Unable to turn on seamless mode in VirtualBox

Question

I'm not able to switch to Seamless Mode in VirtualBox with Ubuntu 10.04 or 9.10 as guest OS's. I have tried the seamless mode with XP as guest OS, and it works absolutely fine. The host OS is Windows 7.

I have in-built Via/S3G Unichrome Pro IGP graphics, and I have allocated 30 MB out of 64 MB of graphics memory. I've also 1.5 GB of RAM.

I also tried installing Guest Additions but it still didn't work. VirtualBox version is 4.0.4r70112. The Host+L does not lead to seamless mode. i.e. under the Machine menu in Virtual box window "Seamless mode" is disabled (comes in grey color). How can I get the seamless mode to work? Please help!

I have the same problem. In one of my virtual boxes it works, but in the other not. Both have Guest additions installed. — Johan Karlsson, Sep 02 '14 at 12:52

score 9 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:24

9

For seamless mode (Host+L) Virtual Box Guest Additions of the same program version need to be installed in the guest OS.

How to install Guest Additions see also this answer. In some cases you will simply need to reinstall the Guest Additions if they don't run the way they should.

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:24

Community

1

answered Mar 01 '11 at 20:35

Takkat

142,284

1

Takkat i have installed Virtual box and guest additions of same version. But what problem i have is the Host+L does not lead to seamless mode. – jsbisht Mar 02 '11 at 04:25
If I got you right then you are able to select seamless but you can't move the window of a guest Ubuntu program to the desktop of your host? – Takkat Mar 02 '11 at 08:52
i m not able to select seamless mode. – jsbisht Mar 02 '11 at 17:30
1

This usually indicates that Guest Additions are not installed. Try again and don't forget to reboot the guest OS to take effect. – Takkat Mar 02 '11 at 17:37
i have tried all that but still the same problem. Anyways thanks. – jsbisht Mar 03 '11 at 10:13

score 6 · Answer 2 · answered May 24 '15 at 23:41

6

Turn off Nested Paging in the System tab and restart the guest.

answered May 24 '15 at 23:41

Mark

61

Can confirm that this works. Though it only seems to work with desktops that have panels/taskbars. I can't get dwm, for instance, to work with it. – Braden Best Aug 12 '15 at 04:09
Did not work for me. – trusktr Nov 18 '21 at 00:04

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 28 '12 at 11:50

1

May be you forgot installing the guest additions in the GUEST. For doing so, click in the menu "Devices" in the GUEST window, and choose "install guest additions"

answered Feb 28 '12 at 11:50

Bernardo Mello

19

This solved it for me. I didn't realize that you had to install on the actual guest as well. – whoisearth Oct 06 '17 at 02:53

explorer · Answer 4 · 2020-07-21T06:04:10.953

Even after installing guest additions, Seamless Mode was still disabled for me. But, when I switched to Scalled Mode(Host+C), Seamless Mode become enabled. When I used Host+L, GuestOS screen went full screen, meaning it worked.

So, whenever Seamless Mode is disabled or grayed, even after installing the guest additions, check if Scalled Mode is turned on.

Other things that I have ensured:

Settings -> Display -> Screen
1. Graphics Controller -> VBoxSVGA
2. Acceleration -> Enabled.
Settings -> System -> Acceleration
1. Paravirtualization Interface -> Hyper-V
2. Hardware Virtualization -> Enable Nested Paging

I hope this helps someone.

Note: I am using MacBook.

score -1 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 19 '19 at 03:14

-1

I had the same exact problem, until I started VirtualBox as root and launched the virtual machine from there:

sudo virtualbox

It ended up locking my virtual machine files to root read/write only, but it's absolutely worth it to get this working. To get you started, here's my desktop file to my virtual machine called 'Win10':

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Version=1.0
Name=Win10
Comment=Starts the VirtualBox machine Win10
Type=Application
Terminal=true
Exec=sudo /usr/lib/virtualbox/VirtualBoxVM --comment "Win10" --startvm "Win10"
Icon=virtualbox-vbox.png

Replace 'Win10' with the name of your virtual machine, hopefully this works for you.

answered Feb 19 '19 at 03:14

Matthew Wendel

1

1

Do not run virtualbox as root. – Kristopher Ives Feb 19 '19 at 03:22
Because running it as root is effectively giving the VM guest full control over your system. Under normal circumstances excluding a massive oversight in the hardware virtualization security (usually VTX) a guest could possibly "break out" but would still be limited in Linux by the restrictions of a user account. Running as root makes it so any guest that does anything to affect the host (guest additions, even if you didn't install them) has root access and can do whatever it want. – Kristopher Ives Feb 22 '19 at 02:58
Very good info @KristopherIves ! – Matthew Wendel Mar 09 '20 at 18:19

score -1 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 01 '11 at 13:12

-1

Install Guest Addtions from Synaptic.

answered Mar 01 '11 at 13:12

Oxwivi

17,849

how to look for guest additions in synaptic. is there a package name for it. – jsbisht Mar 01 '11 at 17:58
Go to Synaptic, after it loads, you'll see a search box in the top right corner. Simply type guest additions there and press Enter. – Oxwivi Mar 01 '11 at 18:14
@jaggib, did you try install Guest Additions from Synaptic yet? – Oxwivi May 31 '11 at 15:55

score -1 · Answer 7 · edited Jul 17 '20 at 13:19

-1

Try by clicking and holding Host key (by default, it's Right Ctrl) and then pressing the L key.

edited Jul 17 '20 at 13:19

Eliah Kagan

117,780

answered Jan 18 '14 at 02:42

Milson

229
1
2
7

score -1 · Answer 8 · answered Jan 30 '14 at 11:41

-1

I'm running windows8.1 guest on ubuntu host and seamlesss mode don't get enabled until user session is started in windows, maybe a few seconds after login.

answered Jan 30 '14 at 11:41

Esteve

109

score -1 · Answer 9 · edited Apr 20 '15 at 21:05

-1

I am using an Ubuntu host with a Windows 7 guest. I had the same problem, until I went into the 'Computer' folder on the guest system. If you have loaded the guest additions disc image, it should appear in the CD drive of the guest system. Manually open it, and look for the VBoxWindosAdditions application. Open this and follow the set-up instructions.

edited Apr 20 '15 at 21:05

Jens Erat

5,051
7
31
37

answered Apr 20 '15 at 19:46

Ubuntusplash

1

Unable to turn on seamless mode in VirtualBox

9 Answers9