How to permanently disable mouse integration in Virtualbox?

Question

The "mouse integration" feature in Virtualbox is pretty handy in most cases, but I need to have it disabled. Unfortunately, it looks like I have to press Host+I at every boot of the virtual machine.

Is there a way to disable "mouse integration" permanently? It would be good if this could be done on a per-virtual machine basis.

Answer 1

Until now I saw that the auto mouse integration kicks in just on the linux hosts. So disabling it permanently is not possible.

Answer 2

This turns it off permanently for me on mac (~2012).

VBoxManage modifyvm "your-vm-name" --mouse ps2

If ps2 does not work for you try the other mouse options ps2|usb|usbtablet|usbmultitouch

Answer 3

I had this problem using Xubuntu 16.04 running Xfce 4.12 It is driving me insane.

You can go into:

• Settings
• Mouse and Touchpad
• and in Devices Tab, disable the "VirtualBox Mouse Integration" device.
  This permanently disables mouse integration in Xfce.

Answer 4

I have had three problems on a linux host:

If it is not disabled you have to hit Return when VBox asks to go full screen
Mouse de-integration is not automatic (my client nabs the usb mouse directly)
and...
The VBoxControl program in the client savestate command is borked

The following script takes care of all three issues.
It requires you to apt-get wmctrl and xdotool.
Guest additions must be installed.

Change VM_NAME!
Change DISPLAY to whatever monitor you want.
To savestate run "sudo VBoxControl guestproperty set SaveStateNow 1" in a client terminal.

---cut-here---

#!/bin/bash
VM_NAME='My Machine Name'
MAXTRIES=20

export DISPLAY=:0.1
VBoxManage startvm "$VM_NAME" &

i="0"
while [ $i -lt $MAXTRIES ]; do
  echo Fullscreen try $i
  wmctrl -a "VirtualBox - Information"
  if [ $? == 0 ]; then
    sleep 1
    xdotool key "Return"
    break
  fi

  sleep 1
  i=$[$i+1]
done

i="0"
while [ $i -lt $MAXTRIES ]; do
  echo Pointer try $i
  GUEST_ADDITIONS_ACTIVE=`VBoxManage showvminfo "$VM_NAME" | grep "Additions run level" | cut -d : -f 2`
  if [ $GUEST_ADDITIONS_ACTIVE == "1" ]; then
    sleep 1
    xdotool key "Super_R+i"
    break
  fi

  sleep 1
  i=$[$i+1]
done

while true; do
  if [ "`VBoxManage guestproperty get "$VM_NAME" SaveStateNow`" != 'No value set!' ]; then
    echo Saving...
    VBoxManage guestproperty set "$VM_NAME" SaveStateNow
    VBoxManage controlvm "$VM_NAME" savestate
    break
  fi
  sleep 1
done

Answer 5

I had the same issue, posting for anyone reading this in the future.

From the user manual, Virtualbox has a cmd line VBoxManage utility

VBoxManage setextradata "VM name" GUI/MouseCapturePolicy Disabled

This will disable mouse integration for the specific "VM name".

Answer 6

Try disabling keyboard auto-capture:

• In the main window press File|Preferences
• Select the "Input" tab
• Uncheck "Autocapture keyboard"

This also disables mouse-autocapture.

Answer 7

This is probably the same answer as Darwin's, except it uses the menus (to which this option was probably added after his answer was posted):

Open the Virtual Machine's settings, select "System", go to the "Motherboard" tab and change "Pointing Device" to "PS/2 Mouse".

Worked perfectly in my case (Android x86), but 123's comment to Darwin's answer (problems with FreeBSD) may apply here as well...

Answer 8

After hours of searching I figured how to fix it and while posting, I saw in comments the same thing. Maybe will help others.

I had to go to VM Settings -> System -> Motherboard and change Pointing Device from PS/2 Mouse to USB Tablet.

Answer 9

Go to Machine select settings From the settings window select USB option from the left vertical menu Add your Mouse device clicking the USB+ icon on the right side of the device list( second icon)

Thats it, now your mouse pointer works through out your virtual machine and desktop flawlessly.

Answer 10

Weird fix for this problem:

• Click into popup message.

This message expands and show more text and a checkbox field with text Don't show this message again

• Check it and enjoy!

Answer 11

Boot into your VM and find the Input option on your menu bar (it auto-hides by default, should be at the bottom of your screen). Click on the Input option and disable Mouse Integration.

This should be a persistent solution, i.e. you won't need to do it at every boot.