Comments on: VirtualBox – Increasing Your Screen Resolution

By: cloudwhale

cloudwhale — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 16:01:54 +0000

Great thanks for this tip, it worked like ice cream! I think they have made it pretty simple with VirtualBox 4.1.8 and Ubuntu 11.10. No more hacks needed – just install the VirtualBox Guest Additions and you are done.

TIP: After rebooting Ubuntu, instead of maximizing the VirtualBox window, resize it by pulling the sides to bigger and bigger size, up to your full screen size. Then on maximizing the window, Ubuntu filled up the whole window. Now I have Ubuntu running at 1600×1080.

I did not need to run the additions from the command prompt. In the Devices menu, the last option is VirtualBox Guest Additions. Select that and it installs directly.

I had checked out some of the other hacks earlier but all were pretty complex and involved changes to xorg.conf. In Ubuntu 11.7, there is no xorg.conf.

By: csmcreative

csmcreative — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 06:30:56 +0000

oh yeah, got it to 1600×1200. Can it do a full 2560×1600?

By: csmcreative

csmcreative — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 06:19:59 +0000

Worked great. Thanks. 8×6 SUCKS!

By: FettesPS

FettesPS — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 02:52:00 +0000

@Zelda – Doesn’t work like that. 640×480 and 800×600 are the only options in your GuestOS out of the box.

By: Zelda

Zelda — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 00:17:30 +0000

If you want to change the screen size, after you install the Virtual machine, change it in the display properties of the operating system. It will automatically change your virtual box size too. I think this is what you are talking about FettesPS.

By: VirtualBox Helpful Links | CodeBlog

VirtualBox Helpful Links | CodeBlog — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 14:06:11 +0000

[...] You used to be able to config the etc/X11/xorg.conf but on more recent version it’s not there.Here’s the easy fix. For me this only got me one higher up resolution. Or, try to gen the xorg.conf This does gen the [...]

By: Resizing VirtualBox Session Window (Screen Size) | Hilltop Yodeler

Resizing VirtualBox Session Window (Screen Size) | Hilltop Yodeler — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 23:17:40 +0000

[...] Source: http://www.fettesps.com/virtualbox-increasing-your-screen-resolution/ [...]

By: ninja face

ninja face — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 21:39:40 +0000

Thanks for this tutorial, it wizorked!

By: FettesPS

FettesPS — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:10:59 +0000

Perhaps you’re running a different version than I am but I do not get that same result on my work or home computers. When I resize the Guest OS window it does not adjust the resolution of the Guest OS. So if it was set to 800×600 I would end up with a gray frame around it filling the rest of the window. If I set it’s resolution to match my Host OS and then shrink the window I end up with scrollbars in order to access the areas outside of what is showing.

And yes, Ctrl+F is quite useful. If I have a monitor free that’s what I end up using.

By: beyonddc

beyonddc — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:38:29 +0000

Hey, I found your article on dzone.com. I’m also a user of VirtualBox. I found it to be a lot more lightweight than VMWare and it is particularly useful to install it on home desktop because it is appears to me to be less system intensive and easier to use.

Regarding with screen resolution, I am assuming Windows 7 is your host OS and Linux is your guest OS. After you installed the “Guest Addition”, the screen resolution will automatic adjust when you simply adjust the Guest OS windows on your desktop. It is not necessary to set your screen resolution manually in the Linux OS.

In addition, another useful trick is ‘Ctrl-F’ if you want it to be full screen.

Good luck and have fun!