Seamless mode breaks when running on external display (Mac) -> Fixed in SVN

[Calum Benson]

I have an external monitor connected to my MacBook Pro. When running a Linux or Solaris guest VM on the external monitor, switching to Seamless mode causes the application windows to move to my laptop display and shrink to an unusable size.

[Technologov]

1. Retry with VBox 3.1.0

2. please post VBox log

3. please post screenshot (or photo)

-Technologov

[Calum Benson]

Latest Vbox.log prior to Seamless Mode crash

[Calum Benson]

It worked fine again in 2.x and 3.0.x, but behaviour is worse in 3.1.0 -- now Seamless mode just either doesn't work, or crashes.

[Calum Benson]

Latest OS X Crash Report prior to Seamless Mode crash

[Calum Benson]

Screenshot of Seamless Mode "not working" on external monitor, in 3.1.0

[Calum Benson]

Have just also noticed:

• With 3D accel enabled, Seamless munges the display, but at least munges it on the correct (i.e. external) monitor.
• With 3D accel disabled, Seamless still munges the display, but moves it to the laptop's internal screen as well.

This is all on OS X 10.6.2 host, btw.

[Calum Benson]

Still not working in 3.1.4, either on internal or external monitor. The behaviour is a little 'better' in 3.1.4 in that the screen doesn't end up in a messed up state; VirtualBox just tries for a few seconds, then reverts to non-seamless mode.

[Michael Thayer]

Sorry, I'm afraid that I didn't see this particular ticket. It looks like you are seeing several different issues there. I can't tell you much about the crash in the Qt code, but I can tell you that the failure to enter seamless which you are seeing with 3.1.4 is a recent regression which should be fixed in our development tree soon. Regarding the messed up screen shown in your screen shot, I will try to get some extra logging into the seamless guest tools this week and supply you with an updated version so that we can try to track this down.

[Michael Thayer]

The logging code I mentioned has been added and will be in any releases of VirtualBox after 3.1.4. You can activate it (after installing the new Additions) by restarting VBoxClient --display and VBoxClient --seamless as

$ VBOX_RELEASE_LOG_DEST=file=~/display.log VBoxClient --display
$ VBOX_RELEASE_LOG_DEST=file=~/seamless.log VBoxClient --seamless

By the way, if you can still reproduce the issue with the scrambled seamless mode using VBox 3.1.2, it would be great if you could attach a logfile for that session (or alternatively, one from the current version when you fail to enter seamless).

[Calum Benson]

Log file from 3.1.4 when entering seamless mode (at 00:28:49.178)

[Calum Benson]

(Just to confirm, do you mean the new logging code should be in 3.1.4 as well, or not?)

[Calum Benson]

Hmm, I upgraded to 3.1.6 this morning, updated the additions, restarted, and seamless initially still wasn't working. As soon as I ran those two VBoxClient commands, it started working... but neither of the log files specified by those commands were actually created or written to.

[Calum Benson]

Okay, now that I've upgraded again to the non-broken v3.1.6 (b59351), seamless is broken again. But those two VBoxClient commands still aren't generating any log files for me.

[Michael Thayer]

What about the following (just to be really sure):

$ export VBOX_RELEASE_LOG=all.e.l.l2.l3.f
$ export VBOX_RELEASE_LOG_DEST=file=/home/<whatever>/display.log
$VBoxClient --display
$ export VBOX_RELEASE_LOG_DEST=file=/home/<whatever>/seamless.log
$VBoxClient --seamless

[Michael Thayer]

Calum, did those commands get you anything?

[Calum Benson]

Sorry, my old MacBook died a couple of weeks ago, and my new one has been delayed by volcanic ash :/ I'll report back as soon as I can try this out.

[Calum Benson]

When I run those commands, both logfiles just contain the single line:

'Failed to create a pidfile. Exiting.'

[Christian Pötzsch]

Fixed in the next major release.

[Calum Benson]

It's not fixed in the 3.2.0 beta, if that's what you mean -- I've just tried it.

[Christian Pötzsch]

You have updated to the newest guest additions as well? What are the symptoms now? The same as before?

[Calum Benson]

Yes, guest additions are updated. Symptoms similar, if not quite identical. With VM running on external display, entering Seamless mode causes entire VM to migrate to laptop display. VirtualBox window decorations disappear, but guest background remains visible. VM remains in this state until exiting Seamless mode, at which point everything moves back to external display.

[Christian Pötzsch]

Ok, might be 2 problems. Please use Host+Home when in seamless mode and check the new view menu. Try to set the other monitor as output. Still Linux guest, right?

[Calum Benson]

It's an OpenSolaris guest (as it was when I posted those screenshots before).

Okay, I can move the VM back to the external monitor using that View menu, but the guest wallpaper still doesn't disappear, so I still can't see the host desktop.

[Michael Thayer]

Calum, did you stop the currently running copies of the daemons before starting the new ones? Not doing so is the normal reason for that message (the daemons place an advisory lock on the pidfiles to prevent additional instances from starting).

[Calum Benson]

No, I just ran the commands I was told to run. Since I have no idea what they do, I was unable to surmise that they weren't sufficient :)

Attaching display.log and seamless.log files now. Note I did not have an external display attached when generating these, but seamless mode fails in the same way (without the screen-jumping behaviour, of course)-- in fact, if anything, it's worse, as the VBox window just mostly turned black whilst in 'seamless' mode this time.

[Calum Benson]

display.log file when switching to seamless mode and back (v3.2.0 b1)

[Calum Benson]

seamless.log file when switching to seamless mode and back (v3.2.0 b1)

[Calum Benson]

(The 'turning black' thing appears to have been a one off, I haven't been able to subsequently reproduce that.)

[Michael Thayer]

What are the resolutions of your external monitor and built-in display?

[Calum Benson]

My current MacBook Pro display is 1680x1050. External monitor is either 1920x1200 (office), or 1920x1080 (home).

(My old MacBookPro, which I had when I originally reported the bug, was 1440x900.)

[Christian Pötzsch]

calum, we fixed also the second problem internally. I just tested it with a OpenSolaris VM on a second external monitor with a different resolution in Mac OS X. In fact your setup & it worked. Please give 3.2 beta 2 a try when it comes out. Thanks for your help.

[Calum Benson]

Confirmed -- seamless mode seems to work very nicely in 3.2.0 Beta 2, with and without an external monitor. Thanks!