context menu does not appear VBox GUI 5.2.18 on mac

[genes]

I dare you to make the menu appear on a mac with the latest vbox gui 5.2.18. It is supposed by be host + home keys, but there is no home key on the mac keyboard. Googling suggests using fn + left-arrow as the home key, in combination with the apple-key as host key should work. But despite hours of trying to trick the darn menu into appearing so I could install guest additions, I never succeeded.

Oddly enough, I can trigger all kinds of configure-the-menu. But there is no way to make it appear. Yes I tried host+C and host+F to make sure I was NOT in those modes.

Why did you choose the Home key which does not appear on a Mac computer? Why can you not make the Home key configurable? Why can you not a button on the damn toolbar that makes the menu popup?

[Dsen]

Hello,
Hmm, curious. This is the default shortcut for a cross-platform case. It really should be changed to use some another default on macOS. I think, we could use Host+= or Host+Backspace as the default.
Also, one important thing. This popup-menu is only invokable in full-screen mode (on macOS), because in normal/seamless/scaled modes it is always easy to use macOS menu-bar instead (it's always visible); for full-screen mode it isn't always visible (for obvious reason) and sometimes even not that easily accessible with mouse on old macOS versions.

[Socratis]

Duplicate of #16504. From there:

The mini-toolbar is not required on OSX, since the native OSX MenuBar is always accessible, no matter which mode you're in: Normal, Seamless, even FullScreen (mainly FullScreen). So, there is no actual need for a mini-toolbar on OSX, therefore no need for the mini-toolbar settings.

QED

BTW, the Home key on a MBP is indeed Fn+LeftArrow... It is in mine and everyone else's :)
​https://www.cnet.com/how-to/two-mac-keyboard-shortcuts-for-missing-home-and-end-keys/

Dsen, if you were to change the defaults, lots of people would complain.

[Dsen]

Hi Socratis,

I wouldn't say that is exact duplicate of defect #16504. But both mini-toolbar and popup-menu are (maybe different things but) designed for the same purpose. And yes, they both missing on macOS by absolutely the same reason (mentioned in your comment). The only difference is that there is no mini-toolbar under macOS at all, while popup-menu still present there but in full-screen mode only (mentioned reason above, it's for old macOS versions).

Regarding Fn+LeftArrow for Home key. You are exactly right, that works and don't required to be changed in such case. That is not so easy to use since requires two keys instead of one (additionally to Host key/combo) but that still works.