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#1 2016-09-21 16:06:43

Paradoxon
Member
Registered: 2015-09-30
Posts: 22

VirtualBox Guests are too transparent

Hallo!

The guest-windows of virtualbox are too transparent (almost unreadable).

  • If I disable compton in the menu (Preferences -> Compositor -> disable Compositing), the windows become opaque.

  • The Main VirtualBox window is opaque as it should

  • The Guest windows are not always transparent. In particular, a Win 7 guest is transparent at the desktop, but seems opaque at the login, but some parts look weird.

  • A BunsenLabs guest window is opaque, but the right-click menu is completely transparent + unreadable.

  • The virtualbox installation is from the backports repo.

  • The opacity is lower than any opacity-setting in compton, and is not applied to the whole window or at all times. Therefore, it's not some secret setting somewhere, but the window is not processed correctly somewhere.


This is my compton.conf. (I tried modifying some things, but nothing worked.) 

# Shadow
shadow = true;
no-dnd-shadow = true;
no-dock-shadow = true;
#clear-shadow = true;
shadow-radius = 7;
shadow-offset-x = -7;
shadow-offset-y = -7;
shadow-opacity = 0.4;
# shadow-red = 0.0;
# shadow-green = 0.0;
# shadow-blue = 0.0;
#shadow-exclude = [ "n:e:xfce4-notifyd", "i:e:Conky" ];
#shadow-exclude = [ "i:e:Conky",
#					"class=VirtualBox"];
#shadow-exclude = [ "i:e:Conky"];
shadow-exclude = [ "i:e:Conky"];
shadow-ignore-shaped = false;


# Opacity
menu-opacity = 1.0;
inactive-opacity = 1.0;
frame-opacity = 1.0;
inactive-opacity-override = true;
alpha-step = 0.06;
# Exclude applications from opacity.
focus-exclude = ["g:e:VBox","g:e:VirtualBox","g:e:VBoxSVC","g:e:VBoxXPCMIPCD"];


# Fading
fading = false;
# fade-delta = 30;
fade-in-step = 0.03;
fade-out-step = 0.03;
# no-fading-openclose = true;

# Other
mark-wmwin-focused = true;
mark-ovredir-focused = true;
detect-rounded-corners = true;
detect-client-opacity = true;
detect-client-leader = true;
#refresh-rate = 0;
#vsync = "none";
dbe = false;
paint-on-overlay = false;
sw-opti = false;

# Window type settings
#wintypes:
#{
#  tooltip = { fade = true; shadow = false; opacity = 0.85; };
#};

Do you have any ideas how to fix this?
What should I try/look up?
My personal idea: Exclude all VirtualBox window to be processed by compton. However, I did not find out how to do it.(shadow-exclude or focus-exclude did not change anything.)

The quick fix would be to leave compton disabled, of course, but a proper solution might be nice.

Thanks in advance!

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#2 2016-09-21 16:37:30

nobody
The Great
Registered: 2015-08-10
Posts: 3,655

Re: VirtualBox Guests are too transparent

X clients wishing to bypass a running compositor can set the unredirect flag on the mapped window. virtualbox doesn't do that now – perhaps you can find switch that turns this behaviour on.

compton for that matter has

--unredir-if-possible

    Unredirect all windows if a full-screen opaque window is detected, to maximize performance for full-screen windows. Known to cause flickering when redirecting/unredirecting windows. --paint-on-overlay may make the flickering less obvious.

So you can try and see if that works when putting VBox into fullscreen mode (I don't know your use case). It is a hack though; ideally VBox would set the window up to be unredirected to begin with.

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#3 2016-09-22 09:31:37

Paradoxon
Member
Registered: 2015-09-30
Posts: 22

Re: VirtualBox Guests are too transparent

@ nobody: Thank you very much! You answered really quick. :-)

However, the results vary: :-(

1. When I started the virtual Windows 7 machine machine today, everything looked okay, even without any additional fix. The virtual bunsen labs machine, however, still had the transparent right-click menu.

2. I added

unredir-if-possible = true;
paint-on-overlay = true;

to my compton.conf and rebooted. Afterwards the graphics in the virtual bunsen labs machine were normal as well, even if the window wasn't in full-screen mode. I was happy, but only for a short time.

3. After closing the virtual machines and reopening them, the transparency reappeared in both the virtual Win 7 and BL machine. :-(

This is so weird! Only thing I've done inbetween is opening geany and firefox and updating packages.

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#4 2016-09-22 09:48:26

nobody
The Great
Registered: 2015-08-10
Posts: 3,655

Re: VirtualBox Guests are too transparent

OK. So can you open the Virtualbox with a transparent VM, run xprop in a terminal and click on the window? Post the output. Ideally it shows a line such as this:

_NET_WM_BYPASS_COMPOSITOR(CARDINAL) = 1

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#5 2016-09-22 13:23:11

Paradoxon
Member
Registered: 2015-09-30
Posts: 22

Re: VirtualBox Guests are too transparent

xprop returns:

WM_COLORMAP_WINDOWS(WINDOW): window id # 0x32000ff
_NET_WM_ICON_GEOMETRY(CARDINAL) = 2195, 0, 40, 43
WM_STATE(WM_STATE):
		window state: Normal
		icon window: 0x0
_NET_WM_DESKTOP(CARDINAL) = 0
_NET_WM_ALLOWED_ACTIONS(ATOM) = _NET_WM_ACTION_CHANGE_DESKTOP, _NET_WM_ACTION_SHADE, _NET_WM_ACTION_CLOSE, _NET_WM_ACTION_MOVE, _NET_WM_ACTION_MINIMIZE, _NET_WM_ACTION_RESIZE, _NET_WM_ACTION_FULLSCREEN, _NET_WM_ACTION_MAXIMIZE_HORZ, _NET_WM_ACTION_MAXIMIZE_VERT, _NET_WM_ACTION_ABOVE, _NET_WM_ACTION_BELOW, _OB_WM_ACTION_UNDECORATE
_KDE_NET_WM_FRAME_STRUT(CARDINAL) = 0, 0, 25, 0
_NET_FRAME_EXTENTS(CARDINAL) = 0, 0, 25, 0
_OB_APP_TYPE(UTF8_STRING) = "normal"
_OB_APP_TITLE(UTF8_STRING) = "TUM-PC TUPHE53-147_virtual [Saved] - Oracle VM VirtualBox"
_OB_APP_GROUP_CLASS(UTF8_STRING) = 
_OB_APP_GROUP_NAME(UTF8_STRING) = 
_OB_APP_CLASS(UTF8_STRING) = "VirtualBox"
_OB_APP_NAME(UTF8_STRING) = "VirtualBox"
_OB_APP_ROLE(UTF8_STRING) = 
_NET_WM_VISIBLE_ICON_NAME(UTF8_STRING) = "TUM-PC TUPHE53-147_virtual [Running] - Oracle VM VirtualBox"
_NET_WM_VISIBLE_NAME(UTF8_STRING) = "TUM-PC TUPHE53-147_virtual [Running] - Oracle VM VirtualBox"
_NET_WM_SYNC_REQUEST_COUNTER(CARDINAL) = 52428864
_NET_WM_STATE(ATOM) = _NET_WM_STATE_MAXIMIZED_VERT, _NET_WM_STATE_MAXIMIZED_HORZ
_NET_WM_NAME(UTF8_STRING) = "TUM-PC TUPHE53-147_virtual [Running] - Oracle VM VirtualBox"
_NET_WM_ICON(CARDINAL) = 	Icon (32 x 32):
	░▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒░
	▒░          ░▒▒░░░░▒▒░        ░▒
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	▒  ▓░   ▒░▓  ▒▒░░░ ░▒░▒▒▒░     ▒
	▒ ░▓▓▒ ░▓ ▓  ▒░░░  ▒▒░▒  ░▒▒░  ▒
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	▒▒▒▒░░░░░                      ▒
	▒▒▒▒▒░░░░   ░                 ░▒
	▒▒▒▒▒░░░░   ▒░░▒             ░░▒
	▒▒▒▒▒░░░░   ▒░▒░           ░░░▒▒
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XdndAware(ATOM) = BITMAP
_MOTIF_DRAG_RECEIVER_INFO(_MOTIF_DRAG_RECEIVER_INFO) = 0x6c, 0x0, 0x5, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x10, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0
WM_CLIENT_LEADER(WINDOW): window id # 0x3200004
_NET_WM_PID(CARDINAL) = 4957
_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE(ATOM) = _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_NORMAL
_MOTIF_WM_HINTS(_MOTIF_WM_HINTS) = 0x3, 0x3e, 0x7e, 0x0, 0x0
WM_PROTOCOLS(ATOM): protocols  WM_DELETE_WINDOW, WM_TAKE_FOCUS, _NET_WM_PING, _NET_WM_SYNC_REQUEST
WM_NAME(STRING) = "TUM-PC TUPHE53-147_virtual [Running] - Oracle VM VirtualBox"
WM_LOCALE_NAME(STRING) = "en_US.UTF-8"
WM_CLASS(STRING) = "VirtualBox", "VirtualBox"
WM_HINTS(WM_HINTS):
		Client accepts input or input focus: True
		Initial state is Normal State.
		bitmap id # to use for icon: 0x3200013
		window id # of group leader: 0x3200004
WM_NORMAL_HINTS(WM_SIZE_HINTS):
		user specified location: 2072, 153
		program specified location: 2072, 153
		user specified size: 800 by 659
		program specified size: 800 by 659
		program specified minimum size: 292 by 123
		window gravity: Static
WM_CLIENT_MACHINE(STRING) = "TUPH53-147"
WM_COMMAND(STRING) = { "/usr/lib/virtualbox/VirtualBox", "--comment", "TUM-PC TUPHE53-147_virtual", "--startvm", "9e623d90-24ec-4d79-9b2b-54b4a535f544", "--no-startvm-errormsgbox" }

There is no "_NET_WM_BYPASS_COMPOSITOR"-line as you suspected.

Can I maybe set that variable through openbox somehow?
I will google for that...

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#6 2016-09-22 13:33:36

damo
....moderator....
Registered: 2015-08-20
Posts: 6,734

Re: VirtualBox Guests are too transparent

Do you have guest additions installed? Maybe it is a graphics card issue.

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#7 2016-09-26 13:40:41

Paradoxon
Member
Registered: 2015-09-30
Posts: 22

Re: VirtualBox Guests are too transparent

Guest additions are installed in both cases and my nvidia-driver was updated today via apt-get update without any difference.

It seems to make a difference if firefox is started on the host machine, but I have to test that more rigorously. (Firefox started -> newly started guests are transparent ? )

I will post again after I confirm or eliminate that.

Edit: No, firefox is not the culprit. That would have been weird anyway.

It seems that most of the time, the first guest started after reboot is opaque as expected. After closing and restarting the first guest,transparency issues appear and all other newly started guests are affected.

2nd Edit:
I just checked xprop for a non-transparent Win7-Guest: 

xprop
WM_COLORMAP_WINDOWS(WINDOW): window id # 0x30000ff
_NET_WM_ICON_GEOMETRY(CARDINAL) = 2149, 0, 40, 43
WM_STATE(WM_STATE):
		window state: Normal
		icon window: 0x0
_NET_WM_DESKTOP(CARDINAL) = 0
_NET_WM_ALLOWED_ACTIONS(ATOM) = _NET_WM_ACTION_CHANGE_DESKTOP, _NET_WM_ACTION_SHADE, _NET_WM_ACTION_CLOSE, _NET_WM_ACTION_MOVE, _NET_WM_ACTION_MINIMIZE, _NET_WM_ACTION_RESIZE, _NET_WM_ACTION_FULLSCREEN, _NET_WM_ACTION_MAXIMIZE_HORZ, _NET_WM_ACTION_MAXIMIZE_VERT, _NET_WM_ACTION_ABOVE, _NET_WM_ACTION_BELOW, _OB_WM_ACTION_UNDECORATE
_KDE_NET_WM_FRAME_STRUT(CARDINAL) = 0, 0, 25, 0
_NET_FRAME_EXTENTS(CARDINAL) = 0, 0, 25, 0
_OB_APP_TYPE(UTF8_STRING) = "normal"
_OB_APP_TITLE(UTF8_STRING) = "TUM-PC TUPHE53-147_virtual [Saved] - Oracle VM VirtualBox"
_OB_APP_GROUP_CLASS(UTF8_STRING) = 
_OB_APP_GROUP_NAME(UTF8_STRING) = 
_OB_APP_CLASS(UTF8_STRING) = "VirtualBox"
_OB_APP_NAME(UTF8_STRING) = "VirtualBox"
_OB_APP_ROLE(UTF8_STRING) = 
_NET_WM_VISIBLE_ICON_NAME(UTF8_STRING) = "TUM-PC TUPHE53-147_virtual [Running] - Oracle VM VirtualBox"
_NET_WM_VISIBLE_NAME(UTF8_STRING) = "TUM-PC TUPHE53-147_virtual [Running] - Oracle VM VirtualBox"
_NET_WM_SYNC_REQUEST_COUNTER(CARDINAL) = 50331712
_NET_WM_STATE(ATOM) = _NET_WM_STATE_MAXIMIZED_VERT, _NET_WM_STATE_MAXIMIZED_HORZ
_NET_WM_NAME(UTF8_STRING) = "TUM-PC TUPHE53-147_virtual [Running] - Oracle VM VirtualBox"
_NET_WM_ICON(CARDINAL) = 	Icon (32 x 32):
	░▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒░
	▒░          ░▒▒░░░░▒▒░        ░▒
	▒   ▒▒   ░▒  ▒▒░░░ ░▒░         ▒
	▒  ▒░    ▓▓  ▒▒░░░  ▒░░▒░      ▒
	▒  ▓░   ▒░▓  ▒▒░░░ ░▒░▒▒▒░     ▒
	▒ ░▓▓▒ ░▓ ▓  ▒░░░  ▒▒░▒  ░▒▒░  ▒
	▒ ░▓ ▒░▓▓▓▓▓ ▒░░   ▒░░▒    ░▒▒▒▒
	▒  ▓ ▒░   ▓  ▒░   ░▒░▒░ ░░    ░▒
	▒  ░▓▒    ▒  ▒░   ░▒░▒  ░░░░░░░▒
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	▒░░░░            ▒▒░▒    ░░░░░░▒
	▒                ▒░░░     ░░░░░▒
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	▒▒▒▒▒░░░▒▒▒▒▒░  ▒▒░▒       ░░░░▒
	▒░░░░░░░░░░░▒▒▒░▒░░▒       ░░░░▒
	▒░▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒░░   ░▒░▒░        ░░░▒
	▒▒░░     ░░░      ▒░        ░░░▒
	▒░░          ▒▓▒░ ░░   ▒▓░   ░░▒
	▒░░░░░      ▓▒ ▒▓  ▒  ▓▓▓░     ▒
	▒░░░░░      ▓▒ ▒▒  ░░  ░▓░     ▒
	▒░░░░░░     ░▓▓▓  ░░   ░▓░ ▒▒▒▒▒
	▒▒░░░░░     ░▓▒▓▒   ░░ ░▓░ ░░░░▒
	▒▒▒░░░░░    ▓░ ░▓      ░▓░   ░░▒
	▒▒▒▒░░░░    ▓▒ ▒▓  ▓▒  ░▓▒   ▒░▒
	▒▒▒▒░░░░░   ░▓▓▓░  ▓▒ ▓▓▓▓▓    ▒
	▒▒▒▒░░░░░                      ▒
	▒▒▒▒▒░░░░   ░                 ░▒
	▒▒▒▒▒░░░░   ▒░░▒             ░░▒
	▒▒▒▒▒░░░░   ▒░▒░           ░░░▒▒
	░▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒░


XdndAware(ATOM) = BITMAP
_MOTIF_DRAG_RECEIVER_INFO(_MOTIF_DRAG_RECEIVER_INFO) = 0x6c, 0x0, 0x5, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x10, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0
WM_CLIENT_LEADER(WINDOW): window id # 0x3000004
_NET_WM_PID(CARDINAL) = 3088
_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE(ATOM) = _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_NORMAL
_MOTIF_WM_HINTS(_MOTIF_WM_HINTS) = 0x3, 0x3e, 0x7e, 0x0, 0x0
WM_PROTOCOLS(ATOM): protocols  WM_DELETE_WINDOW, WM_TAKE_FOCUS, _NET_WM_PING, _NET_WM_SYNC_REQUEST
WM_NAME(STRING) = "TUM-PC TUPHE53-147_virtual [Running] - Oracle VM VirtualBox"
WM_LOCALE_NAME(STRING) = "en_US.UTF-8"
WM_CLASS(STRING) = "VirtualBox", "VirtualBox"
WM_HINTS(WM_HINTS):
		Client accepts input or input focus: True
		Initial state is Normal State.
		bitmap id # to use for icon: 0x3000013
		window id # of group leader: 0x3000004
WM_NORMAL_HINTS(WM_SIZE_HINTS):
		user specified location: 2072, 153
		program specified location: 2072, 153
		user specified size: 800 by 659
		program specified size: 800 by 659
		program specified minimum size: 292 by 123
		window gravity: Static
WM_CLIENT_MACHINE(STRING) = "TUPH53-147"
WM_COMMAND(STRING) = { "/usr/lib/virtualbox/VirtualBox", "--comment", "TUM-PC TUPHE53-147_virtual", "--startvm", "9e623d90-24ec-4d79-9b2b-54b4a535f544", "--no-startvm-errormsgbox" }

The differences to xprop of a transparent host are some adresses/IDs only:

diff debug_vbox.txt xprop_nontransparent_Win7.txt 
1,2c1,3
< WM_COLORMAP_WINDOWS(WINDOW): window id # 0x32000ff
< _NET_WM_ICON_GEOMETRY(CARDINAL) = 2195, 0, 40, 43
---
> xprop
> WM_COLORMAP_WINDOWS(WINDOW): window id # 0x30000ff
> _NET_WM_ICON_GEOMETRY(CARDINAL) = 2149, 0, 40, 43
19c20
< _NET_WM_SYNC_REQUEST_COUNTER(CARDINAL) = 52428864
---
> _NET_WM_SYNC_REQUEST_COUNTER(CARDINAL) = 50331712
59,60c60,61
< WM_CLIENT_LEADER(WINDOW): window id # 0x3200004
< _NET_WM_PID(CARDINAL) = 4957
---
> WM_CLIENT_LEADER(WINDOW): window id # 0x3000004
> _NET_WM_PID(CARDINAL) = 3088
70,71c71,72
< 		bitmap id # to use for icon: 0x3200013
< 		window id # of group leader: 0x3200004
---
> 		bitmap id # to use for icon: 0x3000013
> 		window id # of group leader: 0x3000004

Therefore, window properties do not seem to be the direct culprit.

Last edited by Paradoxon (2016-09-26 13:55:41)

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