How do I get a larger screen resolution in VirtualBox on Mac OS X?
I am running the new Mac Air 13" with OS X 10.8.2. I then downloaded the latest VirtualBox 4.2.6. Then, I installed Ubuntu 10.04 into the VM.
First off, after I installed the VirtualBox Guest Additions and restarted the VM, the Ubuntu desktop froze after the GDM login and I had to delete the VBoxGuestAdditions folders out of /opt and /usr/lib to get back to normal again.
Second, I go to Ubuntu's System > Preferences > Monitors and try to change the settings, and there's nothing higher than 800x600. I then tried the VirtualBox various View menu settings and tried again in Ubuntu's System > Preferences > Monitors and I'm still stuck.
Note that VirtualBox won't expose the correct resolution to the guest OS if you have a Retina display. I have a 13" MBP and xrandr won't let me set a mode above 1280x800. https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/10860?cversion=0&;cnum_hist=4
I just confirmed VMWare Fusion has an option called "Use full resolution for Retina display" which exposes the real resolution.
I fixed the problem by doing:
Turn off 3D Acceleration in the VB settings -- that's why the Guest Additions were locking up after login.
Run this in the terminal of your ubuntu virtual machine, not the host OS:
apt-get update apt-get upgrade apt-get install dkms apt-get install build-essentialGo to the Devices menu and tell it to install the Guest Additions. A new CDROM will appear on the desktop. Rightclick and choose the Autorun.
Restart the VM.
- Now resize the VM window or choose Full Screen mode and it will resize the desktop screen resolution properly.
I have the same problem, but my Host OS is ubuntu 13.04 & have Mac os lion on virtual box.There is nothing higher resolution than 1024x768 in the display settings & after installing Guest Additions the screen stretched out, even i can't see the Dock. Help please!!
I tested this on Mavericks host with guest as Ubuntu 14.04. Doesn't work.
@zack I have this working fine on Mavericks with Ubuntu 14.04 using the steps above.
For 15.04 in 4.3.10 on OS X 10.10.3, I installed these packages: `sudo apt-get install virtualbox-guest-utils virtualbox-guest-x11 virtualbox-guest-dkms` as suggested in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NET8kdsS_-A
Where it is suppossed to execute second step? host Mac or virtualized Ubuntu. I have same Issue but virtualizing a windows 8 over a mac, and this looks lke the best thing to try
also working on OS X El Capitan
this didn't work for me because I was running an unbuntu server instance with no XWindows running. If anyone else runs into that, I just switched to sshing into my vm as suggested by http://askubuntu.com/q/224964/1306
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Content dated before 6/26/2020 9:53 AM
Takkat 8 years ago
related: http://askubuntu.com/questions/12578/adjusting-display-geometry-in-a-virtual-machine