Does VMSVGA support multiple monitors?

Discussions about using Linux guests in VirtualBox.
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Chewi
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Joined: 25. Jun 2019, 12:08

Does VMSVGA support multiple monitors?

Post by Chewi »

I've been using CentOS 7 under Windows 10 for a while. I just updated to VBox 6 and was hoping to get better graphical performance. VMSVGA looked as though it might be better overall but I can only get it to bring up one monitor. I can see from /sys/class/drm that it lists further monitors such as card0-Virtual-2 but these are all marked as disabled and I can't find any way to enable them. With VBoxVGA and VBoxSVGA, this just works. I can't find any information about this anywhere. VMSVGA is relatively new so I guess few people have tried it.
socratis
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Re: Does VMSVGA support multiple monitors?

Post by socratis »

I tried it with a Mint19 VM, no problems. 2nd monitor was detected instantly, and could be as easily configured.

With a Fedora29, I couldn't get it to see the monitor. I spent an hour trying to look for a way to enable it, no dice, I gave up. If they want to get to desktop users, they better start working on some usability issues, like Mint is doing...
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Chewi
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Joined: 25. Jun 2019, 12:08

Re: Does VMSVGA support multiple monitors?

Post by Chewi »

Interesting, thanks. Strange though as Fedora 29 is slightly newer than Mint 19. The common element here is Red Hat although I think Fedora stays fairly close to the mainline kernel.
socratis
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Re: Does VMSVGA support multiple monitors?

Post by socratis »

I don't think it's a newer vs. older release. I think it's more about usability and Plug'n'Play issues. Some distros make some really weird decisions of what should or shouldn't be.

In Kali/Debian for example, you'll have to do some digging and config file editing, if you want to have more than one NIC at a time. Enable NIC #3, NICs #1, #2 and #4 are off. Enable NIC #1, all the others go dead. Go figure...
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
Do NOT reply with the "QUOTE" button, please use the "POST REPLY", at the bottom of the form.
If you obfuscate any information requested, I will obfuscate my response. These are virtual UUIDs, not real ones.
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