[FIXED]Windows 7 fullscreen resolutions don't go high enough

[fastdruid]

I've got virtualbox 4.0.8 running on Ubuntu 10.10, I have a two windows guests, one XP SP3, one Windows 7 Pro (32bit).

XP will fullscreen at 1680x1050
7 will fullscreen to up to 1280x1024 (this is the highest resolution listed) with black bars either side (and smaller ones above and below).

Guest additions are installed, display adapter is listed as "VirtualBox Graphics Adapter"

Running

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vboxmanage controlvm "Windows 7" setvideomodehint "1680" "1050" "32" 

does nothing

Any suggestions?

[Perryg]

If the guest additions are installed you need to check if auto-resize is enabled in the Guest. The host+G toggle turns this on and off.
Then you use the mouse click and drag or the host+F toggle to go in and out of full screen.

[fastdruid]

Auto-resize is enabled, If I uncheck fullscreen and drag it still won't go beyond 1280 x 1024

[fastdruid]

As a comparison this is XP

[Perryg]

remove:

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vboxmanage controlvm "Windows 7" setvideomodehint "1680" "1050" "32" 

reboot the guest and *DO NOT use the guests video resolution settings.
If after you have removed the above setting and rebooted the guest you can not get the full screen to work properly I would install the guest additions again.

Oh and please use the toggle keys I sent you. Sometimes they need to be refreshed manually the first time.

[fastdruid]

OK, tried running

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vboxmanage controlvm "Windows 7 (32)" setvideomodehint "1680" "1050" "32"

Screen flashed and redrew but at same resolution.
Rebooted, No change.

Reinstalled driver (I may add, AGAIN! ), windows asks to reboot at the end. No change.

Tried run again

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vboxmanage controlvm "Windows 7 (32)" setvideomodehint "1680" "1050" "32"

Rebooted, No change.

Tried using the keys, no change. As a 'window' rather than fullscreen the screen won't drag larger than (within Windows) 1678x925 which is still the same screen width as full screen (just with the desktop wallpaper behind rather than black bars), slightly smaller top to bottom due to the menu/task bar.

[Perryg]

Post the *.vbox file for this guest.

[fastdruid]

I don't have one, I've got a windows 7 (32).xml file in ~/.VirtualBox/Machines/Windows 7 (32) is that what you mean?

I've attached it on the assumption it is.

[Perryg]

If this guest was created before the version 4.0.* then yes that is the file. The next question I have is has this ever worked properly?

[fastdruid]

Nope, never worked.

Works fine in XP, not in 7.

[Perryg]

OK first stop using the video hint. all that is going to do is confuse the issue a lot more.

Next un-install the guest additions and do a cold boot of the guest (shut down & start).
I see that you are trying to use the 3D and the 2D feature so when you boot back up you need to boot in safe mode.
After the guest has settled down install the guest additions and select all features.
When the install is finished reboot the guest.

Again do not use the video hint and do not even open the guest desktop settings. See if the host+F will give you full screen without black areas and if not then try the host+G toggle and try host+F again.

[fastdruid]

Ok, tried that (after a little bit of a kerfuffle to get into safe mode!)

Still no.

[fastdruid]

Just so I know it actually works does anyone have a Windows 7 guest running on a Linux host working fullscreen at a larger resolution than 1280x1024?

[fastdruid]

Ok so after finding this post http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic. ... 348#p85563 I've managed to fix it, seems for some reason the MaxGuestresolution setting of Auto isn't/wasn't working, setting first:

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vboxmanage setextradata global GUI/MaxGuestResolution any

Followed by:

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vboxmanage controlvm "Windows 7 (32)" setvideomodehint "1680" "1050" "32"

Fixed it for me, I now also have larger resolutions than 1280x1024 listed in the screen resolution requester within windows (although they then obviously are larger than full screen).