[Resolved] How do I change the Display Resolution on MacOS Mojave 10.14.6 Guest

[RealJamesDean]

Yes, it's on a Mac Host. MacBookPro15,2

How do I change the Display Resolution on a Mojave Guest?

I tried:

VBoxManage setextradata waxapple "CustomVideoMode1" 1680x1050x24
VBoxManage setextradata waxapple "CustomVideoMode1" 1280x800x24

both with no effect.
and that corrected the EFI and boot screens, but not the GUI Display which seems to be stuck on 1024x768
Guest additions are allegedly loaded

[socratis]

Guest additions are allegedly loaded

The GAs won't help you, there are no enhanced graphics support for OSX guests.

The changes that you applied don't count for EFI guests. You need to read the following from the User Manual: 3.14.1. Video Modes in EFI.

I want to see the recipe of the VM, the ".vbox" file. Right-click on the VM in the VirtualBox Manager, select "Show in Finder". ZIP the selected ".vbox" file and attach it to your response.

[RealJamesDean]

Ok, that makes sense. Excuse me while I facepalm and RTFM.

Will try the correct EFI video mode settings ASAP. On my iPhone right now.

It doesn’t help that most of the “cookbook” stuff Google turns up for MacOS guests is for (illegal) non MacOS hosts. So in my ignorance I’m quite sure my .vbox file contains some settings that are supposed to “spoof” whatever mechanism MacOS uses to detect genuine Mac hardware. So please let me know what’s superfluous in the .vbox file when I upload it? The guest is reporting the correct host MBP model type, so it’s pointless anyway.

Audio support appears to be MIA as well, is there a trick to that?

[socratis]

It doesn’t help that most of the “cookbook” stuff Google turns up for MacOS guests is for (illegal) non MacOS hosts

Tell me about it... Just count the locked threads in the OSX Guests area...

let me know what’s superfluous in the .vbox file when I upload it?

Most certainly!

Audio support appears to be MIA as well, is there a trick to that?

I need to see the .vbox file in conjunction with the existing log...

[RealJamesDean]

OK, it looks like:

VBoxManage setextradata waxapple VBoxInternal2/EfiGraphicsResolution 1680x1050

Fixed that. I'm guessing there's no way to change resolution from inside the MacOS Guest?

.vbox attached.

[RealJamesDean]

One more persistent weirdness:

If I save the Machine State and then restore, the VM resumes, but no longer accepts input from either the mouse or keyboard.

[SteveMacGeek]

So @RealJamesDean, were you ABLE to change the on-screen resolution of your MacOS guest? Did that command line actually work?

[SteveMacGeek]

My apologies off this has been covered, but I couldn't tell if the posted solutions worked:

We have a High Sierra GUEST running on Mojave HOST (and hopefully, running on a Catalina HOST, when Catalina VirtualBox is ready). The default is 1024 x 768.

Really need for it to be much higher, but would be happy with at least 1440 x 900.

Which of the various display drivers should be selected? Then how do we set the desired resolution?

I saw that with some drivers, 2D acceleration in the guest's settings is NOT available. Should it be when running on a modern Retina MacBook Pro?

On a RETINA Mac host (running Mojave or Catalina), will the display of the guest be "retina"? Or should the resolution be raised and then scaled to 200%?

Stephen

[socratis]

Fixed that.

Cool, marking the thread as [WorksForMe].

I'm guessing there's no way to change resolution from inside the MacOS Guest?

No. It's fixed, set from the command line that you used.

.vbox attached.

Thank you!

One more persistent weirdness:

We like to observe the "One issue, one thread" rule...

If I save the Machine State and then restore, the VM resumes, but no longer accepts input from either the mouse or keyboard.

I would tell you to "please open a new thread with a matching title" (see previous point), but thankfully for you, there's already a thread and a ticket open already: Keyboard and mouse don't work after creating snapshot (#18440), please talk about your problem there.


@SteveMacGeek

Did that command line actually work?

'RealJamesDean' posted a reply that had the word "Fixed" in it. Which part wasn't giving away the answer?

[SteveMacGeek]

Awww -- I was unclear if he was saying "He fixed THAT" (per some of the many directions) or "That [command line] fixed his issue".

Doesn't my post, "Proper Settings for 1440 x 900 (or greater) MacOS guest/host" [ModEdit: see the previous post from 'SteveMacGeek'] ask some questions not addressed in this post?

[socratis]

@SteveMacGeek
I merged your post with the current thread; you already had posted on this thread, and the solution is readily available (again) on this thread...

Which of the various display drivers should be selected? Then how do we set the desired resolution?

Both questions are already discussed here, please read the thread carefully from the beginning^[1]. I really hate repeating myself on the same thread...

I saw that with some drivers, 2D acceleration in the guest's settings is NOT available. Should it be when running on a modern Retina MacBook Pro?

I don't have the slightest idea what that means, or where that came from. Just stick with the defaults, read the related User Manual chapter and you'll be all set. Don't read random blogs...

---

^[1]: Hint; start from my 1st reply onward...

[socratis]

let me know what’s superfluous in the .vbox file when I upload it?

I completely forgot about that 'RealJamesDean', sorry...

The only thing that you have in your .vbox that's not "ordinary", is the fact that you've disabled SIP for your guest. Are you aware that you have disabled the SIP? Do you actually want it disabled or not?

It can be a legitimate thing to have, but I've rarely used that trick, only when I want to install custom kexts. Think building VirtualBox from source...

[SteveMacGeek]

OK -- I have correctly been able to set the display resolution on MacOS High Sierra.

It works -- but there's quite a bit of video "tearing" -- where the copying to the guest screen displays visible glitching.

I'm GUESSING this is because -- it's emulation?

I set it to 1440x900.
Graphics Controller: VMSVGA
100% scale factor
Video Memory: 128MB
Monitor count: 1
Enable 3D Acceleration: ON
Enable 2D Acceleration: OFF (only works with Windows guests)

Any other settings that might help improve screen video performance?

[socratis]

It works

Good, I can mark the thread as [Resolved].

but there's quite a bit of video "tearing"

According to the The Forum Posting Guide » One issue, one thread, please open a new thread with a matching title.

And please read the following: Minimum information needed for assistance.