virtualbox.org

well, it seems i've solved the problem by updating to the newest virtual box 3.2 6
i think the issue was that the guest additions for 3.1.2 was corrupt and was not installing correctly as perryg suggested. with the update, i now have full widescreen resolution and full screen with auto resolution adjustment.

thanks for you help. hopefully smooth sailing till the next issues

I have vb 3.2.6 (ie the current vb) and on first installation of ubuntu 10.04 and vbox additions I was also stuck at very low screen res. I did this: installed 10.04; chose the guest additions option from the vbox menu; nothing seemed to happen. On restart of the vm a cd icon appeared on the ubuntu desktop. I let it autorun. I rebooted the guest after that and still had low res. I ran then the command prompt stuff as noted above for a manual install of guest additions and after a reboot have expanded screen res options.

I'm only reporting this in case someone who works on vbox is interested in feedback that there may still be an issue with the guest additions installation routine. Super that it works with a little tlc!

Split the topic from the original one as it went off-topic, by request of the original author.