[haiku-bugs] Re: [Haiku] #11526: Document enabling mouse integration with host when using VirtualBox
- From: "mmlr" <trac@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 29 Nov 2014 23:23:18 -0000
#11526: Document enabling mouse integration with host when using VirtualBox
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Reporter: rq | Owner: nielx
Type: enhancement | Status: closed
Priority: normal | Milestone: R1
Component: Documentation | Version: R1/Development
Resolution: fixed | Keywords:
Blocked By: | Blocking:
Has a Patch: 1 | Platform: All
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Comment (by mmlr):
There seem to be a couple of misconceptions here.
Where Guest Additions are Installed:
The Guest Additions are, as their name implies, additions on the guest
side of the VM. So they would need to be installed inside the virtual
Haiku. Installing guest additions under the Linux host does not apply to
the Haiku guest. Also the guest addition ISO that may be installed does
not apply to Haiku, as it only contains drivers for other operating
systems. Guest additions for Haiku are not yet available at all, so they
can't be installed.
What enabling PAE/NX means:
PAE (Physical Address Extensions, allowing an otherwise 32-bit OS to
address more than 4GB of RAM) and NX (Execute disable bit, a security
feature to disallow execution in writable RAM pages) are CPU features. The
setting to enable PAE/NX in VirtualBox does only control whether or not
these features are exposed to the guest OS (if they are available on the
host). The setting does not, as currently claimed in the document, control
whether or not hardware virtualization is enabled (hardware virtualization
is always enabled by default if available, as otherwise the VM would be
very slow). While PAE is supported under Haiku, it won't be used unless
you run with more then 4GB virtual RAM. As this is not really useful with
a Haiku VM, the text should simply be removed from the document IMHO.
What mouse integration means:
There are two general types of pointing devices: absolute and relative
ones. A traditional mouse is a relative pointing device, it sends relative
positions to the OS when you move it as it has no concept of its own
position in space (it tells "I moved by 20 pixels to the left").
A touch screen or tablet on the other hand is an absolute pointing device.
If you tap the touch screen on the upper left corner it sends this
absolute information to the OS (it tells "I was touched at pixel 5, 5").
Mouse integration now simply means that the pointing device exposed inside
the VM is such an absolute pointing device. If it is absolute, the
hypervisor can send the actual coordinates of where the mouse pointer
resides within the VM window to the guest OS and does not need to trap the
mouse in the window.
Using a pointing device setting of "USB tablet" (or checking the setting
"use absolute pointing device" as it was called in earlier versions of
VirtualBox) will ensure that the Haiku guest sees an absolute pointing
device and the mouse will become "integrated". This has worked for years
under Haiku, is not specific to VirtualBox (at least QEMU/KVM has the same
option) and does not require any setup on the guest OS side.
To sum it up:
The VirtualBox Guest Additions do provide optimized drivers that reduce
the overhead of the communication between the guest and the host OS
(graphics, network and pointing devices) by providing simpler protocols.
It also allows for extra features like matching the guest screen
resolution with the window size or shared folders and clipboard between
guest and host. So having a Haiku port of these Guest Additions is
certainly desirable. Concerning mouse integration alone, they are not
*required* however.
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Ticket URL: <https://dev.haiku-os.org/ticket/11526#comment:11>
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