Frustrating virtual box windowing behavior on Fedora 27

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MasonWeston
Posts: 2
Joined: 19. Feb 2018, 04:39

Frustrating virtual box windowing behavior on Fedora 27

Post by MasonWeston »

Hello all. I am running VirtualBox 5.2.6 r120293 on Fedora 27 with Kernel 4.15.3-300. On this particular machine I ma having quite a frustrating time with the windowing and the resolution. I have a guest running the same exact version of Fedora with the same kernel. I have installed the extension pack and the guest has the latest version of the guest additions. The problems are somewhat difficult to describe but they include the following

(1). This is a running on a dell XPS 15 laptop with a wonderful UHD display. The native fedora OS looks beautiful, but no matter what I do the resolution of the guest OS is always much lower.

(2). The guest os will now only work in Full screen mode. If try to have it in any windowed mode the guest os shrinks to the size of small pop up window (10x30 pixels).

(3). I have tried other guest os'es wth similar results. Mint for example always complains about having to fall back into software rendering mode.

(4). 3d acceleration of course does not work.

Now I don't have this problem with the same versions of software running on my intel NUC, which makes me think it has something to do with the video card. The NUC has an integrated IRIS video card while the dell has an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050.

Now this problem has been driving me crazy. But before attachng tons of dmesg output or xandr debug statements I winder if anyone has had this issue bfore and has a quick fix.

Thanks in advance.

MasonWeston
socratis
Site Moderator
Posts: 27330
Joined: 22. Oct 2010, 11:03
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Win(*>98), Linux*, OSX>10.5
Location: Greece

Re: Frustrating virtual box windowing behavior on Fedora 27

Post by socratis »

MasonWeston wrote:But before attachng tons of dmesg output or xandr debug statements ...
... you should attach the VBox.log of the guest. There, fixed it for you... ;)

Follow a "start the VM from cold-boot" / "observe error" / "shutdown the VM" cycle. With the VM completely shut down (not paused or saved), right-click on the VM in the VirtualBox Manager and select "Show Log". Save only the first "VBox.log", ZIP it and attach it to your response (see the "Upload attachment" tab below the reply form).

Bonus if you do this from the host that doesn't have the problem as well. To me it sounds like the GAs are not properly installed. Not surprisingly because you're running the latest kernel. You might want to try the latest test builds for VirtualBox.
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.
MasonWeston
Posts: 2
Joined: 19. Feb 2018, 04:39

Re: Frustrating virtual box windowing behavior on Fedora 27

Post by MasonWeston »

Thank you for the prompt replay and please excuse my tardiness. Here are the logs requested. The one with BAD in it is if course the bad one. The One with GOOD in it is the one from the host with no problems. Problem is still occurring so it is becoming quote annoying.
Attachments
VBOX.GOOD.log.zip
(27.49 KiB) Downloaded 15 times
VBox.BAD.log.zip
(32.6 KiB) Downloaded 14 times
socratis
Site Moderator
Posts: 27330
Joined: 22. Oct 2010, 11:03
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Win(*>98), Linux*, OSX>10.5
Location: Greece

Re: Frustrating virtual box windowing behavior on Fedora 27

Post by socratis »

MasonWeston wrote:Now I don't have this problem with the same versions of software running on my intel NUC
You are litterally comparing apples to oranges. The only common thing is the fact that you run Fedora (not the same version), VirtualBox (not the same version) and a Fedora guest (not the same version) with not the same settings. Blue is the Intel NUC.

VirtualBox:
VirtualBox VM 5.2.2 r119230 linux.amd64 (Nov 22 2017 18:18:38) release log
VirtualBox VM 5.2.6 r120293 linux.amd64 (Jan 15 2018 17:25:02) release log
Host:
00:00:00.546166 OS Release: 4.14.18-200.fc26.x86_64
00:00:00.485715 OS Release: 4.15.3-300.fc27.x86_64
Guest:
00:00:17.788231 VMMDev: Guest Log: 00:00:00.000439 main OS Release: 4.14.11-200.fc26.x86_64
00:00:43.013606 VMMDev: Guest Log: 00:00:00.000723 main OS Release: 4.14.16-300.fc27.x86_64
VRAM
00:00:00.673753 VRamSize <integer> = 0x0000000002100000 (34 603 008, 33 MB)
00:00:00.567394 VRamSize <integer> = 0x0000000003200000 (52 428 800, 50 MB)
I can't continue comparing your logs. First of all, you got to get your hosts, your VirtualBox, your guest and their settings in order. Otherwise it's futile.

You should try the latest test builds, especially with all the Spectre/Meltdown patches coming in from all sides.
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.
MrOSE
Posts: 5
Joined: 1. Feb 2011, 01:05
Primary OS: Fedora other
VBox Version: OSE Fedora
Guest OSses: linux, windows

Re: Frustrating virtual box windowing behavior on Fedora 27

Post by MrOSE »

Hi Mason,

Unfortunatly I can't help you either (well, at least better than giving useless advice).
I also experience issues with VirtualBox running on my system (UHD display), which sound a lot like what is happening on your system: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=87184
Does your NUC have a UHD display, or normal <= FullHD?

> The native fedora OS looks beautiful, but no matter what I do the resolution of the guest OS is always much lower.
Same here, VirtualBox applies scaling to the emulated screen, no matter what is selected in the VM settings

> If try to have it in any windowed mode the guest os shrinks to the size of small pop up window (10x30 pixels).
Does it also shrink in multiple steps until it is so tiny it can not shrink any more?
I've observed something like that on my system?

> I have tried other guest os'es wth similar results. Mint for example always complains about having to fall back into software rendering mode.
This is normal, no need to worry.

Best regards, Clemens
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