were ubuntu/kubuntu 32-bit (both from isos and actual burned cd's), Win XP SP 3, and TinyXP rev 09 (both from isos only). I've tried a myriad of combinations of memory/hdd sizes (always more than the defaults, but nowhere near my system limits) for the images, both fixed and dynamic and nothing seems to change.

With that in mind, the issue I have is that everything up to starting the actual VM appears to work fine. After I specify the media to use (cd/iso) and click into the window to actually interact w/ the OS installer, VB grabs the input like normal, but no keys work and VB refuses to release control again when I hit the host key (even tried changing this...). At this point, my only recourse is the hit the physical reset button on my machine since I simply can't get back to my normal OS and no break keys work either. There are no visible error msgs either (except maybe in the logs, but I'm not sure what's normal/abnormal there since this is my first time w/ this software).

I realize my subject line is rather vague, but I find it difficult to come up w/ a definitive name to put to the issue. I should be able to get the log files if those will help, just let me know.

Any help would be appreciated and thanks in advance.

Logs are always good to post. Be sure to check the size of them when posting, the forum has a limit on how long it can be. Use pastebin if needed.

As for your title, shall I change it or will you change it yourself (edit the first post and change the subject). I'm thinking about a title like "After key/mouse grab no way back".

Title has been changed. This is actually better since, as I neglected to mention in the first post, if I don't let the VM window grab the input and just let it sit there, everything remains fine.

Also, here are those logs. I just have 2 of the most recent ones since I'd deleted the earlier profiles in order to retry w/ different settings. I did look at previous ones, however, and they also ended like these 2 below, namely w/ the lines about booting from cd/dvd and then a line or two about the display resizing.

Win XP SP 3
Kubuntu 8.04 (32-bit)

It's also worth noting that the first time I can see and grab these logs is after I actually reboot so I'm not sure if there are other things happening that don't get put into the logs. I seem to recall that the linux OS keeps logs also (don't know where)...maybe those would be handy?

I had held off on posting the logs before because I figured they'd be too long, but I'd forgotten about sites like pastebin

So you have no control or what so ever over your VM? Not even keyboard input accepted? If you can use the keyboard, try to install the Guest Additions (this is perfectly possible with just the keyboard). Mouse Integration should help you with the mouse.

After the VM grabs the input, I can't do anything at all, mouse or keyboard. Also, don't I have to have an OS actually installed first before I can mess w/ the Guest Additions (since I'd have to mount the Guest Additions iso on the drive where I currently have the actual OS's iso for installation)? At this point, I can't even get the install process for a given OS started because the VM window is totally non-responsive after grabbing input and I can't interact w/ it.

Well, if you start a VM, it will have focus and control over your keyboard by default. You can check that by looking at the right bottom. There you see your Host key defined and if the arrow is green, the keyboard is grabbed. You don't have to click inside the VM window to get the keyboard grabbed either, clicking on the titlebar should be enough.

OK, I didn't realize it had KB control by default, though I do see that now (arrow is green). I tried the kubuntu image again to check on what inputs I could use. It looks like the KB input just isn't working in the VM at all. The iso I used has a live image that it boots into if you don't hit anything on the initial menu screen. I tried selecting w/ the KB here, but nothing happened. The live cd image did boot up normally and, after clicking in there to get the mouse grabbed also, I could interact w/ the image in the VM window w/ the mouse only. I tried opening a text editor and this app would also not register any keystrokes. At that point, I was back in the same boat as before since, even though I could do things w/ the mouse, the KB wouldn't work and so I couldn't use the Ctrl-key to get control away from the VM window to shut that session down.

Here's the log from that session.

I do notice this on line 510: Does KBD mean keyboard?

and a ton of these lines (I did hit the Ctrl-key a number of times): Again, I had to reboot the machine to get out of that spot.

Well, I'm not sure what was happening, but after upgrading to VB 2.0, it looks like my keyboard input is working fine now and I can actually install guest OSes now. I'll change the topic heading again to "solved."

Thanks for the help Sasquatch