Can't get full-screen

[TotalNoob]

Hey all,

I have a Windows 7 box.
I have installed the latest version of VirtualBox.
I have installed Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.9 as a VM.
I have run yum update, yum install gcc, and yum install kernel-devel.
I have installed Guest Additions.

After all that, I can only get my guest window (even using HOST-F for fullscreen) to be about 66% of my monitors screen size. I can go to System-->Administration-->Display and change it from 640x480 (what it defaults to) to 1920x1200, but it never stays. I hit "OK" and then go back to Display and it's back to 640x480.

Does anyone have any suggestions? If it's helpful, my video card is a GeForce 8600 GT.

Thanks

[Perryg]

post (as an attachment) the following.
/var/log/vboxadd-install.log
and
/var/log/vboxadd-install-x11.log

[TotalNoob]

Thanks for the quick reply. The files requested are attached. I had to zip one to get around the size limit.

[Perryg]

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/tmp/vbox.0/Makefile.include.header:97: *** Error: unable to find the sources of your current Linux kernel.

First line give you a clue to what is wrong. Make sure that you have installed the headers that match your kernel.

Note: You should have see a fail when installing the guest additions due to missing headers or out of sync headers.

[TotalNoob]

I didn't see a fail error, though it's possible it slipped by me I suppose.

I just ran "uname -r" and got this:

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2.6.18-348.1.1.el5

Then I ran "uname -a ; rpm -qa kernel\* | sort" and got this:

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Linux localhost.localdomain 2.6.18-348.1.1.el5 #1 SMP Fri Dec 14 05:25:59 EST 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
kernel-2.6.18-238.1.1.el5
kernel-2.6.18-238.el5
kernel-2.6.18-348.1.1.el5
kernel-devel-2.6.18-348.1.1.el5
kernel-headers-2.6.18-348.1.1.el5

Since the headers appear to match the current kernel, running " yum -y install kernel-devel-`uname -r` " obviously didn't work:

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Package kernel-devel-2.6.18-348.1.1.el5.x86_64 already installed and latest version
Nothing to do

Is the issue occurring because of the 238 files? If so, can I safely remove them?
I'm a newcomer to Linux, so this stuff isn't obvious to me yet.

[Perryg]

Shouldn't matter as long as you have the matching headers for the currently running kernel.

What version of Xorg are you running?

[TotalNoob]

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X Window System Version 7.1.1
Release Date: 12 May 2006
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0, Release 7.1.1
Build Operating System: Linux 2.6.18-308.13.1.el5 x86_64 Red Hat, Inc.
Current Operating System: Linux localhost.localdomain 2.6.18-348.1.1.el5 #1 SMP Fri Dec 14 05:25:59 EST 2012 x86_64
Build Date: 06 November 2012
Build ID: xorg-x11-server 1.1.1-48.100.el5 
        Before reporting problems, check (...won't let me post urls yet...)
        to make sure that you have the latest version.
Module Loader present

[Perryg]

Try the host+g toggle to make sure that auto-resize in enabled. You could also post the /var/log/Xorg.0.log to see if it sheds some light on the problem.

[TotalNoob]

Just unistalled and reinstalled Guest Additions in a Windows-esque attempt to solve the problem. There were definitely no errors indicated during installation. I rebooted, hit "host-G" then "host-F" and....HUZZAH! The login screen was, in fact, stretched to cover my whole monitor! The resolution was clearly not appropriate, but so far, so good.

I log in and...

It's back to the 66% size with the wide black border! Once again I tried to change the screen resolution but it never changes (as per normal).

Find attached the Xorg.0.log file. Thanks for all your efforts thus far!

[Perryg]

Strange.

I just installed Oracle Enterprise Linux 5.9 last week and it work as it should. Since it is really the same as RHEL just packaged differently I would think it would be just as easy to install the additions. I don't have a red hat license so updating is not possible and most of the time when I need a package I can not get them. That's why I use OEL.

Here are the packages I install before the guest additions.

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yum install dkms binutils gcc make patch libgomp glibc-headers glibc-devel kernel-headers kernel-devel

Plus the UEK when needed

Note: I get dkms from http://linux.dell.com/dkms/ to avoid any problems

[TotalNoob]

DKMS might be the issue... Let me uninstall again and try your DKMS from Dell. I'll also try all your packages. There are several I didn't install.

[TotalNoob]

OK, I uninstalled Guest Additions, downloaded latest DKMS rpm file from the Dell site, put it into a new folder I created, installed createrepo via yum, created said repo via createrepo, added new repo file to /etc/yum.repos.d, did a yum clean all and yum update all. Did a yum repolist all to make sure everything is kosher. It is. So far, so good.

Then installed all the yum files recommended by Perryg in his last post and rebooted.

Installed Guest Additions again.

I'm still stuck at a max of about 66% monitor size. The only caveat is that now when I use home+G to stretch the screen everything is all jacked up. Lol! Icons and menus don't appear until I hover over them and so forth.

Sigh. I think I'm ready to throw in the "full screen" towel. It may just not be worth all the effort. :-/