virtualbox.org

Hi all,

I'm running VirtualBox 5.1.10 on Windows 7. I have VMs for Ubuntu and Xubuntu 16.10 and without installing Guest Additions, mouse pointer integration is seamless and I can set the resolution to almost anything.

However, I also have VMs for Fedora 25 (both Gnome and Xfce) and without installing Guest Additions, mouse pointer integration is almost seamless (ie there are 2 pointers, one in the VM and one for my OS) and I can only set the resolution to a maximum of 1024x768.

Why are these distros behaving differently? I know Fedora 25 just switched to Wayland instead of X so maybe that is part of the issue but I'm not sure how that would explain the mouse integration being different.

The difference is due to the specific requirements of the various OSes. Fedora is rpm based ( RedHat ) while Ubuntu is deb based ( Debian ). The only constant that will allow for a more closely viewed usage is by installing the guest additions that allow the guest/s to more closely resemble the same view and function. It also depends on the Distros view of what it wants to achieve and how it wants to get there. Everyone is trying to one up the other and in doing so they are leaving the time tested do it well road map for one that seems to have more glitter so they can profit.

Plus, some distributions come with custom Guest Additions (the ones from their own distro) pre-installed. You'd have to uninstall these before installing the official ones, to avoid any conflict.