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Virtualbox upgrade causes second entry in Xfce taskbar

Graphical Environments, Managers, Multimedia & Desktop questions.
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No_windows
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Virtualbox upgrade causes second entry in Xfce taskbar

#1 Post by No_windows »

I upgraded Virtualbox yesterday, directly from Oracle. I've been using their release for awhile since our version in Jessie is now unsupported. I use full screen for my VM's, and when minimized I see them in the host Xfce taskbar. I now get a second entry in the task bar that appears to be connected to the Virtualbox menu bar. I can close it, but then I get no menu bar, even though the VM continues to run. Clicking on either entry on the host, brings up the VM.

I can see no setting in Virtualbox to prevent this second taskbar entry.

Is this something that would normally be suppressed in the host, and got missed somehow?

Any ideas on how I can get rid of this second entry?

No_windows
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Re: Virtualbox upgrade causes second entry in Xfce taskbar

#2 Post by No_windows »

It looks like I'm getting a second entry in the taskbar/panel for each VM running.

I'm surprised I've gotten no replies....... am I the only one that's experiencing this?

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GarryRicketson
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Re: Virtualbox upgrade causes second entry in Xfce taskbar

#3 Post by GarryRicketson »

Well, at first I did not understand what you mean, but based on what you say now,
As far as I know, it is normal,..I get entries for every VM I have running (open),
if they are minimized, they only show in my tint2 panel,... maybe a screen shot
would help clarify, but also I do not know of any setting or way to prevent it.
I can see no setting in Virtualbox to prevent this second taskbar entry.
Sometimes I get as many as 4 or 5, I just close the ones that are no longer needed or active.
But also, I am not using Debian Jessie, nor XFCE, but in any event I do often have various entries in my panel.
Image
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No_windows
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Re: Virtualbox upgrade causes second entry in Xfce taskbar

#4 Post by No_windows »

GarryRicketson wrote:Well, at first I did not understand what you mean, but based on what you say now,
As far as I know, it is normal,..I get entries for every VM I have running (open),
if they are minimized, they only show in my tint2 panel....
No, this is not normal. I have a second entry for each VM. The first has the VM name, the second just says "VirtualBox". At the time of the original post I hadn't tried running more than one VM, so while I had the extra entry in the panel/taskbar, I didn't know I'd get an extra one for each VM beyond the first.

No_windows
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Re: Virtualbox upgrade causes second entry in Xfce taskbar

#5 Post by No_windows »

This picture is only two VM's minimized on the host. Clicking on either "VirtualBox" entry goes to the VM that generated them......the VM to the left.

Image

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phenest
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Re: Virtualbox upgrade causes second entry in Xfce taskbar

#6 Post by phenest »

So you have 2 buttons for each VM. If you have 4 buttons, how many windows on the desktop (provided none of them are minimised).

EDIT: And if there were 2 VM's running (therefore 4 buttons), how many running processes for VirtualBox?
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GarryRicketson
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Re: Virtualbox upgrade causes second entry in Xfce taskbar

#7 Post by GarryRicketson »

Ok , I see what you mean now, and no it isn't like mine, or what I would consider normal,...I wonder though if it is some kind of "new feature",...included in the
most recent upgrade ?
Postby No_windows » 2017-04-23 09:48
I upgraded Virtualbox yesterday, directly from Oracle.

ruffwoof
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Re: Virtualbox upgrade causes second entry in Xfce taskbar

#8 Post by ruffwoof »

I get one window title in the panel for each VB window that is open, so the one instance can have 2, 3, 4 or more Windows open and presumably if a second instance were running ... even more

Image

If I open VB twice to run separate instances then I have two main VB window titles in the panel, and if each of those starts a session ... 4 window titles in the panel. No different to had I run two totally separate programs such as if I open LibreOffice Calc and LibreOffice Writer (and more windows if they ran perhaps something like Tools/Options).

If you only had one windows in the panel before, perhaps your panel was set to group programs ... so that multiple instances of the same program show just once. I run LXDE and can't recall exactly how that's set in XFCE but seem to recall it being one of the choices (group common and sorted order type options).

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phenest
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Re: Virtualbox upgrade causes second entry in Xfce taskbar

#9 Post by phenest »

I think I see what you're saying ruffwoof. If I start the VirtualBox Manager and start a VM, I have 2 windows. But I can start another instance of the Manager, and start another VM, making 4 windows but only 2 VM's. But I would normally only have one instance of the Manager open with multiple VM's started from that.

Which leaves the question: How is the OP starting VM's from the Manager?
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No_windows
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Re: Virtualbox upgrade causes second entry in Xfce taskbar

#10 Post by No_windows »

phenest wrote:So you have 2 buttons for each VM. If you have 4 buttons, how many windows on the desktop (provided none of them are minimized).

EDIT: And if there were 2 VM's running (therefore 4 buttons), how many running processes for VirtualBox?
No windows open on the desktop, those are minimized. I run the VMs full screen. My Xfce is setup to have programs in the panel whether they are minimized or not.

Looks like I've got two processes, and when I check the properties (I'm using Gnome-system-monitor).
Last edited by No_windows on 2017-04-24 17:56, edited 1 time in total.

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phenest
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Re: Virtualbox upgrade causes second entry in Xfce taskbar

#11 Post by phenest »

Regardless of whether they're fullscreen or not, is there the same number of windows for VirtualBox as there is taskbar buttons?
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No_windows
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Re: Virtualbox upgrade causes second entry in Xfce taskbar

#12 Post by No_windows »

phenest wrote: Which leaves the question: How is the OP starting VM's from the Manager?
I click on "start" :D

I usually close the manager..... the screenshot was taken with the manager closed. I see no point in keeping it open.

No_windows
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Re: Virtualbox upgrade causes second entry in Xfce taskbar

#13 Post by No_windows »

phenest wrote:Regardless of whether they're fullscreen or not, is there the same number of windows for VirtualBox as there is taskbar buttons?
EDITED:
Sorry, if I seem short, I'm getting frustrated that I'm not being understood, and I'm trying to be as plain as I can be.

I have twice as many taskbar buttons as I should....... each VM yields and extra button. 1vm, 2 button, 2vms 4 buttons, 3 vms 6 buttons. There are no other Vbox windows, not the Manager or anything else.
Last edited by No_windows on 2017-04-24 18:06, edited 2 times in total.

No_windows
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Re: Virtualbox upgrade causes second entry in Xfce taskbar

#14 Post by No_windows »

GarryRicketson wrote:Ok , I see what you mean now, and no it isn't like mine, or what I would consider normal,...I wonder though if it is some kind of "new feature",...included in the
most recent upgrade ?
I wondered the same but the notes (can't think of proper term) for the upgrade didn't mention anything that seemed relevant. I've checked out Oracles forums for Vbox and didn't see anything posted recently that looked like it addressed the problem, either. Maybe I'll have to join and ask.

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phenest
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Re: Virtualbox upgrade causes second entry in Xfce taskbar

#15 Post by phenest »

No_windows wrote:Sorry, if I seem short, I'm getting frustrated that I'm not being understood, and I'm trying to be as plain as I can be.
I'm sure you're getting frustrated. Who wouldn't? But, it seems no one else is seeing this. I've installed the latest Oracle VirtualBox 5.1.20 for Jessie AMD64 and tried with XFCE. One VM, one button, etc.

Sorry I can't be of help. Except mine was a clean install of Jessie with XFCE for testing this. If that means anything.
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No_windows
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Re: Virtualbox upgrade causes second entry in Xfce taskbar

#16 Post by No_windows »

phenest wrote:
No_windows wrote:Sorry, if I seem short, I'm getting frustrated that I'm not being understood, and I'm trying to be as plain as I can be.
I'm sure you're getting frustrated. Who wouldn't? But, it seems no one else is seeing this. I've installed the latest Oracle VirtualBox 5.1.20 for Jessie AMD64 and tried with XFCE. One VM, one button, etc.

Sorry I can't be of help. Except mine was a clean install of Jessie with XFCE for testing this. If that means anything.
Thank you for your attention, and trying to replicate it. I'll join Oracles Vbox forums and see if they have any ideas.

tekstr1der
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Re: Virtualbox upgrade causes second entry in Xfce taskbar

#17 Post by tekstr1der »

As of vbox 5.1.20 I have the same issue with XFCE showing two instance per VM running.

I described the problem on the vbox forum - it's identical to OPs issue - but no reply yet:

https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic ... 15#p391413

Also, the issue persists in 5.1.22, though that's expected as I've not filed, nor seen a bug filed, for this issue yet.

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phenest
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Re: Virtualbox upgrade causes second entry in Xfce taskbar

#18 Post by phenest »

I created a test scenario. I installed Debian Jessie in a VM. In that I installed XFCE and VirtualBox 5.1.20 from Oracle. I started VB and created 2 VM's which I then started.

Result: 3 taskbar buttons. 1 for VB and 1 button for each VM.
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tekstr1der
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Re: Virtualbox upgrade causes second entry in Xfce taskbar

#19 Post by tekstr1der »

phenest wrote:I created a test scenario. I installed Debian Jessie in a VM. In that I installed XFCE and VirtualBox 5.1.20 from Oracle. I started VB and created 2 VM's which I then started.

Result: 3 taskbar buttons. 1 for VB and 1 button for each VM.
Thank you for taking time trying to reproduce this!Assume you used the Window Buttons panel item? Had you fully updated the guest Jessie packages as well and/or installed via the Debian 8.8 media?

Interesting indeed that this is not affecting everyone with Jessie/XFCE/Window Buttons. I tried adjusting a number of the Windows Buttons options to no avail. This issue persists after reboot, logout, and outright killing xfce4-panel.

I don't believe it's got anything to do with Debian as this occurred as of only 5.1.20 Virtualbox, and I have been on the 5.1.x series since 5.1.8. Not seeing anything obvious process-wise either:

Code: Select all

$ ps -ef | egrep -i "[v]box|[v]irt"
root      7610     2  0 11:10 ?        00:00:00 [iprt-VBoxWQueue]
root      7614     2  0 11:10 ?        00:00:00 [iprt-VBoxTscThr]
xxxx      7696     1  0 11:10 ?        00:00:02 /usr/lib/virtualbox/VBoxXPCOMIPCD
xxxx      7701     1  0 11:10 ?        00:00:07 /usr/lib/virtualbox/VBoxSVC --auto-shutdown
xxxx      7735  7701  2 11:11 ?        00:08:13 /usr/lib/virtualbox/VirtualBox --comment Win10 --startvm 27c39c3f-53e0-4fb4-886b-b4fc60d757ca --no-startvm-errormsgbox
One other thing to note is that this only occurs with running VM instances - the manager window only has a single panel item.

Thanks again for looking at this.

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phenest
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Re: Virtualbox upgrade causes second entry in Xfce taskbar

#20 Post by phenest »

I'd like to add that, as each VM was started, a 2nd button did appear but immediately disappeared.
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