additions OK with openSUSE 11.1 ?

[doon75]

Dear all,
I am going to add openSUSE as a guest to windows vista. This will be my first try with a linux distro so please excuse any stupid confusion on my part.
My choice of openSUSE has been determined by random factors - I like the look of it, completion of internet questionnaires and availability of point and click install options for some applications I need to run (GRASS GIS, qGIS).

Are additions for openSUSE 11.1 fully supported in visual box 2.1.4?
I am confused by some of the information provided:
From: ( http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Guest_OSes ), openSUSE 11, status “Works partially, Additions do not support X11 yet”.
Has this changed in release 2.1.4 ?
As from the change log ( http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Changelog ) “ • Linux Additions: ?xed installer to work with openSUSE 11.1 (bug #3213) “

Now I don't know whether these relate to the same thing, so my second question is:
If I install openSUSE 11.1 as a guest and also install the relevant additions .iso what will / will not work?

Many thanks,
Darren

[Sasquatch]

Everything should work. There is just one minor thing you might want to check. Some distro's won't allow an xorg.conf without resolutions in it. It will simply stop X from loading. Since the 2.1.4 GA, if a resolution is found in that file, dynamic resolution changes are disabled.

[Perryg]

Everything should work. There is just one minor thing you might want to check. Some distro's won't allow an xorg.conf without resolutions in it. It will simply stop X from loading. Since the 2.1.4 GA, if a resolution is found in that file, dynamic resolution changes are disabled.

I was able to get the dynamic resize working under both Gnome and KDE in openSUSE-11.1, but it was somewhat tricky.

Edit the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file and comment out the entire line Section "monitor" preferred mode.

Also look for any line that has a specified Mode that indicates the screen resolution and comment out just that line.

If you try to edit anything else it will complain about it on reload and not allow GUI to work until Xserver reconfigures your xorg.conf.

Also under the section "device" driver must say "vboxvideo" and vendor name "vesa".

I tried several different entries and this is the only one that allowed it all to work for me. Hope it helps you.

[Sasquatch]

Could you post the full xorg.conf file, for reference? I'm sure it will help others a lot more. Explaining things is one, showing what is actually needed is a lot better.

[Perryg]

Could you post the full xorg.conf file, for reference? I'm sure it will help others a lot more. Explaining things is one, showing what is actually needed is a lot better.

Sure thing. I did not include the upper portion of the file because it has no baring on the out come.

Code: Select all

Section "Monitor"
  Option       "CalcAlgorithm" "XServerPool"
  HorizSync    31-48
  Identifier   "Monitor[0]"
  ModelName    "1024X768@60HZ"
  Option       "DPMS"
  #Option       "PreferredMode" "1024x768"
  VendorName   "--> VESA"
  VertRefresh  50-60
  UseModes     "Modes[0]"
EndSection


Section "Modes"
  Identifier   "Modes[0]"
EndSection


Section "Screen"
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      16
   # Modes      "default" 
  EndSubSection
  Device       "Device[0]"
  Identifier   "Screen[0]"
  Monitor      "Monitor[0]"
EndSection


Section "Device"
  BoardName    "Framebuffer Graphics"
  Driver       "vboxvideo"
  Identifier   "Device[0]"
  VendorName   "VESA"
EndSection



Section "ServerLayout"
  Identifier   "Layout[all]"
  InputDevice  "Keyboard[0]" "CoreKeyboard"
  InputDevice  "Mouse[1]" "CorePointer"
  Option       "Clone" "off"
  Option       "Xinerama" "off"
  Screen       "Screen[0]"
  InputDevice  "VBoxMouse"
EndSection


Section "DRI"
    Group      "video"
    Mode       0660
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
EndSection


Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier  "VBoxMouse"
        Driver      "vboxmouse"
        Option      "Device"     "/dev/vboxadd"
        Option      "SendCoreEvents"  "on"
EndSection

[doon75]

Many thanks both,
exactly what I needed.
The code example is great. I was going to have to ask how to comment out a line - that's how little I know about linux administration (am slowly making my way through some books...).
Many thanks,
Darren

[ablairab]

I have tried commenting out the "offending" sections, but still have no dynamic resolution. Below is a copy of the entire xorg.conf file. Can anyone see what I've missed?

I am using a Gateway laptop with ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 discrete graphics chip, and dynamic resolution works for me in 6 or 7 other linux guest distos (Vista Host), including openSUSE 11.0.

Many thanks.
Alex

Code: Select all

# /.../
# SaX generated X11 config file
# Created on: 2009-02-17T22:46:23-0700.
#
# Version: 8.1
# Contact: Marcus Schaefer <sax@suse.de>, 2005
# Contact: SaX-User list <https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/sax-users>
#
# Automatically generated by [ISaX] (8.1)
# PLEASE DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE!
#

Section "Files"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/misc:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/local"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/Type1"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/URW"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/Speedo"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/PEX"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/cyrillic"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/latin2/misc:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/latin2/75dpi:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/latin2/100dpi:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/latin2/Type1"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/latin7/75dpi:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/baekmuk:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/japanese:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/kwintv"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/truetype"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/uni:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/CID"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/ucs/misc:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/ucs/75dpi:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/ucs/100dpi:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/hellas/misc:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/hellas/75dpi:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/hellas/100dpi:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/hellas/Type1"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/misc/sgi:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/xtest"
  FontPath     "/opt/kde3/share/fonts"
  InputDevices "/dev/gpmdata"
  InputDevices "/dev/input/mice"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
  Option       "AllowMouseOpenFail" "on"
  Option       "ZapWarning" "on"
EndSection

Section "Module"
  Load         "freetype"
  Load         "dbe"
  Load         "dri"
  Load         "glx"
  Load         "extmod"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
  Driver       "kbd"
  Identifier   "Keyboard[0]"
  Option       "Protocol" "Standard"
  Option       "XkbLayout" "us"
  Option       "XkbModel" "microsoftpro"
  Option       "XkbRules" "xfree86"
EndSection


Section "InputDevice"
  Driver       "mouse"
  Identifier   "Mouse[1]"
  Option       "Buttons" "9"
  Option       "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
  Option       "Name" "VirtualBox Mouse"
  Option       "Protocol" "explorerps/2"
  Option       "Vendor" "Sysp"
EndSection


Section "Monitor"
  Option       "CalcAlgorithm" "XServerPool"
  #DisplaySize  305 230
  HorizSync    30-38
  Identifier   "Monitor[0]"
  ModelName    "800X600@60HZ"
  Option       "DPMS"
  #Option       "PreferredMode" "1024x600"
  #VendorName   "--> LCD"
  VendorName   "--> VESA"
  VertRefresh  30-61
  UseModes     "Modes[0]"
EndSection


Section "Modes"
  Identifier   "Modes[0]"
EndSection


Section "Screen"
  DefaultDepth 24
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      15
    #Modes      "1024x600" "800x600" "768x576" "640x480" 
  EndSubSection
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      16
    #Modes      "1024x600" "800x600" "768x576" "640x480" 
  EndSubSection
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      24
    #Modes      "1024x600" "800x600" "768x576" "640x480" 
  EndSubSection
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      8
    #Modes      "1024x600" "800x600" "768x576" "640x480" 
  EndSubSection
  Device       "Device[0]"
  Identifier   "Screen[0]"
  Monitor      "Monitor[0]"
EndSection


Section "Device"
  BoardName    "Framebuffer Graphics"
  Driver       "vboxvideo"
  Identifier   "Device[0]"
  #Screen       0
  VendorName   "VESA"
EndSection



Section "ServerLayout"
  Identifier   "Layout[all]"
  InputDevice  "Keyboard[0]" "CoreKeyboard"
  InputDevice  "Mouse[1]" "CorePointer"
  Option       "Clone" "off"
  Option       "Xinerama" "off"
  Screen       "Screen[0]"
  InputDevice  "VBoxMouse"
EndSection


Section "DRI"
    Group      "video"
    Mode       0660
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
EndSection


Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier  "VBoxMouse"
        Driver      "vboxmouse"
        Option      "Device"     "/dev/vboxadd"
        Option      "SendCoreEvents"  "on"
EndSection

Modedit: Use code blocks next time.

[Perryg]

Under the Device section try un-commenting the Screen 0

[ablairab]

Just tried that, but still no dynamic resolution.

BTW - what are code blocks? (for future posting)

[Perryg]

Just tried that, but still no dynamic resolution.

BTW - what are code blocks? (for future posting)

Code blocks as far as the forum is concerded are wrappers that you use to put the code in that you are posting. It makes it scroolable. See examples above.

Now to your problem. Look at the top left side of your VBox window and click on Machine. Look at autoresize. Click it a few times if it is not greyed out. See that the entry changes colors. Mine has a light blue box around the button when it is turned on. If it is greyed out it will not work meaning something is not loaded properly. Let me know what you have and I will see if we can get this going.

[Sasquatch]

BTW - what are code blocks? (for future posting)

You see those nice little buttons above the text field, below the Subject line? Those are markup buttons. One of them has the very nice text called Code. You might want read the FAQ (link is at the top), so you learn how to use this forum with it's markup.

[ablairab]

I tried the "Auto-resize Guest Display" menu item as suggested, but that didn't help either. I also shut down and restarted the machine with the option selected (little blue box). Funny, I noticed that menu some time ago, but the auto resize has always worked on my other V machines without needing to select it.

Also, thanks for the help with the Code Blocks - I see how to do that now!

[Perryg]

I tried the "Auto-resize Guest Display" menu item as suggested, but that didn't help either. I also shut down and restarted the machine with the option selected (little blue box). Funny, I noticed that menu some time ago, but the auto resize has always worked on my other V machines without needing to select it.

Also, thanks for the help with the Code Blocks - I see how to do that now!

Hummm?

Did you get any errors when you installed the guest additions?
Also is the seamless mode (under machine) grayed out?
Also you should have a /var/log/vboxadd-install.log you can look at to see if there were any errors on the install.
Other than that I will need to think some more. This worked for me on several installs.

[ablairab]

The Seamless mode option is grayed out.

The install reported that it was successful, however I do see a couple of errors reported in the long file.

This error shows up twice, Building a Test kernel module and then again at Building the VirtualBox Guest Additions kernel module.

I am very new with Linux and do not understand the suggested fix. Do I need to download an additional package? How or where do I run the suggested fix?

/******************/
test -e include/linux/autoconf.h -a -e include/config/auto.conf || ( \
echo; \
echo " ERROR: Kernel configuration is invalid."; \
echo " include/linux/autoconf.h or include/config/auto.conf are missing."; \
echo " Run 'make oldconfig && make prepare' on kernel src to fix it."; \
echo; \
/bin/false)
/******************/

Let me know if it would help to see the entire log file (it is too large to add as a code block).

[Sasquatch]

You don't have the correct packages installed to make kernel modules. Install the kernel-devel package, then install the GA again.