Re: FBSD X11 guest in VBox: mouse pointer caught in guest forever

From: John Kennedy <warlock_at_phouka.net>
Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2022 23:15:27 UTC
On Wed, Aug 17, 2022 at 02:31:21PM +0200, FreeBSD User wrote:
> ... FreeBSD 13.1-p1 and X11 (xdm, windowmaker) is up and running, everything is fine, I got a
> mouse pointer, the keyboard with German layout is well supported. 
> 
> emulators/virtualbox-ose-guest-additions is installed as instructed in the handbook.
> 
> The target computer is a Lenovo T590 with a remote/cordless mouse (if this information is of
> any use).
> 
> Problem: once clicking the mouse to enter login data on xdm, the mousepointer is caught
> forever within the guest. Usually the combination "left-Ctrl right-Ctrl" should release the
> mouse pointer to reach the Vbox. This is not working anymore.
> 
> Somehow I have the strange feeling that the keyboard setup is missing something so the correct
> keys are not mapped according the physical layout, but there is no hint  what
> XkbModel/XkbVariant I should use (tried pc105, thinkpad or avoid the Option, with no effect so
> far).

  IMHO, don't blame the virtualised OS for Vbox behavior, but sometimes
they go hand-in-hand.  Some of those guest-helpers help translate the
real-host mouse positioning into the guest-hosts coordinate space so it
doesn't have to do rude things like mouse-grabs.

  I'd certainly double-check the host release-key and make sure it
didn't get changed somehow.  You might also try making sure that the
auto-capture stuff is disabled and see how things behave.

[I haven't used virtualbox in quite a while and poisoned my brain with
other things that I use at work, so sorry if I'm vague.]