Can set screen resolution with in VMWare

Question

I don't seem to be able to modify the screen resolution of my Ubuntu (VMWare ESX) VM.

I tried the XFCE Display preferences. I can choose a new resolution, but it is not applied.

If I do:

%xrandr --fb 1280x1024
X Error of failed request:  BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes)
  Major opcode of failed request:  141 (RANDR)
  Minor opcode of failed request:  7 (RRSetScreenSize)
  Serial number of failed request:  56
  Current serial number in output stream:  58

NB:

% xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 1 x 1, current 800 x 600, maximum 8192 x 8192
Virtual1 connected 800x600+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
   800x600        60.0*+   60.3  
   1600x1200      60.0  
   1680x1050      60.0  
   1400x1050      60.0  
   1280x1024      60.0  
   1440x900       59.9  
   1280x960       60.0  
   1360x768       60.0  
   1280x800       59.8  
   1152x864       75.0  
   1280x768       59.9  
   1024x768       60.0  
   640x480        59.9  
Virtual2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
Virtual3 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
Virtual4 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
Virtual5 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
Virtual6 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
Virtual7 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
Virtual8 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

Says it should be OK. All resolutions above fail. 1360x768 fail. Selecting resolutions below this this seems to have no effect.

Using:

cvt 1280 1024 60

Doesn't fail return and error, but also doesn't change the resolution.

My setup:

• Ubunutu 14.04.01 (LTS)
• VMWare ESX
• XFCE

Fails:

• How do I get other resolution option other than default one in full screen?
• Can't get native resolution
• Display unknown after nvidia driver update, resolution stuck at 800x600
• Screen resolution stuck at 1024x768

Answer 1

Install the vmware tools and then the VMWare Video Driver will help.

Installing VMware Tools from the Command Line with the Tar Installer

mkdir /mnt/cdrom

mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom

cd /tmp

(Update to specific version of vmware tools)

tar zxf /mnt/cdrom/VMwareTools-9.0.10-1481436.tar.gz

cd vmware-tools-distrib

umount /dev/cdrom

./vmware-install.pl