vanishing mouse cursor

[n4phth4]

First some specs:

VMware version 5.5.3 (but also happens w/ 5.5.2 and 5.5.1)

host=Linux 2.6.16.x (vanilla kernel, from sources) on a mostly RHAS4 i386 box

guest=WinXP Pro SP2

X11 provided by X.org RPM package version 6.8.2-1.EL.13.25

X11 video driver=i810

(The box is a Dell Optiplex GX620)

Relevant VMware options (that are CHECKED):

\* Input tab

-Grab keyboard and mouse input on mouse click

-Grab when cursor enters window

-Ungrab when cursor leaves window

-Hide cursor on ungrab

-Enable copy and paste to and from virtual machine

If it matters, the window manager I use in X is IceWM 1.2.26 with the ROX-Filer filemanager (2.5). Pretty simple setup.

Now, for the problem: I switch between the guest and host quite often (like many of you eh?). I run the VMware window maximized (not fullscreen) and use-and-abuse the Quick Switch button when I need more real estate (also quite often). Once in a blue moon when moving the mouse cursor from the guest to the host it completely vanishes. I have to kill the X server and start again to get it back.

Any ideas? Has anyone else seen this?

Thanks,

Keith

[telfred]

Does it vanish when you press Ctrl and Alt at the same time, as you move the cursor out of the guest to the host ?

[n4phth4]

No, I never use ctrl+alt since I have the mouse/keyboard input set to automagically grab and ungrab. Seems to happen totally randomly and as such I'm not able to reproduce it at will.

[jbeiter]

I see this happen about once every two weeks or so.

I don't know if this will work for you but what I do is hit ALT-F2, which will bring up a run application window.

I then run xscreensaver-demo and tab over to the "preview" button to preview whatever is there. This kicks something hard enough to bring the mouse cursor back.

I've seen this problem for years, on different linux builds, different MS guests, different hardware.. desktops, laptops.. etc..

I'm guessing that it isn't widespread enough for VMWare to bother fixing it.

[dukest]

Hi,

I experienced the vanishing mouse cursor with a linux (suse) guest and found a tip on http://www.linux-club.de/ftopic72813.html.

What helped me out was

editing the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf in the linux guest

Section "Device"

Identifier "VMware SVGA"

Driver "vmware"

\# add due to disappearing cursor

Option "SWcursor" "true"

Option "HWcursor" "off"

EndSection

and restart the X server.

Hope this helps...

[n4phth4]

Just had this happen again for the first time since I last posted.

So that SWcursor trick is for the \*guest's* xorg.conf?! Hrmm, wouldn't help me out since I've got an XP guest on a Linux host.

As for running xscreensaver-command, when the mouse goes bye bye the keyboard goes out to lunch too. And it always happens when the mouse is in that grey area between being grabbed by the host and grabbed by the guest (if there is such a greay area. lol)

Any of the VMware peeps have a clue on this?

[mchipper]

We notice similar problems, but am currently unable to reliably reproduce the effects.

Specs:

Host OS:

RHEL4_U4 (kernel 2.6.9-42)

xscreensaver 4.18-5.rhel4.11

&

RHEL4_U5 (kernel 2.6.9-55)

xscreensaver-4.18-5.rhel4.14

Window manager: Gnome (seeing if it also happens in KDE)

VMwareWorkstation 5.5.3 rpm (running vmplayer 1.0.3)

VMwareWorkstation 5.5.4 rpm (running vmplayer 1.0.4)

Guest OS: Windows XP

Hardware: HP XW4200 & HP XW4300 (Nvidia NVS quadro 280 & 285)

What appears to happen is that if focus is on the Vmware/Windows XP, and a large

time span has happened without mouse/keyboard movement, it seems as if

the Linux screensaver and the windows screensaver are in conflict where one has taken

control of the mouse, but does not blank the screen.

In our case, the keyboard is still active, and as suggested previously hitting ctrl-alt to

remove focus from the Vmware, then hitting the alt-f2 to bring up a command box,

running a 'xscreensaver-command -exit' will 99% of the time bring the mouse back

to life.

Don't forget to run 'xscreensaver-demo' again to start up the xscreensaver daemon again.

This is a pretty annoying bug as most of our users are not always willing to do the

alt-f2 trick and end up restarting their machine to fix the problem (not nice).

Thanks,

Dave

[mchipper]

Updating my sw specs as this problem seems to still be with us.

Host OS: RHEL4_U6 (kernel 2.6.9-67)

Guest OS: Windows XP SP2

xscreensaver 4.18-5 rhel4.14

VMwareWorkstation 6.0.2-59824 (running vmplayer 2.0.2 build-59824)

We are able to hit alf-f2 to bring up the command prompt and run 'xscreensaver-command -restart

We still have not figured out a method to reproduce the problem, and have not been able to correlate a particular screensaver that causes this.

Dave....

[Gwar]

Did you mean -restart instead of -reset? My xscreensaver-command doesn't have a -reset option.

My VMWare Workstation 6.02 installation suffers from this problem too. The basic specs:

Host: Fedora Core 7 x86_64 (Xscreensaver)

Guest: Windows 2000 (blank screensaver, ie. disabled)

Hardware: two dual core Xeon CPUs

VMWare is running in a window and has focus and when Xscreensaver runs (ie. the toplevel window is VMWare and the system is idle for 15 minutes) then the mouse is lost 100% of the time. If VMWare is not the toplevel (focused) window when Xscreensaver runs then everything is ok.