VMwareGfx in macOS Mojave with VirtualBox 6.0.8

Discussions about using Mac OS X guests (on Apple hardware) in VirtualBox.
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stefanm
Posts: 2
Joined: 16. May 2019, 17:49

VMwareGfx in macOS Mojave with VirtualBox 6.0.8

Post by stefanm »

Hi there,

I have a running macOS Mojave 10.14.4 guest in VirtualBox 6.0.8 with latest test Guest Additions (6.0.9-130569). Everything is working fine except graphics by using VBoxVGA and VBoxSVGA. It feels a bit slow/sluggish. Therefore I installed VMwareGfx.kext and configured VMSVGA as graphics card adapter in VirtualBox. This is working fine and it feels really nice, so I want to stick with VMWareGfx.kext , but I'm stuck at the screen resolution at 1024x768, whereas my desired screen resolution is 1680x1050.

I googled already around and found lot of blogs etc. how to resolve screen resolution issues ( delete DisplayResolutionEnabled / set DisplayResolutionEnabled to No ) and set VideoModeHint. But that didn't work. Then I tried to bind the VMWareGfx.kext to VBoxSVGA (as I understood, it's VMwareSVGA with an VBoxVGA id), but that didn't work at all.

My best guess currently is setting a property via VBoxManage that is understood by VMwareGfx.kext and can be queried by VMwareGfx.kext. Like let's say "VBoxManage setextractdata "macOS" "VBoxInternal/Devices/svga/0/vmware-resolutionSet" "1680 1050"". Did anyone already tried this? And what is the correct key in VirtualBox?
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: VMwareGfx in macOS Mojave with VirtualBox 6.0.8

Post by mpack »

Don't look for display size settings in VirtualBox. Most monitors can handle a variety of resolutions, the VirtualBox monitor is no exception. It is up to the guest OS to request the dimensions it wants.
stefanm
Posts: 2
Joined: 16. May 2019, 17:49

Re: VMwareGfx in macOS Mojave with VirtualBox 6.0.8

Post by stefanm »

Nice idea, but that didn't work. :(
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: VMwareGfx in macOS Mojave with VirtualBox 6.0.8

Post by mpack »

? It's not a matter of "working". What I outlined is how you change the display size on a PC, virtual or not. You can set a size hint in the VirtualBox preferences, but there is no way to guarantee that every guest OS will accept it.
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