Some menu categories in Linux guest OSes no longer populate

[PierrePotame]

Beginning with VirtualBox 5.1.14 r112924 and VirtualBox's corresponding Linux guest additions, certain menu categories in Linux Mint 18.1 Cinnamon and Chapeau Linux 24 guest OSes no longer populate. Specifically:

In Linux Mint 18.1 x64 Cinnamon, the following menu categories don't populate (i.e., are empty when selected):

• All Applications
• Accessories
• Administration
• Preferences
• Places

In Chapeau Linux, clicking on the "All" subpanel of Gnome 3.2's Activities > Applications panel causes all of the application icons to quickly flash onscreen and then disappear. The "Frequent" subpanel populates normally.

In Chapeau Linux with the Application Finder utility installed, the following menu categories in the Applications menu (which replaces the native Activities menu) don't populate:

• Accessories
• Utilities

If Application Finder itself is launched, all categories populate correctly.

Additional background:

• I'm running a Windows 7 x64 host.

• This problem did not occur with previous versions of VirtualBox. It began with the upgrade to VirtualBox 5.1.14 r112924 and installation of VirtualBox's corresponding Linux guest additions.

• This problem still does not occur in Linux Mint 18 "Sarah" Cinnamon.

• This problem does not occur with Linux Mint 18.1's own version of guest additions. (Unfortunately, Linux Mint's additions don't seem to support hardware rendering.)

• Because this bug prevents or hinders access to many applications, utilities, and settings via the GUI, I consider it major.

[Frank Mehnert]

So you are actually talking about guest menus, correct? Can you still reproduce this problem with a recent version of VirtualBox? If so, does it also happen if you uninstalled the Guest Additions from the guest?