macOS 10.12 guest stops responding to mouse after a while

[Lars Sonchocky-Helldorf]

When running VBox 5.1.6 with a macOS 10.12 server guest the guest stops responding to mouse clicks after a while running it. Host is OS X Yosemite 10.10.5.

A workaround is to freeze the guest and then wake it up again.

[Lars Sonchocky-Helldorf]

VBox log before the freeze

[Lars Sonchocky-Helldorf]

VBox log after the freeze

[Socratis]

I have mine running for 9 hours with no problems. One thing I noticed in your logs is that you have two mice attached:

00:00:20.714213 VUSB: Attached 'HidKeyboard' to port 1
00:00:01.117910 VUSB: Attached 'HidMouse' to port 2
00:00:01.118104 VUSB: Attached 'HidMouse' to port 3

Why two? Maybe this is causing the problem? Have you tried with one?

[Lars Sonchocky-Helldorf]

Replying to socratis:

I have mine running for 9 hours with no problems. One thing I noticed in your logs is that you have two mice attached:

00:00:20.714213 VUSB: Attached 'HidKeyboard' to port 1
00:00:01.117910 VUSB: Attached 'HidMouse' to port 2
00:00:01.118104 VUSB: Attached 'HidMouse' to port 3

Why two? Maybe this is causing the problem? Have you tried with one?

I have no idea where the second mouse comes from. I am using just my trackpad of the MacBook Pro and did not configure a second mouse. Do you have an idea how to get rid of it?

[Socratis]

Replying to IOOI:

I have no idea where the second mouse comes from ... Do you have an idea how to get rid of it?

Usually mice tend to hide in attics or basements. I don't know... get a cat? ;)

I have no clue why you would see two mice in your setup, mainly because I don't know your setup. You say that you have only your trackpad. That doesn't make a lot of sense. Where id VirtualBox find the 2nd one? Have you installed any virtual mouse, keyboard (Karabiner comes in mind)? If you're not sure, run the following in the Terminal and post the output:

kextstat | grep -v com.apple | grep -v org.virtualbox

Also check your System Information, System Report.

[Lars Sonchocky-Helldorf]

Replying to socratis:

Replying to IOOI:

I have no idea where the second mouse comes from ... Do you have an idea how to get rid of it?

Usually mice tend to hide in attics or basements. I don't know... get a cat? ;)

I have no clue why you would see two mice in your setup, mainly because I don't know your setup. You say that you have only your trackpad. That doesn't make a lot of sense. Where id VirtualBox find the 2nd one? Have you installed any virtual mouse, keyboard (Karabiner comes in mind)? If you're not sure, run the following in the Terminal and post the output:

kextstat | grep -v com.apple | grep -v org.virtualbox

this yields nothing but the header line:

Index Refs Address            Size       Wired      Name (Version) <Linked Against>

whereas when I run kextstat without the grep filtering I get only apple and virtualbox kexts shown, there is no thirdparty stuff on that machine, kextwise.

Also check your System Information, System Report.

nothing special there. the .spx file is large and contains a lot of sensible information (UUIDs, MAC adresses and so on) I'd rather not post publicly. Is there something I can extract for you?

[Socratis]

Replying to IOOI:

whereas when I run kextstat without the grep filtering I get only apple and virtualbox kexts shown, there is no thirdparty stuff on that machine, kextwise.

That's what the "grep -v com.apple | grep -v org.virtualbox" do for you; take out the Apple and VirtualBox extensions, leaving only the potential 3rd party ones. So, it seems you have none installed. Good.

Also check your System Information, System Report.

nothing special there. the .spx file is large and contains a lot of sensible information (UUIDs, MAC adresses and so on) I'd rather not post publicly. Is there something I can extract for you?

No, I just wanted you to take a look and see if there is something out of the ordinary in there. That's funny, I've never seen two mice. Do you mind posting the .vbox file for the affected VM? And please don't worry about the UUIDs and try to obfuscate them...

[Lars Sonchocky-Helldorf]

VBox file of the affected VM

[Lars Sonchocky-Helldorf]

Since this VBox is purely experimental and in no production use I have no problem with the UUIDs here. macOS 10.12 is still not officially supported, right?

[Socratis]

10.12 runs just fine on my Mac and it should on yours too, it's not that different from 10.11.

First of all, you have to stop using that old "cpuid" hack that you found online in some obsolete blog posts. And next time you create a VM for VirtualBox, please select the native VDI format. Not that VMDK doesn't work, but the more you deviate from the defaults, the harder it is for me to understand which part might fail. So, for starters, please issue the following command to get rid of the CPU faking:

VBoxManage modifyvm "Mac OS X 10.12" --cpuidremove 1

Next up: lower your virtual CPUs to 2 or 3. You have 4 in your host. That poor fellow needs to run on something, no? And please do not start the "but I have 8" conversation. Search the forums for answers (e.g. ​CPU Cores versus threads).

Next thing: change the VM Settings, System, Motherboard, Pointing Device to "USB Tablet" from "USB Multi-Touch Tablet". This is what is causing the 2 mice to appear. And chances are that this is causing the freeze of the mouse.

Finally, may I suggest that instead of opening bugs directly, it's better/faster if problems/concerns get first triaged in the forums ( ​https://forums.virtualbox.org/). 95% of the issues are resolved over there, which keeps the developers focusing on the bug fixes and enhancements...

[Lars Sonchocky-Helldorf]

I did remove the CPU ID Hack, set the Input-Device to "USB Tablet" and reduced the cores to 3. Now the mouse works but the Windowserver of the guest started crashing now. But this is something else I guess.

[aeichner]

No activity for over 3 years, closing as obsolete. Additionally VirtualBox 6.1 has improved macOS guest support.