Panel disappears when VirtualBox guest is fullscreen

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isecore

Panel disappears when VirtualBox guest is fullscreen

Post by isecore »

I'm running a Windows 7 guest inside a VirtualBox-vm. Whenever that VM is fullscreen, the panel in Cinnamon disappears on all other desktops, only reappering when I exit the fullscreen.

What gives? It's quite annoying. Host is Mint 17 with Cinnamon.
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
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kyphi
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Re: Panel disappears when VirtualBox guest is fullscreen

Post by kyphi »

Full screen means full screen for the guest system. You can toggle that on or off by pressing the right control key and F.

Do you have the matching Expansion Pack installed as well as the Guest Additions?
Linux Mint 21.3 Cinnamon
isecore

Re: Panel disappears when VirtualBox guest is fullscreen

Post by isecore »

I'm well aware what fullscreen means and yes, I know I can switch in and out of it using right-ctrl-F.

What I want is my VB guest fullscreen on one workspace and be able to hit right-ctrl-f to make it lose keyboard/mouse focus so I can ctrl-alt-left/right to another workspace and work on something else or whatever. This works fine but a few days back for whatever reason, the Cinnamon panel disappears whenever the VB guest is fullscreen.

I'd like it back.
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kyphi
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Re: Panel disappears when VirtualBox guest is fullscreen

Post by kyphi »

The cinnamon panel always disappears when switching the guest operating system to full screen - that is normal.

As you know, to move to another workspace you first have to go out of full screen and then you can use the "hot corner" to switch.

Ctrl+Alt+directional arrows has never worked for me reliably with VirtualBox - it works fine while holding down the left Ctrl+Alt keys but as soon as these are released, the VirtualBox screen does not move.

Another option is to use Coverflow Alt-Tab or Desktop Scroller available via System Settings, Preferences, Extensions.
Linux Mint 21.3 Cinnamon
isecore

Re: Panel disappears when VirtualBox guest is fullscreen

Post by isecore »

There's no problem at all keepin VB guest fullscreen and switching workspace. Just tap left-ctrl once to release keyboard/mouse from it, then use ctrl-alt-left/right to switch. Easy as pie.

You don't seem to listen to me and no one else has piped into this so I'm going to assume I'm fairly alone to have this issue. Thanks for your time though.
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kyphi
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Re: Panel disappears when VirtualBox guest is fullscreen

Post by kyphi »

isecore wrote:There's no problem at all keepin VB guest fullscreen and switching workspace. Just tap left-ctrl once to release keyboard/mouse from it, then use ctrl-alt-left/right to switch. Easy as pie.
That really depends on your keyboard - they are not all the same. My current keyboard is a Logitech keyboard which functions very differently to any other keyboard I have used before, including other Logitech keyboards.

It may indeed be an issue only for you and contrary to what you say, I have listened to you and tried to help, regrettably without success.
Linux Mint 21.3 Cinnamon
lnx01

Re: Panel disappears when VirtualBox guest is fullscreen

Post by lnx01 »

I'll chime in here. Having the exact same problem.

Maybe I can explain it better.

Workspace1: Firefox
Workspace2: VB Guest in fullscreen mode

Situation:
I am in the virtual machine, which is running full screen, on workspace2. I want to switch to Firefox on workspace1 without touching my mouse, or changing the view mode of the virtualbox guest.

Results:
Tap right ctrl to release keyboard control from VirtualBox Guest: Success
Press leftctrl+leftalt+leftarrow to switch to workspace1: Success
Bottom Panel is gone

Remedy (to return panel to view):
Press leftctrl+leftalt+right to switch back to workspace2 with fullscreen VirtualBox Guest
Press rightctrl+F to switch view mode of VirtualBox to windowed mode
Press leftctrl+leftalt+leftarrow to switch to workspace1
Bottom Panel is visible

Do you see the problem now?
I know the panel is supposed to hide when VirtualBox is in fullscreen , but why is it hiding on ALL the Workspaces?


EDIT:
It appears that this only happens when the Guest VM is Windows with 3D Acceleration enabled. Disable 3D Acceleration, and the problem goes away.
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