Small Linux Display

[MU36]

The display for my Linux guest is very small and hard to operate. I have looked through all of the settings that I can find, but cannot find a way to change this. I can't drag the corners of the VM window and make it work. When I open the internet, I can only see about a quarter of what I'd be able to see on a regular laptop screen. I have to move scroll to see the right half of the Yahoo home page, for example. When I open Terminal, it takes up the whole screen. Does this make sense? Is anyone aware of a solution? I appreciate any advice!

[Perryg]

Sounds like you have not installed the VirtualBox guest additions. See the users manual for how to install them.

[LinseLA]

Sounds like you have not installed the VirtualBox guest additions. See the users manual for how to install them.

The manual seems to have evolved to be pretty confusing, with different terms used in different ways. Maybe this more idiot's guide below will help.

So assuming a Windows 7 host and Ubuntu client, one installs:
- the VBox exe (such as VirtualBox-5.0.4-102546-Win.exe)
- then one installs the 'extpack', such as Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-5.0.4-102546.vbox-extpack, which I assume is the HOST addons
- booting & installing the Ubuntu (mounted ubuntu-14.04.3-desktop-i386.iso, ran it etc)
- now I did do the 'sudo apt-get update' (per manual), but the only things touched seemed to be misc languages i don't use
- Also did the 'sudo apt-get install dkms' and 'sudo ap-get install virtualbox-guest-dkms'
- restarted the Ubuntu
- now the main confusion starts, as all the docs talk about finding VBoxGuestAdditions.iso on the install CD ... hmm, what's that? A CD? I haven't installed from a real CD in 8 years.
*) there does not seem to be any VBoxGuestAdditions.iso file at virtualbox org
*) doing a Windows HD search and I found C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\VBoxGuestAdditions.iso - so it gets unpacked magically from the EXE
*) I mounted this inside the VBox (Devices > Optical Drives > Choose disk image), was warned about an auto-run.
*) Sadly, my display was only 640x480, so I could not even see the non-default okay button for the auto-run! On blind-faith, I clicked the edge of the next button I couldn't read & hurrah, it was the right one! (aka: would be nice if developers kept critical initial-setup dialogs to under 640x480, which is what I was forced to use!)

That seemed to do it. After a restart, I have dozens of display resolutions up to 2560x1600. Ironically, the list doesn't even include the 640x480 I was stuck with after install but before the guest addons.

To be honest, someone installing VBox with Solaris or self-built Debian is in a whole different skill class from the typical student trying to put Ubuntu on Windows or Win Xp on Ubuntu, with is probably 95% (or 98%?) of the first time users. It might be nice to consider moving the more minor OS considerations to an 'advanced' version of online docs.

[MU36]

Sounds like you have not installed the VirtualBox guest additions. See the users manual for how to install them.

The manual seems to have evolved to be pretty confusing, with different terms used in different ways. Maybe this more idiot's guide below will help.

So assuming a Windows 7 host and Ubuntu client, one installs:
- the VBox exe (such as VirtualBox-5.0.4-102546-Win.exe)
- then one installs the 'extpack', such as Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-5.0.4-102546.vbox-extpack, which I assume is the HOST addons
- booting & installing the Ubuntu (mounted ubuntu-14.04.3-desktop-i386.iso, ran it etc)
- now I did do the 'sudo apt-get update' (per manual), but the only things touched seemed to be misc languages i don't use
- Also did the 'sudo apt-get install dkms' and 'sudo ap-get install virtualbox-guest-dkms'
- restarted the Ubuntu
- now the main confusion starts, as all the docs talk about finding VBoxGuestAdditions.iso on the install CD ... hmm, what's that? A CD? I haven't installed from a real CD in 8 years.
*) there does not seem to be any VBoxGuestAdditions.iso file at virtualbox org
*) doing a Windows HD search and I found C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\VBoxGuestAdditions.iso - so it gets unpacked magically from the EXE
*) I mounted this inside the VBox (Devices > Optical Drives > Choose disk image), was warned about an auto-run.
*) Sadly, my display was only 640x480, so I could not even see the non-default okay button for the auto-run! On blind-faith, I clicked the edge of the next button I couldn't read & hurrah, it was the right one! (aka: would be nice if developers kept critical initial-setup dialogs to under 640x480, which is what I was forced to use!)

That seemed to do it. After a restart, I have dozens of display resolutions up to 2560x1600. Ironically, the list doesn't even include the 640x480 I was stuck with after install but before the guest addons.

To be honest, someone installing VBox with Solaris or self-built Debian is in a whole different skill class from the typical student trying to put Ubuntu on Windows or Win Xp on Ubuntu, with is probably 95% (or 98%?) of the first time users. It might be nice to consider moving the more minor OS considerations to an 'advanced' version of online docs.

I did everything in this up to and including restarting the Ubuntu. The next part I'm not sure how to do. I am on a Mac and I don't know of how to do this on my OS. Also, when I reopened the VM after restarting, my resolution is set (and again stuck) to 1024x768.... Which is bigger than before!! But still not quite where I want it to be.