Full screen between xorg and VMWare-Workstation

[mitchell486]

This is a minor bug that seems to be a conflict between xorg and VMWare Workstation 9 in Ubuntu 14.04. It seems most noticeable and prevalent with dual monitors. This issue was not present in 12.04. The taskbar at the top of the screen that is always present seems to give issues with full screen VMWare. In 12.04, it would stay at the top for a bit and then go away if you clicked anywhere in the full screen window. With 14.04, it doesn't show up at all anymore but it is still "there". It is a ghost of it and then will be a selectable option. If you click in the full screen window anywhere, the taskbar does not show at the top, but it is still selectable as an option. The "focus" does not go to the full screen. You can do things in there as long as the thing you are trying to do doesn't reside at the top of the screen where it would be the taskbar. Once you select the "top of the screen where the taskbar should be, this makes the VMWare window the active window in xorg, it then goes on top of the taskbar again. This is a major inconvenience bug because when you try to select anything in the top right while the taskbar is still "on top" of the full screen without appearing to be on top, it will select either the calendar or power settings or anything up in the top right.

Attached are screenshots as the process happens.

Step 1. Click on the screen which ISN'T FULL SCREEN VMWARE.
Step 2. Click anywhere in full screen VMWare window except top where taskbar resides. Taskbar is hidden but still "on top".
Step 3. Click where taskbar is in right corner and it will overtake the full screen window. You can select date, power, english, etc..
Step 4. Click anywhere else at very top of screen, taskbar will then go away and VMWare fullscreen will work properly.

EDIT: Apparently I have been calling the bar at the top the wrong name. It's MenuBar. The Ubuntu MenuBar is not playing well with fullscreen VMWare Workstation. It also doesn't show up for using File, Edit, etc...

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: xorg 1:7.7+1ubuntu8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-24.46-generic 3.13.9
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-24-generic x86_64
.tmp.unity.support.test.0:

ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3
Architecture: amd64
CompizPlugins: [core,composite,opengl,compiztoolbox,decor,resize,mousepoll,regex,gnomecompat,imgpng,place,wall,snap,animation,grid,unitymtgrabhandles,move,fade,vpswitch,expo,session,workarounds,ezoom,scale,unityshell]
CompositorRunning: compiz
CompositorUnredirectDriverBlacklist: '(nouveau|Intel).*Mesa 8.0'
CompositorUnredirectFSW: true
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Wed Apr 30 10:47:50 2014
DistUpgraded: 2014-04-28 18:43:58,883 DEBUG enabling apt cron job
DistroCodename: trusty
DistroVariant: ubuntu
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes
GraphicsCard:
 Intel Corporation 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0166] (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:21f6]
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-06-07 (327 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20130213)
MachineType: LENOVO 2392ARU
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-24-generic root=UUID=2abc73fb-99e8-4973-8796-c8fb273307bb ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: xorg
Symptom: display
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to trusty on 2014-04-28 (1 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 02/22/2013
dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.bios.version: G4ET93WW (2.53 )
dmi.board.asset.tag: Not Available
dmi.board.name: 2392ARU
dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.board.version: Win8 Pro DPK TPG
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Information
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.chassis.version: Not Available
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvrG4ET93WW(2.53):bd02/22/2013:svnLENOVO:pn2392ARU:pvrThinkPadT530:rvnLENOVO:rn2392ARU:rvrWin8ProDPKTPG:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
dmi.product.name: 2392ARU
dmi.product.version: ThinkPad T530
dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.11+14.04.20140409-0ubuntu1
version.ia32-libs: ia32-libs N/A
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.52-1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 10.1.0-4ubuntu5
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 10.1.0-4ubuntu5
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.15.1-0ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.8.2-1ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:7.3.0-1ubuntu3
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.99.910-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.10-1ubuntu2
xserver.bootTime: Tue Apr 29 12:19:37 2014
xserver.configfile: default
xserver.errors:

xserver.logfile: /var/log/Xorg.0.log
xserver.outputs:
 product id 12882
 vendor SEC
xserver.version: 2:1.15.1-0ubuntu2

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Matteo Dell'Amico (della)]

I can confirm the same bug on WMWare Workstation 11 and Ubuntu 14.10.

[Matteo Dell'Amico (della)]

See also https://communities.vmware.com/thread/485583

[Adam Matejko (adam-matejko)]

I also confirm the bug on VMware Player 7.0.0 and Ubuntu 14.04.

[xlash911 (guillaume-nourry-marquis)]

Any known workaround?

[mitchell486 (mitchell-bumgarner)]

@xlash911, the only workaround I found was to simply navigate to the full screen VMWare window, click, press CTRL+ALT which made it select OUT of the window, then click in again. It was a trivial step and really became like a second nature since I used CTRL+ALT to navigate my workspaces anyway. I hope this helps and sorry I don't have a better answer.

[Ahmet Yıldırım (regenx)]

I confirm the bug with Ubuntu 14.04 host and vmware 11 Windows 8.1 as a guest.

[gazhay (gazhay)]

Still a bug on 15.04 vmware workstation 11

[penalvch (penalvch)]

mitchell486, thank you for reporting this and helping make Ubuntu better.

As per http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/products/Laptops-and-netbooks/ThinkPad-T-Series-laptops/ThinkPad-T530?linkTrack=GPS:Body_Search%20Products&beta=false an update to your computer's buggy, insecure, and outdated BIOS is available (2.65). If you update to this following https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BIOSUpdate does it change anything?

For more on BIOS updates and linux, please see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs#Bug_reporting_etiquette .

Please note your current BIOS is already in the Bug Description, so posting this on the old BIOS would not be helpful.

Also, you don't have to create a new bug report.

Once the BIOS is updated, if the problem is still reproducible:
1) Please provide the output of the following terminal command (not perform an apport-collect):
sudo dmidecode -s bios-version && sudo dmidecode -s bios-release-date
2) Please make a comment specifically advising on if there was an improvement or not.
3) Please mark this report Status New.

If it's not reproducible, please mark this as Invalid.

Thank you for your understanding.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for xorg (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Vaclav Cermak (disnel)]

Experiencing this in 16.04 with VMWare player 12.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Vaclav Cermak (disnel), it will help immensely if you filed a new report with Ubuntu by ensuring you have the package xdiagnose installed, and that you click the Yes button for attaching additional debugging information running the following from a terminal:
ubuntu-bug xorg

Also, please feel free to subscribe me to it.

For more on why this is helpful, please see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs.

[Vaclav Cermak (disnel)]

OK, done.