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Resolution problem: Can't reach maximum resolution

Posted: 1. Oct 2010, 18:16
by sim085
Hello, my hostOS (Windows7) can reach up to a resolution of 1280 x 1024. However my guestOS (Xubuntu 10.04) can only go up to 1152 x 864 and 1360 x 760. I have the guest addition installed. I did a search on the Internet and found out the following command:

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VBoxManage setextradata global GUI/MaxGuestResolution 1280,1024
However when I run this there is still no difference. In other words I still do not get the option to set my resolution to 1280 x 1024 in the gustOS. Does anyone know how I might solve this?

Re: Resolution problem: Can't reach maximum resolution

Posted: 1. Oct 2010, 18:44
by Perryg
Make sure that the autoresize is activated in the guest. (host+g) toggle turns this on and off.
Also remember that the resolution for the guest is not set in the guest when using a virtual environment. Use the mouse click drag or the (host+f) toggle to go in and out of full screen.

host=right ctrl key unless you have changed it.

Re: Resolution problem: Can't reach maximum resolution

Posted: 1. Oct 2010, 22:20
by sim085
Hi, thanks for the help. host+g did not do much. However I noticed in terminal that I am getting the following error:

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Starting the VirtualBox Guest Additions ...fail!
(modprobe vboxguest failed)
Starting VirtualBox Guest Addition service VirtualBox Additions module not loaded!
Could this be related to my resolution problem? and why am I getting this error?

Re: Resolution problem: Can't reach maximum resolution

Posted: 1. Oct 2010, 22:27
by Perryg
Sure does. Usually you need to make sure that the kernel and headers match and that you installed

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sudo apt-get install dkms built-essential linux-headers-generic
Then install the guest additions again.

Re: Resolution problem: Can't reach maximum resolution

Posted: 1. Oct 2010, 23:36
by sim085
Thanks, I managed to solve the VirtualBox Guest Addition problem following your advice. Regarding resolution, I followed your tutorial "Howto: Install Linux Guest Additions + Xorg config". In other words I created the xorg.conf file under /etc/X11/ directory and set the mode to my resolution.

Is this the right way to do it? And can I add more then one mode (coz it says Modes).

Thanks again for your help. Now I can use my guestOS in full screen mode :)

Re: Resolution problem: Can't reach maximum resolution

Posted: 1. Oct 2010, 23:39
by Sasquatch
I do hope you read the note at the beginning of the xorg configuration. You don't need it. All you need is to make sure the Machine menu reads "Enable automatic resize" or something like that. Then put the VM in full screen and voilĂ , it goes to your native resolution. Using xorg.conf does however disable this dynamic resizing (also noted in my howto).

Re: Resolution problem: Can't reach maximum resolution

Posted: 2. Oct 2010, 00:02
by sim085
Yes you are right. It seems that the only problem I had was the fact that my VirtualBox Guest Addition was not installed correctly. I now deleted the xorg.conf file I had written and the guestOS resolution is adapting according to window size which is great :) Thanks again for all the help!!