virtualbox guest display does not auto resize with ubuntu 12.10

2,352 views

Just installed Ubuntu 12.10 as guest in virtualbox. I find that after I shutdown the VM and start it later, the display does not resize to the window frame that I had set for it. Please let me know any pointers on how the issue can be fixed.

posted Mar 20, 2013 by Natarajan Venkatraman

Share this question

Facebook Share Button

Twitter Share Button

LinkedIn Share Button

2 Answers

Best answer

Even with guest additions and latest virtual box, I faced the issue. I believe the changes made in Ubuntu 12.10 relating to Xorg / video drivers is leading to this problem. I fixed it using the below work around:
1. Found the resized monitor resolution by resizing the window and pressing HOST+G and then going to "Display Settings" under "System Settings" (It was 1280x676 in my case)
2. Created a file 10-monitor.conf under "/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/" with following contents:

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier "Monitor0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier "Device0"
    Driver "vboxvideo"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen0"
    Device "Device0"
    Monitor "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth 24
    SubSection "Display"
        Depth 24
        Modes "1280x676"
    EndSubSection
EndSection

With the above work around, I got the display to come up fine to the required resolution each time I restart.

answer Mar 31, 2013 by Natarajan Venkatraman

Have you installed the Virtualbox guest additions?

Ubuntu comes with a basic version of the FOSS ones preloaded but for
full functionality the real thing seems to work a bit better.

answer Mar 20, 2013 by anonymous

Agreed. Download from here, or better yet, add the repository to
Ubuntu:
https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads

commented Mar 20, 2013 by anonymous

Yes. Guest additions is installed and I am able to resize manually by pressing the HOST+G key. But the resized setting should be sticky and the next time I start the same VM, it should automatically resize to the window size. That does not happen. I am forced to use HOST+G each time I start the VM.

commented Mar 21, 2013 by Natarajan Venkatraman

Similar Questions

+1 vote

Virtualbox guest additions kill X in Ubuntu

I had Ubuntu 12.04 installed in Virtualbox which ran OK, if a bit slow, until recently when I did a bunch of updates. As is usually the case after kernel updates, I had to reinstall the guest additions to get
back full screen and auto-resize. However, what I got instead when I restarted, was the following message:

"The system is running in low graphics mode Your screen, graphics card and input device settings could not be detected correctly. You will need to configure these yourself"

It then drops into a menu with buttons where most of the options don't seem to work and eventually bring me to a command line login. I've tried a complete reinstall followed by an upgrade to 12.10 but
again the installation of guest additions bring me to the same point If the graphics settings can be configured I'll need some advice on how to go about it

I don't think I can provide log output as cutting/pasting between guest and host no longer functions.

This is Virtualbox 4.2.12. The kernel is 3.2.0-43-generic-pae i686

0 votes

Running an android app on Ubuntu

I have a android app and want to run it on Linux. Any clue how to achieve this???

+1 vote

What configuration file contains the update server locations for Ubuntu?

I would like to know the configuration file(s) which contain the server URLs from which Ubuntu updates happen.

+1 vote

Upgrading from Ubuntu 10.04 to 12.04?

I am thinking of upgrading from 10.04 to 12.04, just a click away in the software centre (no particular reason other than to benefit from recent fixes and continued support).

There are probably no easy answers (though I'd like some brief ones), but I wonder how common soft/hardware in/compatibility related problems are, resulting from such an upgrade?

Also, I am assuming all custom configurations will remain unchanged after such an upgrade (default email and custom settings, www browser bookmarks, various .rc files, repository settings for auto upgrades of unsupported software, and such), please correct me if should not assume so.

0 votes

Install php 5.3 in Ubuntu 12.10

i want to know what is the best way to install a specific version of php and have a full LAMP setup.

Ubuntu intallation of LAMP is very esay but by default I get php 5.4, and I need 5.3. If I can choose a specific version like 5.3.17 that would be even better.

...