Arch Linux

IMBJR

Member

From: INDCMPLX

Registered: 2014-03-16

Posts: 88

Some VirtualBox guests show black cursor

Windows 8.1 and Arch (installed via Anywhere) show a black cursor where any part that is anti-aliased is also shown black. This does not affect a Xubuntu 16.04 Live CD VM though.

Looking up the issue reveals so many possibilities, I wondered if anyone here is now seeing this and has any ideas on resolving it?

fsckd

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2009-06-15

Posts: 4,173

Re: Some VirtualBox guests show black cursor

Edit: I misread. What OS is the host? As I say below, Arch Anywhere is not Arch Linux. Can you please confirm?

Sorry, Arch Anywhere is not Arch Linux. You will need to ask on their boards. Code of conduct: Arch Linux distribution support *only*

Closing and Dustbin for deletion.

---

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IMBJR

Member

From: INDCMPLX

Registered: 2014-03-16

Posts: 88

Re: Some VirtualBox guests show black cursor

Edit: I misread. What OS is the host? As I say below, Arch Anywhere is not Arch Linux. Can you please confirm?

Sorry, Arch Anywhere is not Arch Linux. You will need to ask on their boards. Code of conduct: Arch Linux distribution support *only*

Closing and Dustbin for deletion.

Oops. Yes, the host is Arch Linux without Anywhere. The Anywhere is definitely a guest.

Some other details: Windows 8.1 actually displays a white cursor, but there's no anti-aliasing. The Arch guest displays the black cursor with the bad anti-aliasing. Xubunty 16.04 and Windows 7 have no cursor problems.

headkase

Member

Registered: 2011-12-06

Posts: 1,983

Re: Some VirtualBox guests show black cursor

What happens if you install Arch as the guest?  With Arch being both the host and the guest you should be able to get the best support here..

Terrowin

Member

Registered: 2015-05-26

Posts: 21

Re: Some VirtualBox guests show black cursor

Same problem here, Arch is the host and the black cursor is on Windows OS's and on Arch as a guest. Also, the qt interface won't use the gtk theme correctly using the -style gtk argument at launch.

IMBJR

Member

From: INDCMPLX

Registered: 2014-03-16

Posts: 88

Re: Some VirtualBox guests show black cursor

This seems like it is only the anti-aliasing of the transparency of the cursor that is the issue. Cursor colour is really down to the cursor theme installed.

Well, I've tried various upgrades of systems and Virtualbox Guest Additions, but to no avail.

kwash

Member

Registered: 2015-12-18

Posts: 16

Re: Some VirtualBox guests show black cursor

I'm also having this same issue after updating VirtualBox to version 5.1.0. Some parts of the mouse cursor are black and/or with no color at all. Until VirtualBox 5.0.24 the cursor had no problems.

In my system this is happening in Windows 7 and Windows 10 as guests, being Arch Linux the host. In Debian Testing as a guest there are no mouse cursor issues, so this seems to be a Windows guest related problem.
When trying to modify the mouse cursor theme in Windows 7 control panel, the mouse application opened by control panel crashes.

I have installed guest additions 5.1.0 and extension pack 5.1.0 and the issue remains.
Hope to see some information about this.

Screenshot of Windows 7 guest:

Last edited by kwash (2016-07-17 18:17:11)

headkase

Member

Registered: 2011-12-06

Posts: 1,983

Re: Some VirtualBox guests show black cursor

On my other computer I'm also running Virtual Box 5.1 with a Windows host and a 64-bit Arch guest.  I haven't noticed any mouse cursor issues there.

hb860

Member

Registered: 2014-09-12

Posts: 81

Website

Re: Some VirtualBox guests show black cursor

I am facing the same issue like kwash

Linux main 4.6.4-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Mon Jul 11 19:12:32 CEST 2016 x86_64 GNU/Linux
...
local/virtualbox 5.1.0-1
    Powerful x86 virtualization for enterprise as well as home use
local/virtualbox-guest-iso 5.1.0-1
    The official VirtualBox Guest Additions ISO image
local/virtualbox-host-modules-arch 5.1.0-2
    Virtualbox host kernel modules for Arch Kernel

With Virtualbox 5.1, cursors are broken in WinXP-Win10 guests.
See the following screenshot:

I have updated the extension package and additions to 5.1 and also tried with DKMS package instead of virtualbox-host-modules-arch. No luck.
I also tried to play with 3d/2d acceleration options without success.

Any suggestions appreciated.

Last edited by hb860 (2016-07-17 23:37:23)

bhrgunatha

Member

Registered: 2009-12-16

Posts: 103

Re: Some VirtualBox guests show black cursor

Not sure if it's related but I also noticed nvidia packages all updated (from 367.27-2 to 367.35-1) at the same time as virtualbox.
I'm using virtualbox-host-dkms.

Since then:
* At system boot - LightDM takes a minute or longer before it's visible. *
* Virtual box has the icon issue mentioned, plus when the guest is fullscreen - the menu panel at the bottom of the screen takes a long time (5-10 seconds) to make itself visible when hovering the mouse.

I've downgraded my nvidia packages from 367.35-1 back to 367.27-2 and virtual box from 5.1.0-1 to 5.0.24-1 and my system is back to normal.

I' m not sure if the problems are with nvidia, virtualbox or both together.

* EDIT: lightdm-gtk-greeter - not the lightdm service

Last edited by bhrgunatha (2016-07-18 07:35:49)

seagull

Member

Registered: 2013-02-09

Posts: 6

Re: Some VirtualBox guests show black cursor

In my case: intel Haswell graphics, arch host, diverse linux guests which show this blurry cursor

hb860

Member

Registered: 2014-09-12

Posts: 81

Website

Re: Some VirtualBox guests show black cursor

Thanks seagull and bhrgunatha
Downgrading to 5.0.24
--
Done. Cursors returned back to normal.

Last edited by hb860 (2016-07-18 08:40:09)

miku84

Member

Registered: 2015-03-31

Posts: 45

Re: Some VirtualBox guests show black cursor

This issue seems X11 related as it does not happen on Wayland.

nplatis

Member

From: Greece

Registered: 2011-02-22

Posts: 27

Re: Some VirtualBox guests show black cursor

Seeing exactly the same as hb860 (https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 8#p1641978).

Host: Arch
Guests: Two VMs (Windows 7, Windows 10)
GPU: Nvidia GTX 560 with the Nvidia driver on desktop / Intel graphics on laptop

Still the same with VirtualBox 5.1.2 just installed.

Last edited by nplatis (2016-07-28 12:57:35)

miku84

Member

Registered: 2015-03-31

Posts: 45

Re: Some VirtualBox guests show black cursor

bug:
https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/15665

hb860

Member

Registered: 2014-09-12

Posts: 81

Website

Re: Some VirtualBox guests show black cursor

The bug seems to be fixed in test builds of VirtualBox 5.1.3
Installing it to check myself.
---
Yep, it is fixed. Waiting for VBox 5.1.3 stable in our repo.

Last edited by hb860 (2016-08-06 13:54:29)

IMBJR

Member

From: INDCMPLX

Registered: 2014-03-16

Posts: 88

Re: Some VirtualBox guests show black cursor

This is till not fixed, even in 5.1.4.

brugge

Member

Registered: 2015-10-10

Posts: 2

Re: Some VirtualBox guests show black cursor

I have the same problem on Windows 7 guests. It only appears when mouse integration is on, so turning it off 'solves' the problem.

hb860

Member

Registered: 2014-09-12

Posts: 81

Website

Re: Some VirtualBox guests show black cursor

Just upgraded my setup from Virtualbox 5.1.3 beta built by Oracle to Virtualbox 5.1.4 from Arch Linux repos.
The issue appears again.
We have a defective version in repo.

Here is a new ticket by a Manjaro Linux user:

https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/15829

So we can see what is going on.

Last edited by hb860 (2016-08-23 21:31:27)

kwash

Member

Registered: 2015-12-18

Posts: 16

Re: Some VirtualBox guests show black cursor

Same here. The issue is present in 5.1.4.

TobalJackson

Member

Registered: 2014-03-16

Posts: 24

Re: Some VirtualBox guests show black cursor

I noticed this issue with 5.1.x as well (not sure if it was immediately after 5.0.24 -> 5.1.x, or later in the 5.1.x).  Around the same time this occurred, what began as an intermittent instability with Win7 Guests has turned into a situation where the win7 x64 guest is nearly unusable; it would seemingly crash at any interaction past the login screen. 

After scouring the logs for evidence of a windows crash, it wasn't until I found this thread (and others) that it became apparent that the guest OS itself was not crashing, but rather the virtualbox program itself (for that particular running guest instance).  Simply disabling mouse integration has solved both the (minor) rendering issue and (major) crashing issue.  I'm running Arch 4.7.1-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Aug 17 08:13:35 CEST 2016 x86_64 GNU/Linux and VirtualBox 5.1.4_OSE r110228
The win7 x64 guest has the guest additions installed as well as the following settings set:
  4096MB RAM
  Enable I/O APIC
  2 Processors
  100% execution Cap
  Enable PAE/NX
  Enable VT-x/AMD-V
  Enable Nested Paging
  42MB Video Memory
  2 Monitor Count (though only 1 enabled in windows)
  Audio Enabled (PulseAudio, Intel HD Audio)
  Bridged Networking
  USB 1.1 enabled
  Permanent shared folder enabled

TobalJackson

Member

Registered: 2014-03-16

Posts: 24

Re: Some VirtualBox guests show black cursor

Has anyone else experienced the crashing issue I described above with Win7 x64 (or other) guests with virtualbox >= 5.1.x?

Terrowin

Member

Registered: 2015-05-26

Posts: 21

Re: Some VirtualBox guests show black cursor

Has anyone else experienced the crashing issue I described above with Win7 x64 (or other) guests with virtualbox >= 5.1.x?

Yes, I have experienced innumerable crashes since 5.1.x. I did not notice that disabling mouse integration stops the crashes, I seem to recall sometimes the VM would abort anyways. Windows 10 Anniversary Update is highly unstable and aborts all the time, Windows 7 is the most stable. I really hope they address this issue with the crashing, I was considering using another virtualization tool but am already familiar with VirtualBox.

TobalJackson

Member

Registered: 2014-03-16

Posts: 24

Re: Some VirtualBox guests show black cursor

Hey Terrowin,

Can you confirm whether it's the Guest (windows) operating system that is crashing or if it's the VirtualBox Process that is crashing?

Terrowin

Member

Registered: 2015-05-26

Posts: 21

Re: Some VirtualBox guests show black cursor

Hey Terrowin,

Can you confirm whether it's the Guest (windows) operating system that is crashing or if it's the VirtualBox Process that is crashing?

First, I can confirm the crashing still happens even with disabling mouse integration.

Second, not too sure what I should be looking for to figure this out. As of now I have uninstalled Guest Additions from a VM and have not been able to crash it. Will make an update if it does crash.