Guest screen too small

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Mac OS X hosts.
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gol
Posts: 2
Joined: 6. Jan 2019, 05:28

Guest screen too small

Post by gol »

Hi,

I have installed Virtualbox 6.0 on my Mac OSX (Mojave) with ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS (Desktop) as my guest OS. Guest OS installation went fine. However, the desktop screen is just too tiny to read anything. After installing Guest additions, I am getting a blank screen (not even login prompt). How should I proceed?

Other trials
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I then downloaded previous versions of Virtualbox 5.20 and 5.18. The screen size is a little better but still isn't still full even after installing guest additions. Tried to attach the screenshot but is too big.
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: Guest screen too small

Post by socratis »

  • With VirtualBox 6.0.0 you need to go to the VirtualBox Preferences » Display » Scale Factor = 200%.
  • If you created the Ubuntu VM with 6.0.0, you need to shut down the VM, go to the VM Settings » Display » Screen » Graphics Controller = VBoxVGA.
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gol
Posts: 2
Joined: 6. Jan 2019, 05:28

Re: Guest screen too small

Post by gol »

socratis wrote:
  • If you created the Ubuntu VM with 6.0.0, you need to shut down the VM, go to the VM Settings » Display » Screen » Graphics Controller = VBoxVGA.
This fixed the issue! Thanks.
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: Guest screen too small

Post by socratis »

I guess the VBoxVGA fixed the black screen issue.
Did you fix the small screen size issue, as per the thread title?
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.
mike_hore
Posts: 16
Joined: 20. Oct 2011, 07:51
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: OSE Debian
Guest OSses: Linux Mint
Location: Darwin, NT, Australia

Re: Guest screen too small

Post by mike_hore »

i have an iMac with a large screen, and setting the display scale factor to 200% worked for me.
-- Mike.
karuhanga
Posts: 1
Joined: 12. Sep 2019, 12:10

Re: Guest screen too small

Post by karuhanga »

Copy pasting the answer here because I can't post urls.

You simply need to install the "Guest Additions".
In the Devices menu in the virtual machine's menu bar, Oracle VM VirtualBox has a menu item Insert Guest Additions CD Image, which mounts the Guest Additions ISO file inside your virtual machine. A Windows guest should then automatically start the Guest Additions installer, which installs the Guest Additions on your Windows guest.

Once installed, reboot the VM and you will be able to resize the "window".
MrRob503
Posts: 1
Joined: 17. Jun 2020, 13:17

Re: Guest screen too small

Post by MrRob503 »

I have this issue as well. First, I tried setting the scale factor to 200%. That works, but it had a very significant negative impact on performance for me. So instead, I changed the scale back to 1, and thought to use the accessibility features in the guest operating system to magnify the screen. In Windows 10, if you go to Settings -> Ease of Access, there is an option to "Make everything bigger". I did this and it works wonderfully now.
vishal.zx
Posts: 1
Joined: 23. Jul 2020, 10:06

Re: Guest screen too small

Post by vishal.zx »

socratis wrote: If you created the Ubuntu VM with 6.0.0, you need to shut down the VM, go to the VM Settings » Display » Screen » Graphics Controller = VBoxVGA.
I have the same issue. This helped me !! Thanks socratis !
rlbates99
Posts: 1
Joined: 14. Dec 2020, 06:27

Re: Guest screen too small

Post by rlbates99 »

Hello,

I'm on VirtualBox 6.1, with a Fedora32 Linux VM/Guest, and was having this same issue. I wanted to add an additional detail here about what fixed it for me. After inserting the Guest Additions CD Image and rebooting, changing the scaling factor made the screen larger, but with a low/bad resolution. Not what I wanted for either. So I set scaling factor back to 100, and noticed that in my Fedora32 VM, there is a resolution drop-down under View-> Virtual Screen1. It was set to 640 x 480 by default (yuck), but I was able to select 192 x 1200. All good now.

Thanks,
Robert
tej0897
Posts: 1
Joined: 4. Jul 2021, 10:13

Re: Guest screen too small

Post by tej0897 »

socratis wrote:
  • With VirtualBox 6.0.0 you need to go to the VirtualBox Preferences » Display » Scale Factor = 200%.
  • If you created the Ubuntu VM with 6.0.0, you need to shut down the VM, go to the VM Settings » Display » Screen » Graphics Controller = VBoxVGA.
this works man, thank you.
Dory_72
Posts: 20
Joined: 17. Jan 2020, 16:31
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows Server 2012

Re: Guest screen too small

Post by Dory_72 »

Geez thank you!! I've been working off a mac recently for work. My laptop died and this is all they had in the meantime. I'm traveling and the VM's were SO SMALL that I was getting headaches. thanks for this community and this post!!!
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