Apparent guest addition misfunction?

[marcociotti]

Hi everybody,

I had a problem while virtualising Win7 on Mac OSX host.
I've installed Win7 last week together with all updates and guest addictions and from then it worked properly until today when, trying to open the virtual machine I see the attached screenshot.

Any clue at all? When Win7 is turning on (black screen with coloured window) the size is the default one that you have without guest addictions installed (that's why the title) then, as soon as it turns light blue it happens. I can't scroll windows or do anithing that is not in what you see in the screenshot.

What should I do??

Many Thanks

[mpack]

I suspect you probably shut down the VM while it was minimized/hidden. Try dragging it back to the required size, and remember in future that whatever window size its in when it shuts down, that's normally what size it will have when it starts again. Sometimes, however, the state is confused.

[marcociotti]

It can't be extended, that is the problem...

[Perryg]

I don't know why this happens but I have seen it here a few times. The only way they fixed it was by editing the control file.

First the guest and VirtualBox must be shut down and you should make a backup of the *.vbox file before you start.

Then find the control file called *.vbox for the guest and open it is a text editor.
Look for the line <ExtraDataItem name="GUI/LastGuestSizeHint" value="1134,891"/> in your *.vbox file and set it to a value of 1024,768
Save the file and start the guest.

[marcociotti]

How do I backup the .vbox? Is it just to be safe, right?
I will let you know if it works.

How can it happen suddenly?!

[loukingjr]

I don't know why this happens but I have seen it here a few times. The only way they fixed it was by editing the control file.

First the guest and VirtualBox must be shut down and you should make a backup of the *.vbox file before you start.

Then find the control file called *.vbox for the guest and open it is a text editor.
Look for the line <ExtraDataItem name="GUI/LastGuestSizeHint" value="1134,891"/> in your *.vbox file and set it to a value of 1024,768
Save the file and start the guest.

Perry, something seems amiss with the hint function. Because I was having issues opening guests to the size I set in VBox preferences I tried your suggestion above. I edited <ExtraDataItem name="GUI/LastGuestSizeHint" value="1440,1050"/> to ... value="1920,1080" directly, which opened the guest to that size. However, after shutting down the guest and restarting it it was back to "value=1440,1050". Something seems to be not working.

[Perryg]

I don't know why this happens but I have seen it here a few times. The only way they fixed it was by editing the control file.

First the guest and VirtualBox must be shut down and you should make a backup of the *.vbox file before you start.

Then find the control file called *.vbox for the guest and open it is a text editor.
Look for the line <ExtraDataItem name="GUI/LastGuestSizeHint" value="1134,891"/> in your *.vbox file and set it to a value of 1024,768
Save the file and start the guest.

Perry, something seems amiss with the hint function. Because I was having issues opening guests to the size I set in VBox preferences I tried your suggestion above. I edited <ExtraDataItem name="GUI/LastGuestSizeHint" value="1440,1050"/> to ... value="1920,1080" directly, which opened the guest to that size. However, after shutting down the guest and restarting it it was back to "value=1440,1050". Something seems to be not working.

@loukongjr,

The reply above your's is only to get back to a usable screen. Everything is over written as soon as you save. or shut down the guest and it should open at the same size as it was shut down with.

I also see a few of the newer guests that do not obey the shut down rules and resize to a large screen (at least the login screen) but this seems to be coming from the guest OS. As for your VBoxManage hint that is what it is, a hint AFAIK. If you shut down bigger it should open bigger. Now the max size in the main manager is suppose to set the max and if that is not working I would post a ticket at bugtracker

One thing you might try is to set the max, reset the hint to what ever you want and when you start the guest turn off auto resize and see if that stops the growing or shrinking.

[loukingjr]

I guess I'll post something on bug tracker although I'm not sure it's a bug. It seems guests with "Auto" in their monitor preferences work but those without it don't.

[marcociotti]

I tried what you say but even though I save the changes made with text edit once I oper VB and the guest it overwrites it with 241,72 instead of 1920,1080 previously written...

[loukingjr]

I tried what you say but even though I save the changes made with text edit once I oper VB and the guest it overwrites it with 241,72 instead of 1920,1080 previously written...

try editing both the .vbox and vbox-prev file. should start at least once to the correct size.

[mpack]

Editing the -prev file is pointless. Nothing uses it, it's just a backup.

[loukingjr]

Editing the -prev file is pointless. Nothing uses it, it's just a backup.

well, when I didn't edit it my guest opened in whatever resolution was in the .vbox-prev file but okay.

edit: The guests do remember what size they were if you drag it's window to whatever size but setting a certain size in hint doesn't seem to be working. I did file a bug report.

[marcociotti]

try editing both the .vbox and vbox-prev file. should start at least once to the correct size.

I think it is just a backup as well and anyway whenever I save changes on the .vbox the -prev is automatically updated, therefore nothing has to be edited anymore...

Is TextEdit good, right?

[loukingjr]

try editing both the .vbox and vbox-prev file. should start at least once to the correct size.

I think it is just a backup as well and anyway whenever I save changes on the .vbox the -prev is automatically updated, therefore nothing has to be edited anymore...

Is TextEdit good, right?

text edit worked for me. I think .vobx-prev only updates after you launch the guest. the whole Hint setting seems to be broken but I posted a bug report as I mentioned. ticket https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/11628

[rpmurray]

Just for clarification; have you shut down the VMs and quit the VirtualBox application BEFORE editing the .vbox files?