Unresponsive guest taskbar with Desktop Effects Enabled

[dj_bridges]

This is a bit weird, but if I enable the desktop effects then in my WinXP guest machine running in VBox, the taskbar becomes completely unresponsive to any mouse clicks. If I disable the effects then I can again click on different programs and switch windows.

Am running VBox 4.0.8, Guest additions 4.0.8 and fully updated KDE.

Anyone got any ideas?

[GermanTux]

What video card are you running?  Also, is the rest of the Guest O/S responsive (desktop, open windows, etc)?

[dj_bridges]

Hi GermanTux,

Am running the following:

[dj@localhost ~]$ dmesg | grep agp
Linux agpgart interface v0.103
agpgart-intel 0000:00:00.0: Intel 965GM Chipset
agpgart-intel 0000:00:00.0: detected gtt size: 524288K total, 262144K mappable
agpgart-intel 0000:00:00.0: detected 8192K stolen memory
agpgart-intel 0000:00:00.0: AGP aperture is 256M @ 0xc0000000
[dj@localhost ~]$ lspci | grep -i vga
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (primary) (rev 03)

It was like this before the recent XOrg update so didn't think that is the problem.

The rest of the Guest OS works perfectly well e.g. Win button pops up start menu and Alt-tab allows me to cycle through the windows. When I mouse over a program in the taskbar is becomes highlighted, but nothing happens when I then click.

Strange huh???

[menotu]

Strange huh???

Sure is!

Just a thought - you've got the Oracle Extension Pack installed?

[GermanTux]

OK;

DJ, are the guest additions installed inside the Virtualbox guest?

Also, inside the WinXP Guest VM, go to Control Panel -> Mouse Propertiesv -> Hardware.  What is the name of the pointing device XP is using?

[dj_bridges]

The guest additions are definitely installed - in fact just reinstalled them to make sure there wasn't an issue with the install, but still getting the same behaviour.

Also, inside the WinXP Guest VM, go to Control Panel -> Mouse Propertiesv -> Hardware.  What is the name of the pointing device XP is using?

Microsoft PS/2 mouse...

[GermanTux]

OK, are you running the guest in full screen mode?  Try adjusting the resolution to 1024x768 (or something similar). 

[dj_bridges]

I am running the guest in full screen mode. I changed the guest resolution to 1024x768, but that didn't help.

However the taskbar works perfectly if I come out of full screen mode (guest resolution is then at 1280x723). Hadn't thought of trying that before. Its a shame to lose screen estate at the top and bottom though. Anyone understand why this might be happening - discrepancy between guest screen size and host's predicted guest screen size (if that makes sense)?

[GermanTux]

My guess is the host O/s is confusing where to focus the input commands (mouse/keyboard) with full screen mode, or any mode where the bottom reaches your Linux taskbar.  KDE (if that's what you are running) also has a lot going on compositing all those widgets that form your panel (luckily KDe is very efficient at doing this).  Something, somewhere, is crossing another's path.  

Admittedly I do not run my guests in full screen mode.  I'll give it a try tonight, and see what happens.  

Edit: I cannot replicate the issue really.  I do run XFCE, however. 

[Redeemed-05]

Same issue as dj_bridges, with one exception. When the KDE taskbar panel is hidden, the xp guest taskbar will not respond to mouse clicks, if in full screen mode. When the KDE taskbar panel is set to always visable, the xp guest taskbar works normally in full screen mode.

Sorry for resurrecting this old post, but it seemed silly to start another thread for the same problem.

Host PCLinuxOS KDE 2011.6 fully updated, Guest Windows XP Pro SP3 Guest Additions installed, Virtualbox 4.0.12 r72916.

Thoughts, comments?

[dj_bridges]

Unfortunately I never found a solution to this problem and seeing as the 3D effects don't really improve productivity I know work with them off (guest OS has no issues with these settings)..... Sorry I can't be more help!

[pstrebel]

Have the same issue for a long time with all recent versions of PCLOS / KDE / Virtualbox when using the GuestOS in full screen mode. Difference is I use Windows 7 as the Guest OS. My workaround is to place the Windows Taskbar vertically at the right edge of the screen - there it works without a problem.

[Redeemed-05]

Thanks for the reply dj_bridges. Perhaps the next KDE release will fix this issue.

[Redeemed-05]

Welcome to the forum pstrebel, and thank you for the reply. Do you find that this problem only exist when you have desktop effect enabled? Also, is your KDE taskbar panel hidden or visible?

[pstrebel]

Thanks for your welcome!
In my case it seems both - desktop effects enabled AND auto-hide KDE taskbar are needed to cause the problem. The one or the other alone are not causing it. By the way - my Windows taskbar is also set to auto-hide. Even when it is otherwise unresponsive in full screen mode (re mouse to screen edge will not bring it up) it does un-hide when the Windows key is pressed. Seems a very odd issue...