Mouse stops working in VM (ubuntu 18.04.4)

[nturton256]

Hi all,

I have been playing around for a while with freeNAS and I had a few things working how i wanted but they I messed everything up so did a complete wipe of the machine and started from scratch.

I am now having an issue with running an ubuntu 18.04.4 desktop VM. In the installation, the mouse works fine in VNC, but as soon as it finishes and I boot into it, the mouse on the system just stops following mine. I cannot find any reason it's doing this, and it was working just fine before when I was testing things.

Has anyone seen anything similar to this?

 

[nturton256]

Just as an update, its any linux distro. Just tried zorin 15.2 and thats done exactly the same. I put windows 10 on and its fine.

 

[min9min9]

I also have the same problem and I noticed that the mouse stopped responding after I updated FreeNAS 11.3-U2.
The mouse moves for the first 3 seconds or so then it stops. :(

 

[Basil Hendroff]

OK, this is weird. I may have stumbled across a workaround, but I need someone who's having the problem to confirm my findings. I have two 11.3-U2 systems and both have Ubuntu 18.04.4 VMs. In one, the mouse operates correctly; in the other, it's frozen. When I look at the differences, the one that's working has one virtual CPU; the one that's not working has two CPUs. So I did some testing (up to six CPUs) to see if there was a pattern. This is what I found:

Mouse working: 1, 3, 6 CPUs
Mouse not working: 2, 4, 5 CPUs

Go figure. Doesn't make sense to me. Can someone who's experiencing this issue try changing the number of CPUs in the VM and see if the mouse starts working again?

 

[nturton256]

OK, this is weird. I may have stumbled across a workaround, but I need someone who's having the problem to confirm my findings. I have two 11.3-U2 systems and both have Ubuntu 18.04.4 VMs. In one, the mouse operates correctly; in the other, it's frozen. When I look at the differences, the one that's working has one virtual CPU; the one that's not working has two CPUs. So I did some testing (up to six CPUs) to see if there was a pattern. This is what I found:

Mouse working: 1, 3, 6 CPUs
Mouse not working: 2, 4, 5 CPUs

Go figure. Doesn't make sense to me. Can someone who's experiencing this issue try changing the number of CPUs in the VM and see if the mouse starts working again?

I have tried with 1 cpu, mouse works, 2 cpu mouse stops, 3 cpu mouse works, cannot test higher atm.

 

[Basil Hendroff]

I have tried with 1 cpu, mouse works, 2 cpu mouse stops, 3 cpu mouse works, cannot test higher atm.

That's great! Thanks for the confirmation. I've placed a comment against ticket NAS-105649.

 

[min9min9]

I have 2 VMs, one with 2 CPU and one with 10 CPUs. They both didn't work.
However, after I changed the Disc mode from AHCI to VirtIO the mouse on the 2 CPU (Ubuntu) is working but the 10 CPU (Mint) still isn't.
Try changing the setting VM > Devices (under each VM) > Edit (under Disc) > Mode.

 

[Basil Hendroff]

Try changing the setting VM > Devices (under each VM) > Edit (under Disc) > Mode.

Mine were already set to VirtIO. Maybe there's something different (number of virtual CPUs) that will work for Mint.

 

[Basil Hendroff]

@min9min9 Did you try other numbers of virtual CPU's for the Mint VM? I stopped at six for Ubuntu and there was no obvious pattern. Maybe try 1, 2, etc and see what works for Mint.

 

[Stage5-F100]

That's great! Thanks for the confirmation. I've placed a comment against ticket NAS-105649.

Also added my ++ comment to the ticket. Thanks for the link here, as well as posting the ticket!

 

[Stage5-F100]

Cross-posting this update:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

...just an update, again, this time with not-so-great news. All the cursor-freeze symptoms are back. This is with trying an odd core count, and VirtIO. Persists across reboots. Affects all of my Ubuntu VMs.

The only thing I did was update my Ubuntu (18.04 and 19.10) test VMs through software manager. (Didn't think this would be an issue, as I selected to install updates while running the installer).

Everything looked good, then I went to bed. Did updating the VMs somehow cause this, or merely a coincidence?

I can at least vouch that switching to VirtIO has fixed all of the constant Disk-I/O failure messages and read-only errors on every Ubuntu VM.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Anyone else still having this issue come back, even with odd core counts?

 

[George51]

Cross-posting this update:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

...just an update, again, this time with not-so-great news. All the cursor-freeze symptoms are back. This is with trying an odd core count, and VirtIO. Persists across reboots. Affects all of my Ubuntu VMs.

The only thing I did was update my Ubuntu (18.04 and 19.10) test VMs through software manager. (Didn't think this would be an issue, as I selected to install updates while running the installer).

Everything looked good, then I went to bed. Did updating the VMs somehow cause this, or merely a coincidence?

I can at least vouch that switching to VirtIO has fixed all of the constant Disk-I/O failure messages and read-only errors on every Ubuntu VM.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Anyone else still having this issue come back, even with odd core counts?

'I've not played in detail with core counts, but setting disk to VirtIO has fixed 3 VMs, allowing them to boot. but 1 of the 3 has the fixed cursor issue.

 

[Swapling]

Figure i post this here as well -

NAS Version FreeNAS-11.2-U8
CPU - Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2650L v2 x2
VM - OS Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS

• Cores 1 - mouse works
• Cores 2- Mouse Stops working after 3 seconds
• Cores 3 - mouse works
• Cores 6 - Mouse stops working after 3 seconds
• Cores 8 - Mouse stops working after 3 seconds
• Cores 9 - Mouse stops working after 3 seconds
• Cores 10 - Mouse stops working after 3 seconds
• Cores 11 - Mouse stops working after 3 seconds
• Cores 12 - At this speed os starts up instantly and mouse never moved
• I could test more cores if requested but at this point seems un-necessary

All test where done with Changing the VM's Disk and Network adapters from the default option to VirtIO
I also have Tunables vairables for my cpu which are -
hw.vmm.topology.cores_per_package
Type -Loader
Value = 10
Comment -Cores
hw.vmm.topology.threads_per_core
Value = 2
Type - Loader
---------------------------------------------------------------------
At the moment my system is working fine at 3 cores but i would love to find a solution that works for at least 8 cores.

 

[Silarous]

I have the same issue here as of last night. I logged into my Ubuntu VM and it prompted me to update. I updated to 18.04.4 LTS and when it restarted, mouse and keyboard controls were gone. I could still SSH into the VM, just couldn't use VNC. I had my CPU set to 4 cores and when I reduced it to 3 cores as suggested here, I got control back in VNC.

Currently running Freenas 11.3-U2.1 with dual Xeon E5-2650v2.

 

[cobrakiller58]

It's a Ubuntu problem I had the same problem, just now I switched to the previously used Kernel during VM boot and it is working properly
5.3.0-46-generic mouse input locks up almost immediately
5.3.0-45-generic no issue

 

[necplusultra]

mouse works for me through remmina vnc client. However, does not work using the freenas html vnc link

 

[McD]

Try booting the kernel with pci=nomsi as a workaround. There should be a fix for this problem in an upcoming 11.3-U3.

 

[GregW]

Try booting the kernel with pci=nomsi as a workaround. There should be a fix for this problem in an upcoming 11.3-U3.

It works for me.
Thanks!

 

[ernestr]

I have 2 VMs, one with 2 CPU and one with 10 CPUs. They both didn't work.
However, after I changed the Disc mode from AHCI to VirtIO the mouse on the 2 CPU (Ubuntu) is working but the 10 CPU (Mint) still isn't.
Try changing the setting VM > Devices (under each VM) > Edit (under Disc) > Mode.

This worked for me. Thanks!

 

[Dennis.kulmosen]

I tried to switch resolution in the VNC from default 1024x768 to 1280x1024, and my mouse are now working for the time being. The VM OS is PopOS! which is based on Ubuntu.