virtual video card selection

[tao0407]

Which one should I choose in video card selection, when I install RedHat7.2 in virtualbox 3.0?
Thanks!!

[TerryE]

Vbox emulates a standard VESA driver. Once you've installed Redhat then you can look at installing Guest Additions (which replaces the driver with a VM aware one), but you need to check interoperability since IIRC the two Redhat versions that are fully supported are RHEL 4 and 5.

[agrajag]

OK, but what interface card, and monitor, in general should we be selecting when trying to get the Redhat guest's video beyond 800x600?

Ok, so I'm on Virtualbox 3.0.4, on solaris 10x86 as the host, and RHAS 4 update7 as the GUEST OS (for this clarification, it should not matter if I'm hosing on windows or solaris, really, the question is more focused on RHEL 4 than the host OS)

During the install of the virtualbox guest additions, a message complaining about OPENGL not being available on the RHEL 4 u7 (RHAS) system comes up.

"This system does not seem to have support for Open GL Direct rendering"

It goes on to point out a log file, if the kernel is over a specific release level. RHES 4 update7 is 2.6.9-78, I think the error output during the guest additions installation mentions 2.6.27 or something like that.... So I am well under the release level its stating during the error output.
But the "Guest Additions" install continues on. I'm running the "VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86" installer. When I attempt to execute the autorun.sh it errors out complaining about gksu not being found.

When I attempt to set the screen resolution through the redhat gnome tool, the redhat desktop is larger, but ends up being a virtual screen limited by the 800x600 viewing area that virtualbox is restricting/the video device and monitor settings in the guest OS are limiting. As the desktop underneath the limited window area scrolls around as I move my cursor to the virtual screen edge, the registration of objects on the screen is off, it does not redraw properly, and the mouse starts to drift off center (so the visual mouse, vs the area the mouse is pointing to grows larger and larger, until the mouse is unusable.

Only forcing the redhat screen resolution to 800x600 from 1024x768 resets this behavior and provides a "usable" graphical desktop... very limited in its functionality.

Do I need to grab an "OLD" guest additions ISO and make it available to the VM to get better video ouput. I MUST work on 4 update7, and can not update so that is NOT an option.

Any pointers or input would be appreciated. Thanks!

[TerryE]

A long and well explained Q, but I do have to wonder if you've done your research in the User Manual. By default the VM provides a basic VESA graphics device. When you install Guest Additions and in your case Solaris Guest Additions then an enriched set of graphics features are offered such as Seamless windows and Hardware 3D acceleration (OpenGL). There are also specific issues covered such as Custom VESA resolutions in advanced topics.

Rather than me go one explaining what is in the manual, why not have a read and then come back if you have any more Qs.