Mouse pointer disappearing while screen recording or screen sharing (Windows XP guest on Ubuntu 8.10) -> fixed in SVN/upcoming 3.0.6

[hannes]

When running the screen recording software "CamStudio" (​http://camstudio.org/) or the screen sharing software "Unyte" (​http://www.unyte.net/) in an Windows XP guest, the mouse pointer disappears within the guest.

It is not complete gone, i.e. when moving around, it will briefly show up sometimes, and it can be used even if not visible (tool tips appear, clicking works). But most of the time you just can't see it.

Wrt. screen sharing: the remote computer that the XP guest is sharing the view with *does* see the pointer.

Needless to say that this is rather annoying.

Best,

Hannes

[mey]

Completely different configuration - same problem. Windows XP host, CentOS 5.2 guest. Display shared using Real VNC. Started suddenly 11/11/2008, using v 2.0.2. Upgrade to 2.0.4 did not resolve. Built new VM and reinstalled CentOS, problem persists.

[mey]

Replying to mey:

Completely different configuration - same problem. Windows XP host, CentOS 5.2 guest. Display shared using Real VNC (but problem is present on local display as well). Started suddenly 11/11/2008, using v 2.0.2. Upgrade to 2.0.4 did not resolve. Built new VM and reinstalled CentOS, problem persists.

Uninstalled VirtualBox and reinstalled 1.6.6. Problem gone. Uninstalled again and installed 2.0.2. Problem back. Checked these combinations again with VMs for Ubuntu and CentOS Live, only 1.6.6 functions with reasonable response rate and mose tracking.

[hannes]

Issue persists after upgrading to 2.0.6

[hannes]

A solution was posted here: ​http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?p=47668#47668

In short, in the Windows guest do the following: "Display Properties, Settings (tab), Advanced, Troubleshoot (tab) and then drag slider on "Hardware acelleration".

On my system, moving the slider a single step to the left was enough to keep the pointer visible in CamStudio (cf. ​http://img360.imageshack.us/my.php?image=displaypropertiestq6.png).

Did not test with Unyte, yet.

[James Shewey]

I can report a similar issue using dexpot. When switching virtual desktops, my mouse cursor disappears. Right clicking the desktop causes the cursor to show up again. Hardware acceleration is at full in display properties. I am using a Linux host (Ubuntu 9.04) with a windows XP guest. I am using Virtualbox V 3.0.2. Dexpot is free, so this issue should be easy to duplicate.

[harmscon]

There are many tickets currently open that share this common symptom, ie the mouse becomes uncontrollable. The ticket numbers are: 4713, 4248, 2603, 4252, 3350, 2575, 4700, 2660, 2682, 4817. The issue goes back through many versions of VirtualBox.

Common themes appears to be: USB mice/device, screen capture to clipboard or just plain becoming erratic after time (memory leak?).

This bug should be upgraded to blocker priority as it is no longer possible to be productive in this unstable environment.

[Michael Thayer]

I believe I have fixed this in SVN.

[David Snyderman]

#4252 was closed as a duplicate, perhaps of this entry. It references a disappearing mouse cursor in a Windows machine that is sharing its desktop via Microsoft Live Meeting. I've seen that behavior in Windows 2003 as a guest inside of an Ubuntu 9.04 host running VirtualBox 3.0.4.

The workaround that I've been using is to start up TightVNC server on the guest machine, connect to it via a VNC client on the host, and the mouse cursor is visible from within the VNC client.

[Michael Thayer]

davesnyd: you might want to try the 3.0.6 Beta - see ​http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=21919&sid=9f0b95ebcd2276f9e84cf561c0dc16d6 - to check whether that fixes the issue for you.

[Andrey]

I am on 3.06, and have the same issue. XP Guest Ubuntu 9.04

[Andrey]

want to clarify that I was using a WebEx as a host

[Frank Mehnert]

Are you sure that your guest additions are updated to VBox 3.0.6? You also might try VBox 3.0.8 which was released yesterday.

[Andrey]

After upgrading guest editions, issue went away. Perhaps some screen could be added to at least warn folks to update guest editions after upgrading VirtualBox?

Thanks.

[Frank Mehnert]

Thanks for the feedback. Such a warning is planned and will be most likely come with VBox 3.1.

[Barron123]

Yeah, the current behaviour for vboxnet is it doesn't require DHCP on the host as when you use host-only networking and start a VM with VirtualBox, the IP you assign in the global Preferences in VirtualBox would be assigned to ​software vouchers regardless of what IP it vboxnet has. So putting a 1.1.1.1 static IP there for nwam should be mainly ok.