Minimizing full screen Virtualbox re-draws full screen with Virtualbox image

[Zordid]

This is a strange bug that is present since the update of 12.10 now.

When I run Virtualbox (guest OS is Win 8, but that does not matter I guess) and I minimize this full screen window, the Unity desktop re-appears as expected, but only fractions of a second later, the Virtualbox screen (my Win 8) re-appears!

It is just a grapical bug, it's just the still image that is re-displayed full screen, if you click on any (not visible) Unity window, the screen is correctly displayed. But if you happen to click on the background (not a window), nothing happens, the Virtualbox Image still covers everything.

This is really, really annoying it must be a bug in Unity.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Benjamin Kraus (ben-benkraus)]

I'm having the exact same problem when minimizing a fullscreen instance of Remmina.
This started right around the same time as I saw this article:
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTI2MTY

I suspect this might be a regression as a side effect of fixing this bug:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/compiz/+bug/1063690

To test this theory, I just went to "CompizConfig Settings Manager" (ccsm) -> "Composite" and unchecked "Unredirect Fullscreen Windows".

This has (sort of) resolved the issue with Remmina. Now when I minimize, none of the "Unity" components are redrawn until I click on another Window, but I suspect that is a different bug.

[Benjamin Kraus (ben-benkraus)]

After re-reading the original description, I'd like to emphasize that I'm running Ubuntu natively (not in a virtual environment).

[Benjamin Kraus (ben-benkraus)]

OK, looking through the comments on bug 1063690, I found another bug matching this description, so I think this is a duplicate.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/compiz/+bug/1053895

One of these two bugs should be marked as a duplicate, but the other bug 1053895 is currently marked as "incomplete", so I'm not sure which to flag.

Look through bug 1063690 for other related bugs.

[Ketil (ketil-froyn)]

I get this too, and I've had it for a long time. I just upgraded to virtualbox 4.2.8 from virtualbox.org, and I still have the same issue.

[Ryan Novosielski (novosirj)]

I'm seeing this behavior with VirtualBox on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS.

[Krzysztof Socha (kszysss)]

I can confirm this happening to me as well. Since 12.04 LTS, through 12.10 and now 13.04, when I minimize a full screen Virtualbox instance, none of the Unity elements are redrawn properly until I click on one of them. Since 13.04 there is another "feature" present - the Virtualbox instance gets minimized (I see the animation), the host screen pops-up, and a fraction of a second later the Virtualbox screen is back. Also until I click somewhere - then it goes back to host screen view.... Really annoying :(

[Zordid (zordid-gmx)]

Why is nobody reacting to this? This is SO annoying - full screen mode is practically unusable!

PLEASE. Somebody.
Show that Ubuntu is worth it!!!

[Benjamin Kraus (ben-benkraus)]

I believe there is a workaround, for those who haven't read the comments in Bug 1053895 or Bug 1063690

The problem started when "Unredirect Fullscreen Windows" became the default (bug 1063690), and the problem goes away when "Unredirect Fullscreen Windows" is unchecked.

You can either turn off "Unredirect Fullscreen" at this location: CompizConfig Settings Manager -> Composite -> Unredirect Fullscreen Windows

Or you can "blacklist" Virtualbox by adding to the string in "Unredirected Match"
(Click the "Plus" symbol, click "Grab", click on the Virtualbox Window, check "Invert" and click "Add"). It should add something like this: " & !(class=Virtualbox)" to the end of the string.

[Christopher Townsend (townsend)]

This is actually an issue in Compiz. We should see about adding Virtualbox as another unredirect exception.

[Benjamin Kraus (ben-benkraus)]

This exact same issue effects Remmina as well. If you are adding Virtualbox as another unredirect exception, you should add Remmina as well.

!(class=Remmina)

[Christopher Townsend (townsend)]

Ok, will see about getting Remmina as an exception as well. Thanks for pointing that out!

[Christopher Townsend (townsend)]

I'm thinking this is a general issue with full screen applications being minimized. As a test, I tried putting a LibreOffice Impress presentation in slideshow mode, which puts it full screen. I then minimized the slideshow and I get the same issue with that.

I think instead of adding any apps as a default exclusion, trying to find the root cause of this and fixing it would be better.

[Christopher Townsend (townsend)]

I have found the root cause of this issue related to unredirect. The opengl compize plugin does not take into account minimized fullscreen apps when unredirected. The fix is pretty simple in that it should check if the window is minimized before making it redirected.

This fixes this issue, but you will still see the behavior in bug #1064155 (missing Launcher and Panel). I will propose a branch to fix this and work on getting it SRU'd and then tackle the missing Launcher and Panel issue.

[Christopher Townsend (townsend)]

I'm also going to duplicate this bug to bug #1053895 since that bug is more general since this issue really affects all fullscreen applications that are not in the unredirect exception list.

[Manfred Usselmann (usselmann-m)]

1:0.9.9~daily13.06.19~13.04-0ubuntu1 (raring-proposed) fixes the issue with minimizing a fullscreen instance of VirtualBox for me.