Clipboard sharing doesn't work in VMware Player 4 Unity mode

[swrobel]

I'm using a Win7 host with Ubuntu 11.04 guest and clipboard sharing works fine when I'm running VMWare windowed but not when it's in Unity mode. I have to drop out of Unity to get text copied in the guest to share with the host and vice versa. This was not a problem in 3.1 and I have replicated it in 4 on two separate machines.

[mdunn-vmware]

Are you using 32-bit or 64-bit 11.04?  Does the problem happen with any guest OSes?

[swrobel]

32-bit and I'm not sure about other guest OSes since this is the only one I use. It's bizarre that it works fine in windowed mode but not in Unity mode though...

[swrobel]

Is there a better place to report bugs like this?

[tbyers]

I can confirm the same copy/paste problem (works in desktop mode, doesn't work in unity mode) with VMware Player 4.0.0 build-471780, running on a fully patched Windows XP host, running a fully patched Windows XP virtual machine.  Can duplicate this on 2 separate hosts so far.

Please advise, thank you.

[mdunn-vmware]

swrobel and tbyers, thanks for the info. I got another report of the same problem from another source, so I will investigate here.

[swrobel]

It's about time! Keep us posted...

[nedk2]

FYI I just entered a new problem about unity mode under vmware player 4.  See "Terminal size changes in VMWare Player 4 Unity mode".

[Skuto]

Same problems with copy-paste and window sizes:

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/336008?tstart=30

[swrobel]

Is anyone at VMWare out there? 2 months and still no updates...

[mdunn-vmware]

I've been looking into this bug this week.  It seems to be triggered if you switch between a host window and a unity window several times without changing the clipboard.  I don't have any fixes or workarounds yet, but we are working on it.

[swrobel]

Thanks! Please keep me posted. I'm anxious to have this working again, because Unity is why I use VMWare!

[dsadaka]

I still have this same problem.  Has it been resolved?  Please tell me all I have to do is update something.

TIA,
Dan

[david_baron]

I too have the same problem, Win 7 64 bit as host, Win 7 32 bit as VM.  Only fails in Unity mode.  I opened a 'general inquiry' with VMWare.  The initial response was "this was a problem with Ubunto, and was fixed".   Also it was suggested that I get the latest version (I was using 4.0.0).  I updated to 4.0.2 and still have the issue.   Upon informing VMWare that myself and my 3 teammates all have the same issue, I have yet to hear back.

It seems like this would be a primordial test for QA to run before releasing a product.  Clipboard support between 'worlds' is very important, and not having it means not having Unity mode, which is the main reason we chose VMWare over the MS solution.

It's too hard to believe that they (VMWare engineering dept) don't know about this...the question is, when will it be fixed.

[mdunn-vmware]

This bug was fixed in the 4.0 codebase, but after 4.0.2 was finished, so the fix hasn't been released publicly yet.

As a workaround, if you always click in a unity window to make it  active -- instead of Alt+Tabbing to it or clicking its Taskbar button  -- then the clipboards will always be in sync.

[swrobel]

Sooooo, any ETA on the new release? Weeks? Months?

[david_baron]

Thank you , MDUNN, for the insight.  I would assume then that the 'fix' will be in 4.0.3?  And, based on the release dates for .0, .1 and .2, that should be somewhat 'soon-ish', right?

As for your suggested work-around, either I cannot understand your simple instructions, or, it simply does not work.   Once in Unity mode, and using good ol' Notepad, I can try to 'copy and paste' between either the Host world or the Guest world, and neither direction works.  This is with 'clicking' the title-bars of the target windows to activate them, or clicking in the content regions of the target windows to activate them, or clicking the task-bar icons (I know, you told me that wouldn't work).  Regardless, nothing seems to make it work.

I will be patient, knowing that the fix is coming...

Thanks again.

[david_baron]

Well,

I just wasted an hour downloading and installing the VMWare Player, 4.0.3 (including two reboots) all for nothing.  Based on Michael Dunn's comments yesterday, I would have 'assumed' the fix was going to be in the 'next' version, i.e., the .3 version...but apparently not.  It does not work any different than the prior 4.0.x versions.

Michael, are you allowed to say when it 'will' be released?

-David

[mdunn-vmware]

Yeah, sorry about the confusion.  I've been talking about 4.0.3 which would be 4.0.2 + all bug fixes we've made since.  But the 4.0.3 that we just released only has security-related bug fixes.  So there still isn't a public release that includes the bug fixes made after 4.0.2.  As always, no comment about future release schedules.

[teeman05]

I only turned on Unity view once, then switched back to Single Window, and now the clipboard sharing does not work. Using 4.1.2 on Mac Lion, running Windows XP in the virtual machine. So it seems this bug is still not fixed.

As a previous poster asked, is this really the best way to report bugs to VMware?