Allow Linux machines to allocate 256MB Video RAM

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kodan50
Posts: 1
Joined: 13. Sep 2021, 01:49

Allow Linux machines to allocate 256MB Video RAM

Post by kodan50 »

So I've been tying to get Linux to run smoothly on VirtualBox. I have version 6.1.26 R145957 installed with its corresponding extension pack. I am running this on MacOS Mojave with all of its updates. Any flavor of Linux I install seems to have the same issue, when the VM Guest Additions Tools are installed, starting the VM in full screen causes the screen to be blank until I pull it out of full screen into windows mode, then back into full screen. The issue does not occur if I start in windows mode, then go into full screen. I've tried soo many combination of stuff I can't even really outline here, but I noticed that Windows 10 doesn't have issues booting on VirtualBox in full screen. Part of my messing around, the only connection I could think of is Windows 10 is allowed to allocate 256MB of video RAM, whereas Linux only seems to allow 128. Sooo, I changed my machine type to Windows, bumped up the video RAM to 256, and I am able to boot Linux in full screen mode with no issues at all. Whatever changes VirtualBox makes to the machine that allows it to run 256MB Video RAM, it seems to work wonderfully. I then switched the machine type back to Linux and the amount of video RAM seems to still be set at 256MB, and the virtual machine is still booting correctly. So I guess my suggestion would be to allow Linux machines to allocate up to 256MB of Video RAM. Or is there a known issue that I may run into having the Video RAM set that high on a Linux box?

*Update: It looks like setting the machine type to Windows and back to Linux stops working after the host computer is rebooted. Setting the machine type back to Windows fixes it again. Very interesting stuff.
scottgus1
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Posts: 20965
Joined: 30. Dec 2009, 20:14
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows, Linux

Re: Allow Linux machines to allocate 256MB Video RAM

Post by scottgus1 »

kodan50 wrote:Any flavor of Linux I install seems to have the same issue, when the VM Guest Additions Tools are installed, starting the VM in full screen causes the screen to be blank until I pull it out of full screen into windows mode, then back into full screen.
If I remember correctly this is a known issue and workaround. There may be a Bugtracker ticket for it, you could search the tickets or make a new one.
kodan50 wrote:Windows 10 is allowed to allocate 256MB of video RAM, whereas Linux only seems to allow 128. Sooo, I changed my machine type to Windows, bumped up the video RAM to 256, and I am able to boot Linux in full screen mode with no issues at all. ... setting the machine type to Windows and back to Linux stops working after the host computer is rebooted. Setting the machine type back to Windows fixes it again. Very interesting stuff.
This is really interesting. Something like this, with a VM log to back it up, would help your suggestion in a Bugtracker ticket.

Regrettably, we on the forum can't influence this. The devs will see it in the Bugtracker, though. Seems to me it shouldn't be too hard to do, but I'm no source code guru. Seems to me you have a good workaround if the VM stays stable.
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