Shared clipboard does not work on MacOS 6.0.18 r136238 (Qt5.6.3)

[tmcsys]

I've tried Everything.

I've been at this stuff for decades now and I don't think the problem is me.

VirtualBox:

Version 6.0.18 r136238 (Qt5.6.3)

Guest:

OS Product: Linux

OS Release: 3.16.0-6-amd64

OS Version: #1 SMP Debian 3.16.56-1+deb8u1 (2018-05-08)

/opt/VBoxGuestAdditions-6.0.18/sbin/VBoxServiceGuest Debian 3.16.0-6-amd64

Host:

OSX 10.11.6

Model Name iMac

Model Identifier iMac10,1

Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo

Processor Speed: 3.06 GHz

Number of Processors: 1

Total Number of Cores: 2

L2 Cache: 3 MB

Memory: 16 GB

Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz

[tmcsys]

VM Log

[Frank Batschulat (Oracle)]

please provide the vboxadd-install.log from the guests /var/log or /var/tmp, so we can see whether or not the guest additions compiled.

[tmcsys]

Wow! Thanks for the quick reply.

Maybe I can save us some time. The Debian guest is not a graphical install. There is no X-Windows.

Log files attached. (Multiple vboxadd-install logs are duplicates. Feel free to delete them. I could not.

[Frank Batschulat (Oracle)]

thanks at least we now know that the guest additions properly compiled and installed. The fact that there is no X is interesting as also reported in the setup log file:

"Could not find the X.Org or XFree86 Window System, skipping."

[tmcsys]

The fact that X is missing is because I chose not to install it. I did not choose Graphical Install. There is no desktop manager, and hence no underlying Xorg.

Not only do cut and paste not work between guest and host, I am not able to use the mouse to highlight text in the guest console and cut and paste within the guest console itself.

Is the shared clipboard feature of Guest Additions dependent on X?

[tmcsys]

Installed and ran 'evtest'.

VirtualBox USB tablet integration receives mouse click and mouse position events.

VirtualBox mouse integration receives mouse position events, but not mouse click events.

ImExPS/2 Generic Explorer Mouse is recognized by guest but does not receive mouse events.

This all seems to fit the information in the article, "Investigating problems with mouse input in VirtualBox".

[Frank Batschulat (Oracle)]

all those features do not work without X and the grapical environment in the guest. They are based on the X protocol.

[tmcsys]

Replying to fbatschu:

all those features do not work without X and the grapical environment in the guest. They are based on the X protocol.

I think rather than closing this case we should investigate further.

All which features depend on X?

Forget about the shared clipboard. I'm having a hard time believing that VirtualBox does not support copying and pasting within the guest console window itself wthout X.

I have shared folders, I have mouse events, and the console is capable of highlighting and displaying colors.

Requiring X to be able to make basic use of the console would make VirtualBox unsuitable for use for a very large number of projects.

vboxadd builds and installs a number of modules. The last thing the setup() routine does is configure X features. The source appears to indicate that X is optional.

#Put the X.Org driver in place. This is harmless if it is not needed.

#Also set up the OpenGL library. myerr="${INSTALL_DIR}/init/vboxadd-x11" setup 2>&1

test -z "${myerr}"

log "${myerr}"

The vboxadd-x11 script is what is reporting 'skipping' the X configuration.

[Frank Batschulat (Oracle)]

There is nothing to investigate further. Currently copy & paste requires the shared clipboard service and X support. Period.

We already have the following requests:

#1139 : Feature request: wider copy/paste support, in Console for instance
#3293 : Genereal text paste support (host->guest)
#9291 : [feature-request] Guest Additions: Please provide clipboard copy paste for text-mode console VMs (without X.org)
#15031 : Add menu item to type/insert clipboard contents to keyboard
#15372 : Let users paste plain text as keystrokes
#17066 : Universal host-to-guest paste