VirtualBox : shared clipboard between Windows 10 host and Ubuntu 18.04 guest

I have a Windows 10 host and I installed Ubuntu 18.04 on a VirtualBox (6.1.4).

I have mounted the guest additions and executed the autorun on my Ubuntu guest. No error displayed so all good.

However, the shared clipboard doesn't work. The weird thing is that the addition seems to be installed correctly because I can now drag and drop files between the host and the guest (in both ways). Both are enable in bidirectional in the VirtualBox configuration.

I have tried things from different forums the whole afternoon and still nothing. I couldn't enumerate all the things I've done but mainly install / uninstall different packages and reboots.

Here are some trouble that I can see that might be related:

/usr/bin/VBoxClient --checkhostversion
VBoxClient: error: No service specified. Quitting because nothing to do!

lsmod | grep vbox
vboxsf 81920 1
vboxvideo 36864 0
ttm 102400 2 vmwgfx,vboxvideo
drm_kms_helper 180224 2 vmwgfx,vboxvideo
drm 491520 7 vmwgfx,drm_kms_helper,vboxvideo,ttm
vboxguest 335872 7 vboxsf

From what I've seen on some forums, it seems I'm missing a module called syscopyarea, is that right?

I noticed that VBox clipboard process doesn't stay alive very long after the boot on the guest. But even when it is still in the process list, the copy / paste doesn't work.

ps ax | grep VBox 462 ? I< 0:00 [iprt-VBoxWQueue] 676 ? Ss 0:00 avahi-daemon: running [aaVBox.local] 1080 ? S 0:00 VBoxClient --vmsvga 1081 ? S 0:00 VBoxClient --vmsvga 1104 ? Sl 0:00 /usr/sbin/VBoxService --pidfile /var/run/vboxadd-service.sh 1269 ? S 0:00 /usr/bin/VBoxClient --display 1271 ? S 0:00 /usr/bin/VBoxClient --display 1276 ? S 0:00 /usr/bin/VBoxClient --seamless 1278 ? Sl 0:00 /usr/bin/VBoxClient --seamless 1283 ? S 0:00 /usr/bin/VBoxClient --draganddrop 1285 ? Sl 0:00 /usr/bin/VBoxClient --draganddrop 2333 ? S 0:00 /usr/bin/VBoxClient --clipboard 2334 ? S 0:00 /usr/bin/VBoxClient --clipboard 2336 pts/0 S+ 0:00 grep --color=auto VBox

And after a few minutes:

ps ax | grep VBox 462 ? I< 0:00 [iprt-VBoxWQueue] 676 ? Ss 0:00 avahi-daemon: running [aaVBox.local] 1080 ? S 0:00 VBoxClient --vmsvga 1081 ? S 0:00 VBoxClient --vmsvga 1104 ? Sl 0:00 /usr/sbin/VBoxService --pidfile /var/run/vboxadd-service.sh 1269 ? S 0:00 /usr/bin/VBoxClient --display 1271 ? S 0:00 /usr/bin/VBoxClient --display 1276 ? S 0:00 /usr/bin/VBoxClient --seamless 1278 ? Sl 0:00 /usr/bin/VBoxClient --seamless 1283 ? S 0:00 /usr/bin/VBoxClient --draganddrop 1285 ? Sl 0:00 /usr/bin/VBoxClient --draganddrop 2329 pts/0 S+ 0:00 grep --color=auto VBox

The same thing is happening if I start the process myself with /usr/bin/VBoxClient --clipboard.

Also, maybe the issue comes from the host. Is there some specific options to setup on the host in order to enable the shared clipboard?

1 Answer

It might be related to this bug in the last version of Guest Additions (VB 6.1.4):