Linux Mint Forums

I am pretty new to Mint and Linux. I am currently experimenting with Ubuntu, Zorin, Mint Cinnamon and Mint Mate (which I really like). I installed all those distros (and Windows8) in virtual using VMware Player on a Windows 7 host.

For all virtual installations I also install the VMware tools. Those tools allow communication between the host system and the guest system - e.g. copy a file in the host and paste it into the guest, or drag and drop from the host to the guest (and that works vice versa too).

This works perfectly well with all of the above guest systems EXCEPT with Mint - both Cinnamon and Mate. In Mint I can drag and drop files across the host/guest boundary (which proves that the VMware tools work) but I cannot share the clipboard for copy/paste. The copy/paste within Mint does work correctly.

I wonder whether this is a bug in the Mint implementation or whether there is a specific reason for this restriction. I would appreciate input from members that have insight into this area of Mint.

Install your vmware or virtualbox tools into the GUEST (linux mint)

grimdestripador wrote:Install your vmware or virtualbox tools into the GUEST (linux mint)

The tools are installed inside Mint - else the drag/drop would not work. I have done the tools installation into guest systems many times and know that the installation is correct. The tools folders are in bin and usr/bin and in the startups.

It is getting even better. I just discovered that the shared clipboard works with a Mint guest when you want to copy/paste URLs from browsers across system boundaries - both ways, host to guest and guest to host. And you need not even paste into a browser, pasting into a document file (e.g. Pluma) works also.

The same is true when you copy text from text documents. Now why would that work and copy/paste of a picture or a folder does not work.

whs wrote:It is getting even better. I just discovered that the shared clipboard works with a Mint guest when you want to copy/paste URLs from browsers across system boundaries - both ways, host to guest and guest to host. And you need not even paste into a browser, pasting into a document file (e.g. Pluma) works also.

The same is true when you copy text from text documents. Now why would that work and copy/paste of a picture or a folder does not work.

Interesting. I discovered the same phenomenon when I connect to Linux Mint Mate from a Windows 7 guest using remote desktop. And again the same happened when I used synergy to share my mouse/keyboard between host and guest. By the way, I am running a Xen hypervisor with Linux Mint as my main OS or dom0 (not Windows with VMware or VirtualBox). I already thought that this would be normal behavior.

I think this clipboard behavior is specific to Mint. I do not have this problem with other distros or Windows in VMware.

I now use the drag/drop function for files and folders. At least that works across the host/guest boundary.

I have never experianced this, and I VM. But i also have only used to cinnamon editions.

grimdestripador wrote:I have never experianced this, and I VM. But i also have only used to cinnamon editions.

Interesting. I should try cinnamon one day. I looked at it a while ago (without the VMware tools) but thought that is was 'simpler' than Mate. There was less settings I could make - or maybe I just did not find them.

whs wrote:

grimdestripador wrote:I have never experianced this, and I VM. But i also have only used to cinnamon editions.

Interesting. I should try cinnamon one day. I looked at it a while ago (without the VMware tools) but thought that is was 'simpler' than Mate. There was less settings I could make - or maybe I just did not find them.

Hi whs,
Have you ever solved this problem? I met the same issue as you, in LM17, copy file works fine with Cinnamon in both sides, but with Mate, I can only copy/paste the file from vm to my host win7. However, the drag/drop for files and folders are perfect.