Score:2

Ubuntu

Unable to Get Drag & Drop to Work on Xubuntu 20.04 with VirtualBox 6.1.30

KlingL

4/14/23, 2:45 PM

It's all in the title. I've tried installing from the guest additions CD by running the .run file on there. Though, most of the time, Xubuntu seems to be utterly incapable of mounting the CD in such a way that it shows it as anything other than an empty volume.

I've also tried all these commands:

sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-generic
sudo apt install gcc
sudo apt-get install build-essential gcc make perl dkms
sudo apt-get install virtualbox-guest-utils

The shared clipboard continues to work, but Xubuntu seems to be completely incapable of handling something as basic as drag & drop for some reason. Any help you guys can offer for this absurd issue would be greatly appreciated.

The output from ls /opt:

VBoxGuestAdditions-6.1.30

The output from dpkg -l | grep virtualbox:

ii  virtualbox-guest-utils                6.1.26-dfsg-3~ubuntu1.20.04.2         amd64        x86 virtualization solution - non-X11 guest utilities

137

0 + 0

xubuntu

virtualbox

20.04

user535733

4/14/23, 2:51 PM

Review https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch04.html for clear, step-by-step instructions.

KlingL

4/14/23, 2:55 PM

@user535733 I have tried everything in there that applies to Ubuntu Linux.

N0rbert

4/14/23, 2:56 PM

Please add the following output from guest - `ls /opt` and `dpkg -l | grep virtualbox` to the question.

user535733

4/14/23, 4:56 PM

I wonder if you are making the common mistake of trying to install Guest Additions onto the host instead of inserting the .iso into the Guest's virtual CD drive.

KlingL

4/15/23, 1:00 AM

@user535733 Well, my host system is Windows. So, the installation process for Guest Additions on that system would be a little different.

Score:1

Ubuntu

N0rbert

4/14/23, 3:00 PM

You have to uninstall binary VBoxGuestAdditions by

sudo /opt/VBoxGuestAdditions-6.1.30/uninstall.sh

and then install one additional deb-package using command below

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install virtualbox-guest-x11

and reboot VM.

^{KlingL here: As it turns out, the issue was VirtualBox drag and drop not supporting Xubuntu's Thunar file manager. I could still drag and drop files to the desktop.}

^{I marked this answer as correct to thank N0rbert for taking the time to try to help me fix this issue. Another imporant thing N0rbert mentioned in the comments is how trying to use an enviornment as lightweight as XUbuntu comes with consequences such as the issue around which this whole question is based.}

0 + 0

KlingL

4/14/23, 3:06 PM

I tried that and it didn't work. One of the errors I recieved a few times after running that last command: `sh: 0: getcwd() failed: No such file or directory`

N0rbert

4/14/23, 3:16 PM

Try `cd && sudo apt-get install virtualbox-guest-x11` .

KlingL

4/15/23, 10:07 AM

So, it installed correctly, but drag and drop still won't work. I'm going to try building a completely new VirtualBox. I'll probably need to do that anyway when I can finally get Windows more efficient Type 1 Hypervisor working. Thanks for all your help! Between CyberGhostVPN for Linux having a memory leak that can cause my VirtualBox to take up far more RAM than is allocated, I have a lot of issues I need to resolve. I just recently figured out that program was eating up my 64GB of memory because the memory leak didn't show up in Task Manager in anything other than total memory.

KlingL

4/15/23, 2:58 PM

Oh. My. God. This whole time I've been trying to drag and drop to directories from Thunar's File Manager, as I'd assumed I couldn't drag and drop to the desktop based on this thread: https://askubuntu.com/a/1275686/276476 As it turns out, I can drag and drop to the desktop, but not to any directory from Thunar's File Manager. I allowed my rage at this feature not cooperating to blind me by allowing it to stop me from trying such a basic solution. Well, thanks for your help, anyways.

N0rbert

4/15/23, 6:41 PM

While writing above answer I used drag-and-drop on desktop. If you want to have drag-and-drop to file-manager - you may want to try Ubuntu MATE with its default Caja filemanager. It works better. IMHO Xubuntu with Xfce is currently a good legacy, but its usability is questionable in long term. So I would recommend switching to MATE. If you find my above answer useful - please accept it by using grey checkmark at the left of it.

KlingL

4/16/23, 3:26 AM

I marked your answer as correct so you could get those fifteen or so points. I was originally using Lubuntu because I wanted the lightest enviornment possible that CyberGhost had actually developed an application for, but I switched to Xubuntu because Lubuntu is so bare bones that installing CyberGhostVPN on it wouldn't work without installing a ton of other packages I'm not familiar with. What's more, Xubuntu still seems to use Gnomes RAM heavy enviornment. Would you say MATE is better about that?

N0rbert

4/16/23, 8:04 AM

Currently, RAM is cheap. But the user comfort is an priority. Ubuntu MATE by itself runs well even on Intel Atom with 2 Gb of RAM. If you plan to open 15 browser tabs then 2 Gb of RAM is not enough. Having > 4 Gb is good nowadays.

KlingL

4/16/23, 8:52 AM

So, light weight, but not as light weight as Xubuntu. I guess that makes sense as it seems even Xubuntu dropped support for some features to make it as light weight as reasonable. Thanks for the info! If only the developers of the application that's my whole reason for using this machine had a similar dedication to light weight stability, or better yet, if their Windows app supported Split Tunneling.

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: Unable to Get Drag & Drop to Work on Xubuntu 20.04 with VirtualBox 6.1.30

TH: ไม่สามารถลากและวางเพื่อทำงานบน Xubuntu 20.04 ด้วย VirtualBox 6.1.30

RO: Nu se poate obține Drag & Drop pentru a funcționa pe Xubuntu 20.04 cu VirtualBox 6.1.30

RU: Невозможно заставить работать перетаскивание на Xubuntu 20.04 с VirtualBox 6.1.30

VI: Không thể kéo và thả để hoạt động trên Xubfox 20.04 với VirtualBox 6.1.30

Post an answer

Most people don’t grasp that asking a lot of questions unlocks learning and improves interpersonal bonding. In Alison’s studies, for example, though people could accurately recall how many questions had been asked in their conversations, they didn’t intuit the link between questions and liking. Across four studies, in which participants were engaged in conversations themselves or read transcripts of others’ conversations, people tended not to realize that question asking would influence—or had influenced—the level of amity between the conversationalists.