virtualbox.org

If this is the wrong spot, Please more it to where it should be.

I have been running Ubuntu 20.04 for quite some time now and having no problems at all. Today, I wasn't doing a thing--with no widows open--and suddenly the screen flashed for half a second, then returned, but with a weird resolution I couldn't figure out. it was as if the OS had assumed I had a huge screen of around 5000x5000 pixels, yet the icons at the left were five times as large as normal. The screen followed the now-enlarged mouse pointer everywhere it went. The display was "stuttery" as well as completely freezing for seconds at a time. I opened the screen settings dialogue and it was still set to 1920x1080 (the normal size of my screen) but in actuality nowhere that size. I tried to use a different diver, but the caption across the top said I was using the VMWare SVGA II Adapter and wouldn't let me use anything else. THis makes sense since the whole OS is hosted on my Windows 10 system.

There doesn't appear to by any way to reverse this strange setup unless there is some sort of key combination I inadvertently hit somehow that caused it. If so, then I could use some help finding out how to reverse what I've done.

Thanks, Bill

Navy_Bill wrote:I I tried to use a different diver, but the caption across the top said I was using the VMWare SVGA II Adapter and wouldn't let me use anything else. THis makes sense since the whole OS is hosted on my Windows 10 system.

Thanks, Bill

No, it does not make any sense at all to me. Where did this vm come from? I suspect it was created to run under VMWare, not VirtualBox. I would expect it to be using an Intel/Pro1000 MT Desktop if it was created in VirtualBox on a Windows 10 host.

When the vm is shut down, go to Settings, scroll down to Networks. You will see that a vm can have up to four adapters. Normally only one is enabled.

On the active NIC, click on Advanced. Select the Intel adapter mentioned above from the dropdown list and reboot the vm.

I created the VM from scratch using an Ubuntu-Live DVD. I used the Oracle VM VirtualBox itself to do it, from creating the VHD all the way through adding updates until it was up-to-date.

Why would I mess with networks? It is set to Bridged Adapter so DHCP will assign an IP address in my home LAN range and not the general 10.x.x.x range.

I did, however, check what you advised. it is as you say already, so nothing to change.

Clearly this is some sort of video driver problem. As I mentioned, it was using the VMWare SVGA II adapter. Any other of the drop-down choices resulted in a warning message at the bottom stating "Invalid setting detected." The OS was working perfectly until it suddenly wasn't. No update was going on, nothing but a little mouse movement before the screen zoomed in a hundredfold and began following the mouse around.

Bill

Okay. Found the problem. Operator error, or rather operator's cat error. Just as this happened, my cat walked across my keyboard. Somehow, she managed to hit the hotkey combo for "Zoom" (ALT-Super-8). The screen obeyed and went hyper on me. It was only by reviewing the hotkey settings that I found that UNzoom is the same key combo. Now all is right with the world.

I feel like an idiot. I can tell you this is one hotkey I'll never forget.

Bill

Navy_Bill wrote:operator's cat error

There's a tremendous level of such things in the computer users' community. Glad you found the issue!