screen resolutions issues

[slanbarn]

Hello!

I have some problems with the screen resolutions for my virtual machines...

I have these VMs:
1. WinXP 64bit
2. Win2k3 Server(msdn aa, not pirate copy!) 32bit
3. Win7-RC 64bit

Well now, that looks a bit sad for a Linux host... well

All these machines have 1024MB RAM and 128MB Video RAM with 3D-acc. enabled...

When in windowed mode using the VB-GUI all these has 1024x768 as highest resolution. Going to fullscreen sets 1440x900 for machine 2 and 3. For machine 1 I get a 1024x768 screen with black borders around.

For the machines that handels fullscreen, going back to windowed mode resets 104x768 as highest resolution.

As I have a widescreen hostdisplay, I would like to have a widescreen resolution for my guests, like 1280x800 or similar. I would guess that 128MB video RAM is enough for a resolution like that? Is there some "interaction" between VB and the host-systems /etc/X11/xorg.conf to decide wich resolutions should be enabled for the guest displays?

VB version: 2.2.2 non-OSE
All guests have reinstalled 2.2.2 guest-additions... all guests has HW-virt. enabled.
Host-system: Debian testing 64bit (AMD Phenom X4 processor, hardware virtuallization enabled), VB package from sun-website, nVIDIA driver version 180.51


Hope that anyone has some good ideas

[baf]

In the problem machine check that Machine->"Autoresize Guest" is marked in the menus.

To change resolution you should be able to resize the window from you host just by dragging at a corner. Or possibly by

Code: Select all

VBoxManage controlvm        <uuid>|<name>    setvideomodehint <xres> <yres> <bpp> [display]|

From your host

[slanbarn]

auto-resize guest display is enabled for all guests

edit: yeah, one could drag at the corner of the guest window, but one wants a "exact" resolution

edit2: Nope, using controlvm setmidemodesometing didnt work...

[baf]

In the guest try:
start a command prompt
cd "program files\sun\virtualbox guest additions"
then use vboxcontrol excerpt from help.

VBoxControl.exe listcustommodes
VBoxControl.exe addcustommode <width> <height> <bpp>
VBoxControl.exe removecustommode <width> <height> <bpp>
VBoxControl.exe setvideomode <width> <height> <bpp> <screen>

Good luck.

[slanbarn]

baf>>

In the XP-guest(details, see first post) i ised that utillity to set some custom modes(1024x768, 1280x800, 1440x900) and then I used the setvideomode option. The guest display flickered, but no change in resolution. After a reboot of the guest, 1024x768 and 800x600 is still the only options in the display-settings in Windows...

[Perryg]

From the VB users manual

The 3D acceleration currently has the following preconditions:
It is only available for certain Windows, Linux and Solaris guests. In particular:
For Windows guests, support is restricted to 32-bit versions of XP and Vista. Only OpenGL acceleration is presently available in the guests listed above; Direct3D is not yet supported and will be added in a future release.

Turn off the 3D effect in the 32 bit version.

Next the way that resize and auto-resize work is the click and drag method.
If you use the VBoxManage custom mode you would then need to start the VM by using the VBoxManage startvm command.
You could however edit the machine xml file to set this to what ever you want in the GuestProperty field. (1280x1024x32) would give you a screen of 1280x1024 at 32 bit
turn auto-resize off