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Gnome 3 and VirtualBox

October 14th, 2011 - 02:50 pm ET by José Silva | Report spam
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Ok, I've just upgraded to Gnome 3, very smoothly I must say, and I think
I like it, after a couple of hours operating on my production machine.

Now, just noticed my first operating problem. I must run a Windows cad
application in VirtualBox. On Gnome 3 + Compiz, I just used to place
this on another desktop at fullscreen, and just dragged the mouse to the
screen edge and let Compiz switch to the other desktop when I needed to.
That was one of the many ways Compiz had to switch desktops but this was
the one I was used to.

With Gnome 3, to start, I don't know how to switch to another desktop if
I am in VirtualBox fullscreen. Windows absorbs the Windows key, of
course, which is also the Gnome 3 hot key, and the top left screen
corner is occupied by VB. Does anyone know?

Now, if I switch VirtualBox out of fullscreen to windowed or seamless
mode, then of course I can switch the desktop but then the cad program
stops displaying it's screen which probably uses 3D; Windows still
behaves normally.

This doesn't happen under Gnome 2 or XFCE. I tried to play with
combinations of VB settings of 2D and 3D pass-through to no avail.

Any thoughts?


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#1 Camale
October 15th, 2011 - 08:00 am ET | Report spam
On Fri, 14 Oct 2011 19:48:52 +0100, José Silva wrote:

Ok, I've just upgraded to Gnome 3, very smoothly I must say, and I think
I like it, after a couple of hours operating on my production machine.

Now, just noticed my first operating problem. I must run a Windows cad
application in VirtualBox. On Gnome 3 + Compiz,



You meant GNOME "2" + Compiz, right? :-)

I just used to place this on another desktop at fullscreen, and just
dragged the mouse to the screen edge and let Compiz switch to the other
desktop when I needed to. That was one of the many ways Compiz had to
switch desktops but this was the one I was used to.

With Gnome 3, to start, I don't know how to switch to another desktop if
I am in VirtualBox fullscreen. Windows absorbs the Windows key, of
course, which is also the Gnome 3 hot key, and the top left screen
corner is occupied by VB. Does anyone know?



(...)

Hmm... good question.

I have not tried it but (in theory :-P) it should be the same. The
application you need to run from VB can be placed in a second workspace
and switching between workspaces can be done in gnome-shell by means of
"Ctrl+Alt+Up/Down arrow".

OTOH, there is also the fallback mode which should work the same as it
did in GNOME 2.

Greetings,

Camaleón


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#2 José Silva
October 15th, 2011 - 12:10 pm ET | Report spam
On 15/10/11 12:51, Camaleón wrote:
On Fri, 14 Oct 2011 19:48:52 +0100, José Silva wrote:

Ok, I've just upgraded to Gnome 3, very smoothly I must say, and I think
I like it, after a couple of hours operating on my production machine.

Now, just noticed my first operating problem. I must run a Windows cad
application in VirtualBox. On Gnome 3 + Compiz,



You meant GNOME "2" + Compiz, right? :-)



Right, sorry :)


I just used to place this on another desktop at fullscreen, and just
dragged the mouse to the screen edge and let Compiz switch to the other
desktop when I needed to. That was one of the many ways Compiz had to
switch desktops but this was the one I was used to.

With Gnome 3, to start, I don't know how to switch to another desktop if
I am in VirtualBox fullscreen. Windows absorbs the Windows key, of
course, which is also the Gnome 3 hot key, and the top left screen
corner is occupied by VB. Does anyone know?



(...)

Hmm... good question.

I have not tried it but (in theory :-P) it should be the same. The
application you need to run from VB can be placed in a second workspace
and switching between workspaces can be done in gnome-shell by means of
"Ctrl+Alt+Up/Down arrow".



No, doesn't work, not even in windowed mode; VB captures the keystroke
and delivers it to the Windows XP guest; Gnome 3 doesn't even notice it
and IMHO that's the way it should be because you might need it on the guest.

What I think I need is a working corner/top/edge screen trigger which
isn't working with VB fullscreen.


OTOH, there is also the fallback mode which should work the same as it
did in GNOME 2.



I didn't try it because I'm liking Gnome 3, it fits my operating mode.

Thank you for helping,
jss


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#3 Camale
October 15th, 2011 - 01:00 pm ET | Report spam
On Sat, 15 Oct 2011 17:08:04 +0100, José Silva wrote:

On 15/10/11 12:51, Camaleón wrote:



(...)

With Gnome 3, to start, I don't know how to switch to another desktop
if I am in VirtualBox fullscreen. Windows absorbs the Windows key, of
course, which is also the Gnome 3 hot key, and the top left screen
corner is occupied by VB. Does anyone know?



(...)

Hmm... good question.

I have not tried it but (in theory :-P) it should be the same. The
application you need to run from VB can be placed in a second workspace
and switching between workspaces can be done in gnome-shell by means of
"Ctrl+Alt+Up/Down arrow".



No, doesn't work, not even in windowed mode; VB captures the keystroke
and delivers it to the Windows XP guest; Gnome 3 doesn't even notice it
and IMHO that's the way it should be because you might need it on the
guest.



Hum... the host should prevail over the guest (just kidding ;-), but
losing the host keybindings because of the running VM is not something I
would expect). Anyway, if it does not work, this is a secondary
problem :-)

Do you have the latest package of VB (and for its guest additions)? I've
read about some improvements for GNOME 3 in the last VB changelog :-?

What I think I need is a working corner/top/edge screen trigger which
isn't working with VB fullscreen.



Now you say... maybe you can try with a third-party tool, like
"xbindkeys" to bind mouse or key actions to events and it's independent
of the window manager in use.

Greetings,

Camaleón


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#4 José Silva
October 15th, 2011 - 02:40 pm ET | Report spam
On 15/10/11 17:56, Camaleón wrote:
(...)

With Gnome 3, to start, I don't know how to switch to another desktop
if I am in VirtualBox fullscreen. Windows absorbs the Windows key, of
course, which is also the Gnome 3 hot key, and the top left screen
corner is occupied by VB. Does anyone know?



(...)

Hmm... good question.

I have not tried it but (in theory :-P) it should be the same. The
application you need to run from VB can be placed in a second workspace
and switching between workspaces can be done in gnome-shell by means of
"Ctrl+Alt+Up/Down arrow".



No, doesn't work, not even in windowed mode; VB captures the keystroke
and delivers it to the Windows XP guest; Gnome 3 doesn't even notice it
and IMHO that's the way it should be because you might need it on the
guest.



Hum... the host should prevail over the guest (just kidding ;-), but
losing the host keybindings because of the running VM is not something I
would expect). Anyway, if it does not work, this is a secondary
problem :-)

Do you have the latest package of VB (and for its guest additions)? I've
read about some improvements for GNOME 3 in the last VB changelog :-?



Yes, I have 4.1.4 on both

What I think I need is a working corner/top/edge screen trigger which
isn't working with VB fullscreen.



Now you say... maybe you can try with a third-party tool, like
"xbindkeys" to bind mouse or key actions to events and it's independent
of the window manager in use.



I'll investigate that, thank you.

In the meanwhile, I discovered that the cad program just doesn't like to
be changed of mode, meaning, if I start it on windowed mode, it displays
correctly until I change to fullscreen and vice-versa. So, I can operate
on windowed mode and run the cad program correctly, just loosing about
one inch vertically, which is tolerable. Then, when I want to switch to
another desktop, I use the top left corner, which is visible, to do it.

Let's hope that either the Gnome or the VirtualBox guys sort this out in
the meanwhile.

Thank you for your extended help.


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#5 José Silva
October 15th, 2011 - 06:10 pm ET | Report spam
On 15/10/11 19:31, José Silva wrote:
(...)

With Gnome 3, to start, I don't know how to switch to another desktop
if I am in VirtualBox fullscreen. Windows absorbs the Windows key, of
course, which is also the Gnome 3 hot key, and the top left screen
corner is occupied by VB. Does anyone know?







(...)





Got it!

For others with same problem, VirtualBox catches all keystrokes, even
system ones like windows key or Alt+Tab and passes it to the guest VM
unless you uncheck "Auto Capture Keyboard" on VB manager (GUI)
File/Preferences/Input tab.

Obviously, if you do this, you no longer can, for example, use the
windows key for guest start menu or Alt+Tab to switch windows on guest
VM; you can't have it all.

Keep well,
jss


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