No way to contain pointer in VM window

[Pete Woods]

In a Qemu VM, the unity8 side gestures (for the launcher and app switcher) cannot be activated.

[Michał Sawicz (saviq)]

I'd say this isn't a unity8 bug... More like a qemu one, because it doesn't let you confine the cursor to the VM.

You can reach all the features - launcher (Alt+F1), app drawer (Super+A), switcher (Alt+Tab) using the keyboard.

[kevin gunn (kgunn72)]

isn't this really a specific instance of this bug 1670670 ?
if so, please dup this one

[Michał Sawicz (saviq)]

Not really, because even if it gets in sync, you won't get to push against the edge unless the VM locks you in. You'll just go past the edge and out of the VM.

[Christian Ehrhardt  (paelzer)]

Well, for one it is a bug for others a feature :-)

Many many people consider it a huge improvement that the mouse can seamlessly leave and enter the guest GUI (for quite a few releases I think).

The behavior to some extend depends on the device that is used and guest support.
So depending on how you usually control/start you VM qemu/libvirt/virt-manager/... you might find good hints how to change the device types in the following links (there mostly people want it enabled, but the guides can be followed in reverse).
http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/107633/how-do-i-get-my-mouse-back-from-qemu-kvm
http://serverfault.com/questions/457603/any-way-to-release-focus-on-a-kvm-guest-in-virt-manager-without-having-to-click

If that doesn't help you, please let me know how you manage&start your guests so I can focus on that.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Comments #1 and #4 answer it all. Although comment #1 is half wrong as #4 points out.

A workaround for tablet-style input exists in the form of hotkeys (comment #1). And if you really want pointer confinement then that's always been an option in how you launch Qemu/KVM (comment #4).

[Michał Sawicz (saviq)]

Don't get me wrong, I know not containing the pointer is preferable in some cases, what I'm saying is lacking, is an *option* to contain it.

The pointer edge gestures in unity8 require "pushing" your pointer against the display edge, this is only possible in a VM if the cursor is confined.

Trying with virt-manager, I've not found a way to confine the pointer. I'll try again using some of the options in the discussions linked.

[Pete Woods (pete-woods)]

Well, for example when you run fullscreen, your pointer *is* locked to the edges. Unfortunately I can't test this works in those cases, as the VM screen resolution doesn't match the aspect ratio of the real screen 4:3 instead of 16:10 (due to a different bug), so there are black bars down the sides.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Doesn't 'qemu -usbdevice mouse' constrain the pointer correctly already? I assume we're talking about the behaviour of 'qemu -usbdevice tablet' here...

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

I can't see an option for it in virt-manager so can't fully confirm (because I have no time to create a VM to verify for you).

Either you're unaware of Qemu's keyboard shortcut to contain the pointer ("Ctrl-Alt Toggle mouse and keyboard grab." [1]), or your VM is defaulting to -usbdevice tablet when you want -usbdevice mouse, or you need both.

Put another way, this is probably either user error or lack of configuration in virt-manager. So at most it's a virt-manager bug.

[1] https://qemu.weilnetz.de/doc/qemu-doc.html#pcsys_005fkeys

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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