Fullscreen Resolution Problem on Restart => Fixed in SVN

[HipHoppity]

After upgrading to VirtualBox 3.1.2 I went back to working with Fullscreen mode. All works well until I restart the Guest. I've found that when I restart my WinXP Guest the screen resolution drops and the Guest window in Fullscreen Mode appears centered with a black border to fill out the remainder of the screen. I also find that my Guest desktop icons are scrambled from their original position after restart which is a real drag. I never encountered this problem in the VBox 2.x or 3.0.x build series.

In my case the screen resolution on my iMac in Fullscreen Mode is 1920 x 1200 (see image below).

Fullscreen Before Restart or Shutdown/Startup of Guest

VBox 3.1.2 Fullscreen Before Restart.jpg (33.51 KiB) Viewed 52641 times

After restarting the Guest the resolution drops to 1400 x 1050 (see image below) on its own.

Screen Resolution Change After Restart or Shutdown/Startup of Guest

VBox 3.1.2 Fullscreen After Restart.jpg (33.5 KiB) Viewed 52640 times

I do not encounter this problem when the Guest is running in a window (Fullscreen Mode is off). The Fullscreen Mode resolution drop after restart of the Guest is the same whether or not "Auto-resize Guest Display" is selected.

Here's what I'm running on this machine:
Host = Mac OSX Leopard ( v. 10.5.8 )
Guest = Windows Pro XP SP3
VirtualBox 3.1.2 PUEL version (installer package VirtualBox-3.1.2-56127-OSX.dmg)
Guest Additions 3.1.2 installed

I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling Guest Additions and found the behavior persists. I couldn't locate any info on resolving this problem. Any advice on fixing this is most welcome.

[jsteiner212]

Just for giggles, In the guest window, Machine -> Auto-Resize Guest Display.

[HipHoppity]

Thanks for your suggestion Jsteiner212. Unfortunately I've found that the Fullscreen Mode resolution drop after restart of the Guest is the same whether or not "Auto-resize Guest Display" is selected. . .

[rpmurray]

There's a section in the manual, 9.15 Configuring the maximum resolution of guests when using the graphical frontend on page 155 of the 3.1.2 User Manual, that might help.

It's also possible that it could be a setting in the VirtualBox.xml file that you can finagle.

[hln98]

I have the exact problem here of not being able to maintain full screen after a restart.

This is really terrible. I see this problem among all my guest OSes. I have Windows 7, XP Pro and Ubuntu. All cannot maintain full screen after restart.

Went back to 3.1.0 to avoid this problem.

Please fix this.

[mamu]

I've the exact same problem over here using VirtualBox version 3.1.2.
I'm using Mac OS X Snowleopard 10.6.2 as host and running WinXP and Win7 as guests.
This problem was not present using VirtualBox 3.1.0.

Please fix this!

Edit: Fixed this on one of my Macs: 1) Started "Terminal" and entered "VBoxManage setextradata global GUI/MaxGuestResolution any" (except the quotes). 2) Started VBox and switched to fullscreen mode. 3) Reinstalled Guest Additions. Not sure if all of the steps were necessary but after doing all the above, the problem was gone.

Regards
-Matthias

[HipHoppity]

Update

Thanks for getting me started on the right track rpmurray and your comments mamu! I've got my Fullscreen working again thanks to you all. I appreciate your help with this.

After looking over section 9.15 of the User Manual, I decided to try fixing this thru the VirtualBox.xml file. I'm posting the edit options here just in case it might help out someone else that runs into this problem. I've tested both options below and they work great. You can also try mamu's suggestions with Terminal.

1. Check out section 9.15 ("Con?guring the maximum resolution of guests when using the graphical frontend") of the VirtualBox 3.1.2 User Manual for an overview.
2. The VirtualBox.xml file is located in the ~/Library/VirtualBox/ folder. Make a backup copy and set aside before you start. Edit the VirtualBox.xml file with VirtualBox shut down.
3. Here is the line of the VirtualBox.xml file we want to edit with the default setting:

Default Max Resolution Command

Max Resolution - Auto.jpg (17.57 KiB) Viewed 52307 times

4. The first option is to change the default "auto" setting to "any" like this:

Max Resolution with "Any" Setting

Max Resolution - Any.jpg (19.71 KiB) Viewed 52293 times

5. The other way you can go is to set the (width x height) of your monitor. In my case my iMac has a 1920 x 1200 screen -- so the command looks like this:

Max Resolution with Screen Dimensions

Max Resolution - >Width,Height<.jpg (19.52 KiB) Viewed 52289 times

6. Remember to save your changes to the VirtualBox.xml file. When you've got your VM started switch to Fullscreen mode. Now when you shutdown / restart your VM you should find that you return to your Fullscreen resolution without problems.

[ferite]

Thanks a lot.
For me was enough shutdown virtual machine, type "VBoxManage setextradata global GUI/MaxGuestResolution any" (except the quotes) in Terminal.app and launch Virtual machine again.

[HipHoppity]

Ferite,

Glad to hear this is working out for you too. Thanks for your addition to this topic -- it's nice to have all the options for this problem in one thread. . .

[mdurisseau]

Just wanted to report that this worked for me! This issue was a pain...I'm running 10.5.8 on a MacBook with 2G of RAM...

Michael

I've the exact same problem over here using VirtualBox version 3.1.2.
I'm using Mac OS X Snowleopard 10.6.2 as host and running WinXP and Win7 as guests.
This problem was not present using VirtualBox 3.1.0.

Please fix this!

Edit: Fixed this on one of my Macs: 1) Started "Terminal" and entered "VBoxManage setextradata global GUI/MaxGuestResolution any" (except the quotes). 2) Started VBox and switched to fullscreen mode. 3) Reinstalled Guest Additions. Not sure if all of the steps were necessary but after doing all the above, the problem was gone.

Regards
-Matthias

[HipHoppity]

Update

This bug is being tracked as Ticket #5372. Please see => http://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/5372

[spoonyfork]

Thanks a lot.
For me was enough shutdown virtual machine, type "VBoxManage setextradata global GUI/MaxGuestResolution any" (except the quotes) in Terminal.app and launch Virtual machine again.

Thanks, this worked for me as well running host OSX 10.6.2 with VirtualBox 3.1.2 running guest Win7.

[frank]

There will be a proper fix in Beta 2.