When virtualbox is open, gnome copy/paste doesn't work correctly

[Matt Sachtler]

Binary package hint: virtualbox-ose

I've been running Windows XP inside of VirtualBox - installed package is version 1.5.0-dfsg2-1ubuntu3 in Gutsy. Whenever the VM is open and running, copying and pasting in Gnome seems to break - no matter what text I copy, from any application (i tried with pidgin, firefox, gnome-terminal, gedit), to any other application, it simply pastes a "ŸŸ". Closing virtualbox makes the issue disappear.

The steps to reproduce are simple: open a VM in VirtualBox. Try to copy text (through Ctrl+C, a menu, anything) in another application. Try to paste it anywhere else.

[Rolf Leggewie (r0lf)]

I don't remember seeing this. Still an issue?

[Matt Sachtler (supersack56)]

Yeah, still seeing it with virtualbox-ose version 1.5.6-dfsg-6ubuntu1.

[Rolf Leggewie (r0lf)]

Strange. It works just fine for me.

[Matt Sachtler (supersack56)]

It seems to have changed slightly, instead of pasting the "ŸŸ", it doesn't paste anything.

Any information I can post that would be helpful? I'm not sure where to start with info on this.

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

Is this symptom still reproducible in 8.10 or 9.04?

[Matt Sachtler (supersack56)]

Running 8.10, it is pasting ŸŸ. I tried pausing/resuming my virtual machine, and things seem to work correctly again.

[SteveLoughran (steve-loughran)]

Sometimes I've seen this with the virtualbox stuff in the VM to keep clipboards synchronised; you select something in the host and it doesn't get picked up, the old entry hangs around.

Workaround: have a clipboard manager like glipper, use that to force in the clipboard entries -which do seem to get picked up

[rusivi2 (rusivi2-deactivatedaccount)]

Thank you for reporting this bug.

Gusty and Windows XP SP2 are in End of Life status, as well virtualbox-ose and Ubuntu have undergone numerous updates. Please update and repost detailed error report.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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