Max resolution for guest lowered since vbox upgrade to 1.6

Linuxuser · Post by **Linuxuser** » 3. May 2008, 21:40

I upgraded virtualbox from 1.5.6 to 1.6 (including the guest additions) on my 32-bit Ubuntu Hardy host and so far have only one problem with my Windows XP install:

The max resolution offered for the guest is at 1152x864 whereas in vbox 1.5.6 I could switch to 1280x1024 without any problems.

Fullscreen and Seamless mode function normally, I don't see any other problems.

Has anybody else experienced this? If you need more info, I'll gladly provide that.

Post by **JohnG** » 4. May 2008, 02:14

Yes, I'm seeing a similar kind of thing, with the same numbers as you, but Vista32 host and Win2K guest.

I like to keep my host and guest desktops separate, so having the guest in a full-size window is preferrable to going Fullscreen. The guest taskbar is at the bottom of the screen, and the host taskbar on the right-hand side. This makes for easy switching.

After playing around a bit, I may have found a workaround:
- set FullScreen and Seamless to "Off"
- click "Auto-resize" - I get a 1152x864 guest window in my 1280x1024 host desktop
- click the "Maximize" button in the upper-right corner of the guest window
The window will usually go to full size. The actual guest desktop ends up being something like 1272x955 (as found in Display Properties), inside the window frame. It's not consistent, but works more times than not.

I realize you're running a Linux host, so if/how this works for you may be a bit different.

hth,
John

Linuxuser · Post by **Linuxuser** » 4. May 2008, 11:58

Hi John,

thanks for your suggestion which alleviates the problem lots, giving me 1240x927 which is very okay.

I actually have the same set-up here concerning panels, hehe.

Post by **sandervl** » 4. May 2008, 15:50

How much VRAM did you assign to the VM? It might be a bit tight for the resolution you want.

Linuxuser · Post by **Linuxuser** » 4. May 2008, 17:55

I assigned 1GB to it on my Athlon Dualcore 3800+, nvidia 7600 box and powered up the virtual graphics card's memory to the max of 128MB as well. That should not be the problem, as long as you guys haven't bumped up the required VRAM for 1280x1024.

Oh, on a happier note, the XP guest startup speed has been so improved, thanks guys

Peri_quete · Post by **Peri_quete** » 4. May 2008, 18:11

same problem.
directdraw error in some applications in 1280x1024.

Host: ubuntu 8.04, corel 2 duo 3 GB RAM nvidia 7600 GT
Guest: Windows XP SP3 and SP2. 750 Mb RAM 32 Mb. Video. Monitor 1680x1050

Post by **sandervl** » 4. May 2008, 19:59

Noted. Could one of you open a defect in our tracker so we can make it official? Thanks.

Linuxuser · Post by **Linuxuser** » 4. May 2008, 20:08

I opened up ticket #1473 - http://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/1473 - for this.

Oh, I left the priority at "major" while this is not a major issue for me. Feel free to lower priority.

Peri_quete · Post by **Peri_quete** » 4. May 2008, 20:12

Host: ubuntu 8.04, corel 2 duo 3 GB RAM nvidia 7600 GT xorg set 1680x1050
Guest: Windows XP SP3 750 Mb RAM 32 Mb. VRAM

test:

Install Age of Empires and upgrade 1.5.6 to 1.6.0, Guest Additions 1.6.0:
Age of Empires crash if set 1280x1024

Install Age of Empires and upgrade 1.5.6 to 1.6.0, Guest Additions 1.6.0:
Remove Guest Additions VBoxVideo driver (VBoxDisp.dll, VBoxVideo.sys)
set vesa mode: VBoxManage setextradata "XP" "CustomVideoMode1" "1280x1024x32"
Age of Empires works

Virtualbox 1.5.6 and Guest Additions 1.5.6:
Age of Empires works

Virtualbox 1.5.6 and Guest Additions 1.6.0:
Age of Empires works

thanks

Post by **frank** » 5. May 2008, 17:32

The reason for this is that the the guest video driver asks the host frontend if a desired graphics mode is valid/supported or not. Up to 1.5.6 the Qt GUI reported every graphics mode to be supported. Starting with 1.6.0 we report only the space which the Qt library reports as desktop space. This space is a little bit smaller than the screen resolution (KDE/GNOME panel, menu, ...). In my case (KDE), the desktop space is 1580x950 although the screen is 1680x1050. So 1280x1024 will be reported as not supported because 1024 > 950. This restriction does not play when going to fullscreen.

We are currently discussing if we should change this restriction and how. Perhaps make it configurable as many (but obviously not all) users might prefer that the guest resolution is never bigger than the host desktop space.

Peri_quete · Post by **Peri_quete** » 5. May 2008, 19:46

I have been impossible set 1280x1024 (in full screen) with VirtualBox 1.6 in xp guest.

1280x1024 is a standard resolution. used by many applications, not support 1280x1024 is, in my view, a problem of compatibility.

thanks

Peri_quete · Post by **Peri_quete** » 5. May 2008, 20:03

Frank Mehnert wrote:
We are currently discussing if we should change this restriction and how. Perhaps make it configurable as many (but obviously not all) users might prefer that the guest resolution is never bigger than the host desktop space.

Suggestion:
New option to work with Guest Additions similar to:
VBoxManage setextradata ... "CustomVideoModeX" ...

Post by **frank** » 6. May 2008, 09:38

Did you try to go fullscreen, that is press Host+F? Note that for the fullscreen mode of VirtualBox the maximum resolution of the guest is the same as the screen resolution of the host as panel and menu on the host are not visible in this case.

Peri_quete · Post by **Peri_quete** » 6. May 2008, 12:47

Frank Mehnert wrote:Did you try to go fullscreen, that is press Host+F? Note that for the fullscreen mode of VirtualBox the maximum resolution of the guest is the same as the screen resolution of the host as panel and menu on the host are not visible in this case.

i am downgrade to 1.5.6 and I can not do more tests with 1.6.0.

I use KDE 3.5.9, dual monitor, in separate screen (display 0.0 1680x1050 0 and display 0.1 1280x1024) did many test ...

display 0.0 1680x1050 in full screen (full KDE not host + F), I can set, for example, 800x600 and appear black borders around, but I can not 1280x1024

more ...
display 0.0 1680x1050, remove windows borders fron KDE and
VBoxManage setextradata overall GUI / customizations noMenuBar, noStatusBar
impossible 1280x1024

more ...
display 0.1 1280x1024 in full screen (host + F) exec graphical aplication to 1280x1024, application crash or error DirectDraw

In the list of the properties of the video driver (v. 1.6.0) does not appear 1280x1024 as a possible way under any circumstances, like you said one way to try invalid mode the error occurs.

Peri_quete · Post by **Peri_quete** » 6. May 2008, 13:08

Keep in mind that someone might wish to run in remote VirtualBox (RDP) in a resolution different from your Desktop.

In my case, as you can not move windows between different Desktop in KDE, I use rdp in my secondary monitor to 1280x1024 to access VirtualBox.

Pd. I feel that my English was so bad ... Part of the blame has translate.google