[Solved] Virtual Screen Resize is disabled

[ilbd]

I'm running virtualbox v 5.2.16 (latest available at this moment) on Mac OS "High Sierra" v10.13.16. Guest OS is Centos v7. My Virtual Screen Resize menu is disabled. I've tried many options from this and other forums without any luck. Can someone help to make this resize option to work? I can provide any additional information by request.

[socratis]

We're going to need a complete VBox.log, from a complete VM run:

• Gather the necessary information:
  1. Start the VM from cold-boot (not from a paused or saved state).
  2. Observe the error, i.e. try to resize the guest. From within the guest as well, from the guest's display settings, not from outside of your guest.
  3. Shutdown the VM (force close it if you have to).
• 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.

[ilbd]

Attaching the requested log...
My steps - start the VM; change the screen resolution from the VM OS settings - this is not the original problem. The "View/Virtual Screen 1/Resize" options are disabled - that is the problem. I also have Ubuntu VM and don't have this problem there. Even without VBoxGuestAdditions installed I can just resize the VM window and resolution will change accordingly.

[socratis]

Guest OS is Centos v7.

00:00:01.122216 Guest OS type: 'Linux_64'

You should change your template then. Choose the "Red Hat 64" one. The only thing that the two templates have different is that for the RedHat one, you should enable PAE, which is off by default for the generic Linux one.

00:00:01.242671 NumCPUs <integer> = 0x0000000000000004 (4)
00:00:01.358321 CPUM: Physical host cores: 4

You have assigned all your CPUs to the VM. The host is going to run low on resources, since VirtualBox cares about physical processors (cores), not logical ones (threads). See "CPU Cores versus threads" and "Why is it a bad idea to allocate as many VCPUs as there are physical CPUs?". I would give the VM 2, or max 3 CPUs.

00:00:13.977807 VMMDev: Guest Additions information report: Version 5.2.0 r118201 '5.2.0_RC1'

Your Guest Additions (GAs) are way too old. You need to update them to the currently running VirtualBox. Go to the menu "File" » "Insert GAs CD Image...", then follow the prompts in CentOS. If the installation doesn't start, navigate to your CD drive in your VM, and run "VBoxLinuxAdditions.run".

The "View/Virtual Screen 1/Resize" options are disabled - that is the problem.

That is not a problem. I still (after all these years) haven't figured out when/if these are used. So I never use them. I simply change the resolution from within the guest. I find it best if the OS (any) knows about the changes, rather than the changes being enforced on the guest. Can you do that? If you can, you're all set.

[ilbd]

You should change your template then

NO, I don't. There is a reason why I need to use Centos. It should not be my problem what template to use in order to make VB to work.

You have assigned all your CPUs to the VM

Noted, will test then.

simply change the resolution from within the guest

1024x768 was the highest available from within the guest with old Guest Additions.

Your Guest Additions (GAs) are way too old.

The installed version is 5.2.0. new that I've installed is 5.2.18- not far apart, but that was it - the Virtual Screen resolution is enabled now and simple window resizes with the mouse also works.

socratis, thank you for your help! Changes that I've made based on your suggestions work and VM is faster now.

[socratis]

Changes that I've made based on your suggestions work and VM is faster now.

Glad you got it going. Marking as [Solved].


But... I really didn't get this part...

You should change your template then

NO, I don't. There is a reason why I need to use Centos. It should not be my problem what template to use in order to make VB to work.

Either you're kidding me, or you didn't understand what I was talking about. The question is, what are you talking about?

I didn't tell you to change your guest from CentOS to something else. I told you to change the template, as in VM Settings » General » Basic » Version, from "Other Linux (64 bit)" to "RedHat (64 bit)".