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7

I have been trying this for a while but no luck. I installed ubuntu-11.10-desktop-i386 twice. Also installed guest additions. However I always get maximum screen resolution as, 1024 x 768.

Do I need to change anything in /etc/X11/xorg.conf file (example) ? Presently there is no such file in that path. Also, please let me know what should be contents of the file for 11.10 version ? Thanks.

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For 12.04 you need to run apt-get install virtualbox-guest-dkms after each kernel update. – Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen Dec 10 '12 at 14:34

7 Answers

up vote 3 down vote accepted

This is likely a VirtualBox issue, rather than an Ubuntu issue.

I have had the same problem repeatedly before. Sometimes removing and re-installing the Additions solves this. Or simply forcing VirtualBox to actually load them, and not just download them.

Unfortunately, this issue recurs. I have found that updating VirtualBox (to a newer build) sometimes makes this worse AND sometimes solves this. This is a recurring issue ..

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up vote 18 down vote

This worked for me and I am running VirtualBox 4.1.8 and Ubuntu 11.10.

sudo apt-get install virtualbox-ose-guest-utils virtualbox-ose-guest-x11 virtualbox-ose-guest-dkms

Found it on this site under a slightly different question Higher screen resolution in VirtualBox?

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This worked for me. After installing the packages specified above and restarting VirtualBox the screen resolution in Ubuntu would adjust whenever I resized VirtualBox. – shanewwarren May 7 '12 at 20:54
This worked for me too. I experienced the same thing with @shanewwarren – mauris Sep 19 '12 at 14:42
same here. I also increased the video memory to 32 MB before that (may be unrelated). – Rafael Reiter Mar 22 at 21:28
up vote 5 down vote

I just installed Ubuntu 12.04 on VirtualBox 4.1.4, but couldn't get it to work on higher resolution, even after installing and reinstalling the VBOXAdditions. Desperate, I installed the VBOX 4.1.14 and reinstalled many times the VBOXAdditions, but without any success. Finally, the solution that solved the problem, was to increase the video memory (in VBOX setting for Ubuntu) from starting 12 MB, to 48 MB (which still did not enable resolution 1366x768), and than to 128 MB. After restarting Ubuntu everything works perfect, 1366x768 is my default resolution. I hope this will help in your problems. Cheers!

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Thanks. This did it for me as well. – Martin Scharrer May 1 '12 at 9:10
up vote 4 down vote

I was able to reproduce this issue repeatedly on Windows 7 host with Ubuntu 11.10 guest. Installing ubuntu from an iso image.

This issue happens when the either the Guest Additions are not installed or installed from ubuntu sources.

To fix this install guest additions from the virtual machine's Devices > Install Guest Additions option and running the autoprompt. If you already have the guest additions installed from a different source it will prompt you about removing the existing one and installing new guest additions, just say 'yes'. This will remove the guest additions if they are already installed from ubuntu sources and build from sources that came with your virtualBox installation.

This should fix the issue.

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1  
+1: Fixed the problem perfectly with Windows 7 x64! – Thomas Bratt Sep 7 '12 at 19:55
up vote 2 down vote

I was troubled with the screen resolution on Virtual Box on Windows 7 x64 as host and Ubuntu 12.04 LTS desktop as guest. I had raised the video memory to 128 MB, installed the VirtualBox Linux Additions, but it was still a no go. When checking the display setting in Ubuntu I could only choose between 800x640 (4:3) and 1024x768 (4:3).

Ticking the checkbox Enable 3D Acceleration in the virtual machine settings made it work. After that, when the guest window was resized, the size was reflected in the Ubuntu display settings. By turning on full screen mode I could use the full 1600x900 resolution in Ubuntu.

Hopes this might save someone's hair.

UPDATE: After enabling 3D acceleration Ubuntu became extremly sluggish. So I unticked the 3D acceleration and I could still enjoy full screen resolution.

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up vote 1 down vote

Entering the game lately, not sure this answer will help, but having a similar resolution issue (Mac host, Ubuntu as vbox), and after playing with xrandr, xorg.conf etc... I tried the following

  • close Virtual Box
  • enter the host terminal command VBoxManage setextradata Linux CustomVideoMode1 1152x680x32 where Linux is the vbox name, CustomVideoMode1 is a name you give with 1 for one new resolution, 1152x680x32 for a 1152 x 680 x 32 bits colors resolution (VBoxManage.exe on Windows)
  • start your vbox
  • re-install the Guest additions

worked immediately after a vbox reboot.

more info

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up vote 0 down vote

I have same problem on my notebook DELL M6600 with Ubuntu 12.10. I had to install quest additions in windows safe mode. After that, desktop screen resolution was done by size of the window with guest OS.

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