I'm having this problem as well. Shared clipboard isn't working, but I can't find anything that seems to be wrong. Everything is new and current and seemingly correctly installed. When I attempt to manually launch VBoxClient --clipboard it runs for a few seconds, and then seemingly just quits.
Here are my details:
Host OS: Windows 10 Pro 1909 18363.657
VirtualBox version: 64bit 6.1.4r136177 (Qt5.6.2)
VirtualBox extension: Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack Version: 6.1.4r136177
When I try File -> Check for Updates... it says I have the latest version (You are already running the most recent version of VirtualBox)
When I check Devices -> Shared Clipboard in the running VM, it is set to Bidirectional
I have tried updating Kali as instructed here: https://www.kali.org/docs/general-use/updating-kali/
Code:
# https://www.kali.org/docs/general-use/updating-kali/
kali@kali:~$ sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade -y
No errors and everything seems up-to-date.
Output of uname:
Code:
kali@kali:~$ uname -a
Linux kali 5.4.0-kali4-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 5.4.19-1kali1(2020-02-17) x86_64 GNU/Linux
VirtualBox guest utils service is running:
Code:
kali@kali:~$ systemctl status -l virtualbox-guest-utils.service
● virtualbox-guest-utils.service - VirtualBox guest utils
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/virtualbox-guest-utils.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Fri 2020-03-06 09:58:59 EST; 4min 45s ago
Process: 417 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/virtualbox-guest-utils start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Tasks: 11 (limit: 2320)
Memory: 8.3M
CGroup: /system.slice/virtualbox-guest-utils.service
470 /usr/bin/VBoxClient --vmsvga
471 /usr/bin/VBoxClient --vmsvga
475 /usr/sbin/VBoxService
Warning: Journal has been rotated since unit was started. Log output is incomplete or unavailable.
Process listing shows that VBoxClient --clipboard is not running:
Code:
kali@kali:~$ ps -ef | grep VBox
root 352 2 0 09:58 ? 00:00:00 [iprt-VBoxWQueue]
root 470 1 0 09:58 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/VBoxClient --vmsvga
root 471 470 0 09:58 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/VBoxClient --vmsvga
root 475 1 0 09:58 ? 00:00:00 /usr/sbin/VBoxService
kali 763 1 0 09:59 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/VBoxClient --display
kali 767 1 0 09:59 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/VBoxClient --seamless
kali 771 767 0 09:59 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/VBoxClient --seamless
kali 772 763 0 09:59 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/VBoxClient --display
kali 777 1 0 09:59 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/VBoxClient --draganddrop
kali 779 777 1 09:59 ? 00:00:08 /usr/bin/VBoxClient --draganddrop
kali 1271 1063 0 10:09 pts/0 00:00:00 grep VBox
Launching it manually seems to work, no errors and no other output:
Code:
kali@kali:~$ VBoxClient --clipboard
Immediatly after this VBoxClient --clipboard can also be seen in the process view:
Code:
kali@kali:~$ ps -ef | grep VBox
root 352 2 0 09:58 ? 00:00:00 [iprt-VBoxWQueue]
root 470 1 0 09:58 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/VBoxClient --vmsvga
root 471 470 0 09:58 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/VBoxClient --vmsvga
root 475 1 0 09:58 ? 00:00:00 /usr/sbin/VBoxService
kali 763 1 0 09:59 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/VBoxClient --display
kali 767 1 0 09:59 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/VBoxClient --seamless
kali 771 767 0 09:59 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/VBoxClient --seamless
kali 772 763 0 09:59 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/VBoxClient --display
kali 777 1 0 09:59 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/VBoxClient --draganddrop
kali 779 777 1 09:59 ? 00:00:13 /usr/bin/VBoxClient --draganddrop
kali 1285 1 0 10:15 ? 00:00:00 VBoxClient --clipboard
kali 1286 1285 0 10:15 ? 00:00:00 VBoxClient --clipboard
kali 1288 1063 0 10:15 pts/0 00:00:00 grep VBox
However after some time, those processes simply disappear:
Code:
kali@kali:~$ sleep 60; ps -ef | grep VBox
root 352 2 0 09:58 ? 00:00:00 [iprt-VBoxWQueue]
root 470 1 0 09:58 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/VBoxClient --vmsvga
root 471 470 0 09:58 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/VBoxClient --vmsvga
root 475 1 0 09:58 ? 00:00:00 /usr/sbin/VBoxService
kali 763 1 0 09:59 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/VBoxClient --display
kali 767 1 0 09:59 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/VBoxClient --seamless
kali 771 767 0 09:59 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/VBoxClient --seamless
kali 772 763 0 09:59 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/VBoxClient --display
kali 777 1 0 09:59 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/VBoxClient --draganddrop
kali 779 777 1 09:59 ? 00:00:14 /usr/bin/VBoxClient --draganddrop
kali 1292 1063 0 10:16 pts/0 00:00:00 grep VBox
Manually updating/installing virtualbox-guest-x11 says I already have the most current version:
Code:
kali@kali:~$ sudo apt install virtualbox-guest-x11
[sudo] password for kali:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
virtualbox-guest-x11 is alreadythe newest version (6.1.4-dfsg-1).
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
I'm out of ideas. I also tried the following earlier today, with no effect (I forgot to save output):
Code:
apt purge virtualbox-guest-x11
apt autoremove --purge
# reboot
apt update && apt dist-upgrade
# reboot
apt install virtualbox-guest-x11
# reboot