virtualbox.org

Hi everyone,

I finally decided to give VirtualBox a try, and I'm excited about how well it's working. I am having display problems, however.

I am running Windows 7 with NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS graphics. I decided to install two enhanced Ubuntu distributions to compare them. First, I installed Zorin OS, and after installing both the Extension Pack and the Guest Additions for Linux, I was able to go to the Monitor setting and change my monitor resolution to 1280x705, resulting in a nice full screen display.

However, I then installed Super OS and again installed the Extension Pack and the Guest Additions, but the highest resolution available is 800x600; 1280x705 does not appear as an option.

As far as I know (but I can always be wrong), I think the only differences between these distributions (and standard Ubuntu) are the user interface and the software that is included, so they should be able to recognize my graphics card equally well.

Does anyone have any ideas? What did I do wrong? What can I do now to get the higher resolution?

Thanks in advance!

Two things are possible: The GA installation didn't succeed or you didn't change the window size. You should not rely on the display properties for available resolutions. That will give you false information, you're better off sticking to auto and let the GA resize the resolution when you resize the guest window.

Hi magicspeller !

Try to set the monitor resolution on .vdi file: Now if you can set the resolution under installation you can start with yours.

Thank you both very much for your replies.

Sasquatch, I'm embarrassed that I didn't remember that resizing the window would automatically change the resolution, since that's what I had done with the first installation. It worked with that one, and it worked with this one, too.

Dglsquaid, I was glad for the chance to learn a little bit about vboxmanage. However, I'm still not sure what your command accomplishes. After executing it and starting up a session, the window size remains the same as in the previous session and the resolution has not changed. And I'm sorry, but I didn't understand your last sentence.

In any case, things are working beautifully now. I even figured out how to add a second monitor, so I now have a virtual monitor on each of my physical monitors, both sized exactly how I wanted them. I'm excited!

It's easy to forget one feature if you don't use it that much . As for what dglsquaid said, it means that the resolution you provided with the vboxmanage command should be available for selection in the resolution picker of the display settings. But once the resolution is dynamically resized to the same resolution or higher, that resolution will already become available without the command.