Strange conflict with VirtualBox

[wanderer5]

I'd like to report a strange behavior i noticed when WinUAE is executed in parallel with VirtualBox.


Specifically, if i have executed WU and then i start a VB VM, WU display freezes, the F12 GUI though is accessible. The strange thing though is if i shutdown the VM and i leave WU as is, most of the time it unfreezes (after 1-2 minutes) and works normally. Other times it remains frozen and i have to close and start it again.


The host is Windows 10 (fully updated) and the VM is also Windows 10. VBox is v7.0.14. Any idea why this might be happening?


P.S.: Also, saving its state, closing WU, restarting it and load the saved state, it works just fine!

[Toni Wilen]

First try different graphics api settings (misc panel)

[wanderer5]

OK, after some playing around, here are some more info:

1. It doesn't matter what the OS of the VM is, it happens with Linux too.
2. I tried all modes (GDI, D3D9, 11 and HDR), nothing changed.
3. If i give the focus to the VM, WU may continue to work normally, when i click in its window though to give it the focus, for some reason it reverts to "Pause" mode.
4. I use "Display/Settings/Native: Full-Window" mode but if i set it to "Windowed", i see it's in "Pause" mode.

It also happens if i start WU in "Windowed" mode. It seems it has something to do with the fact that the VM at certain points "grabs" keyboard and mouse from the system. When this happens, WU reverts to "Pause" mode and at that time, the mouse pointer is visible moving over its window and no matter how many times i click, WU does not receive the focus (well, it's logical since it's paused).

[derSammler]

Maybe it's just not a good idea to have two programs running that are both allowed to capture mouse and keyboard.

But in WinUAE under "Pri. & Extensions", you can simply change the behaviour of WinUAE to not pause when loosing focus.

[wanderer5]

Originally Posted by derSammler

Maybe it's just not a good idea to have two programs running that are both allowed to capture mouse and keyboard.

But in WinUAE under "Pri. & Extensions", you can simply change the behaviour of WinUAE to not pause when loosing focus.

Well, maybe not. I discovered this by accident, i don't usually mix those two. The problem is that when the focus is lost and WU is paused, there is no way to unpause it and regain the ability to click in the window so that it re-captures the keyboard and mouse. Also, my settings are "pause emulation" in "minimized" case only, so this behavior shouldn't happen.

[Toni Wilen]

WinUAE mouse capture can cause weird behavior in virtual machines, at least when in VM is in windowed mode.

Does it work if you don't enable capture? (for example Gameports panel virtual mouse driver enabled + "magic mouse" enabeld + booted to WB. This does not work in games that that over the system)

[Umpal]

I discovered it a few years ago and described it here: https://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p...51&postcount=4
I also found a way to unpause it (although not very convenient) and you can find it there, too.

[wanderer5]

Originally Posted by Umpal

I discovered it a few years ago and described it here: https://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p...51&postcount=4
I also found a way to unpause it (although not very convenient) and you can find it there, too.

Yup, nice. I noticed what you described too. Indeed it may unpause if you play between the two windows but the unpause may happen once or twice. After that, it just freezes. The good thing (as i described above) is that the GUI is workable, so you can save the state, close VBox, re-open WinUAE and reload it afterwards...