Change Screen Resolution For Ubuntu Running Under VirtualBox
I’m experimenting with VirtualBox, and having Ubuntu 8.04 running on it I could not find an easy way to increase the screen resolution higher than 800X600.
Note: Although this guide was originally written for Ubuntu 8.04 it also works on Ubuntu 8.10, Ubuntu 9.04, Ubuntu 9.10
Luckily I found this great tip that shows how to configure the screen resolution in Ubunto 8.04 running as a virtual machine under VirtualBox.
Start up your Ubuntu 8.04 guest. In VirtualBox, click Devices->Install Guest Additions and your virtual Ubuntu should recognize a new CD. Open a terminal and run this command:
sudo /media/cdrom/VBoxLinuxAdditions.run
The installer should prompt you that it’s time to restart the virtual machine once it’s done. Just logging out and back in should work.
This is where things get sticky. For Ubuntu 8.04 guests, the VirtualBox video driver will not be enabled because of the minimalistic xorg.conf file.
Open your guest machine’s xorg.conf file:
gksu gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Find the device section, which should look like this:
Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
EndSection
And replace it with this to enable the VirtualBox driver:
Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
Driver "vboxvideo"
EndSection
Changing screen resolutions in Ubuntu 8.04 is done with RandR, which is not supported by VirtualBox. So you’ll also need to set a resolution manually. Find the screen section, which should look like this:
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
Device "Configured Video Device"
EndSection
And replace it with this, but change 1024×768 to your preferred resolution:
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "VirtualBox graphics card"
Monitor "Generic Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768"
EndSubSection
EndSection
Save, exit the editor, and log out. You should now have a large virtual machine window, as well as mouse pointer integration.
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August 9th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Worked like a champ. Thanks!
August 14th, 2008 at 10:47 am
Worked like a charm. Thanks!!
August 27th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
Best instructions on the net. THANKS!!!
August 30th, 2008 at 10:42 am
Doesn’t work for me
i’ve got virtual box 1.6.2 and the last ubuntu version 8.x.x
i’ve loaded the guest addition and updated the xorg.conf file
but no result it’s the same 800*600 resolution again
why me?
October 9th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Awesome! It works. XP host, Ubuntu studio guest, vbox 2.0.2. I’m bookmarking this page.
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:56 am
Same as Frenchy - nothing changed
November 5th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
It works for a virtualized Kubuntu 8.10 too!!!
Thank you!
November 17th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
thanks for the advice…
November 20th, 2008 at 1:07 am
Really good tip, it worked perfect with my Vbox running on win xp SP3, and ubuntu 8.10
December 5th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Vista host
Ubuntu guest
Problem low resolution
Even after following above, there is no success. After logout one message appears which says
“Ububtu is running in low-graphics mode”
“the following error was encountered. you may need to update your configuration to solve this”
“(EE) failed to load module “vboxvideo”(module does not exist, 0)”
“(EE) No drivers available”
Please help to resolve the issue
9
January 1st, 2009 at 10:22 pm
works like charm! thanks man! definitely bookmark this page!
January 2nd, 2009 at 8:38 am
U r gr8 man.
ppl like u motivate newbies of Linux
thanks a lot……..
January 3rd, 2009 at 7:10 am
thanks a ton
it worked wonders
January 16th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
excellent. thanks a lot!!!
January 17th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Today I tried the howto, written above. There was no need for editing anything. Exeot that for me the mounted .iso was ../cdrom0/ and I had to choose the *x86.run command.
After installing the VirtualBox started in maximum available 1200 + resolution. I changed to 16:9 and adjusted the font size and symbol size. Ubuntu works smooth
February 3rd, 2009 at 7:48 am
Thanks, worked great on XP host, Ubuntui guest after changing resolution in the Ubuntu menu.
February 16th, 2009 at 6:50 pm
Thanks!
It worked like a charm.
/ralph
/sweden
/brr, it’s cold….
February 23rd, 2009 at 9:05 am
thanks a lot. like markfried said there where no need to edit anything. just inserted the Guest Additions, ran it for my architechture, log out, log in. and here am i with a resolution i need.
thanks.
March 7th, 2009 at 4:52 am
Thanks a lot for the help.
In my case the command “sudo /media/cdrom/VBoxLinuxAdditions.run” did not work instead the following worked
sudo /media/cdrom/VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run
the rest was dream run.
Regards and thanks a lot.
Najmuddin
March 28th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
Thanks!!! It work great. I spend 1.5 hours but fix this with your help within 5 min
April 24th, 2009 at 5:08 am
Note: If you usually run VBox full screen - on a second monitor - you won’t see the menu option to “Install Guest Additions”. Simply go windowed to see the menu option.
April 29th, 2009 at 10:38 pm
Ahh, I have been trying to fix this for the last couple of hours and finally found a solution. This works great. It was not automatic for me after I logged back in. I just had to select it from the Display menu.
Thanks a ton!
May 30th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
I don’t really get this. I’m a newbie at this and it seems really hard for me. Is there an easier way?
June 19th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
I have been searching for a solution for this problem for quite a while now… This is the only one that worked… Thanks a ton…
September 1st, 2009 at 9:06 am
the only thing I have to do was to run
sudo /media/cdrom/VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run
After that, restart the machine and everything worked perfectly. Even mouse capture works as expected now
Thanks Aviran Mordo and Najmuddin
September 1st, 2009 at 1:33 pm
Tips not work for me….
Also - Vista host & Ubuntu guest
Problem low resolution
Even after following above, there is no success. After logout one message appears which says
“Ububtu is running in low-graphics mode”
“the following error was encountered. you may need to update your configuration to solve this”
Guest Additions installed
September 1st, 2009 at 2:44 pm
Re-make and all work!!! Thank you!!
September 21st, 2009 at 7:32 pm
Work very well. Host Vista 64 Guest ubuntu 9.04 Sun VirtualBox 3.06 I changed the resolution to “1280×768″ and ubuntu started very well without any problem
Thanks for your effort a lot.
October 6th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
thanks for the tip… curiously, I have a vbox configuration at home and another at home. At home, I only had to install the additions and was able to change the resolution. At the office, I had to follow your whole process and change the xorg.conf. Worked perfectly. Thanks for your post. rem
October 10th, 2009 at 11:48 pm
Excelente, logre solucionar mi problemas de video. Ubuntu me funciona perfecto.
Gracias amigos.
Freddy de Chile
October 17th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
Thanks a lot for the information. I had this problem for a long time and now the screen resolution is good.
October 23rd, 2009 at 2:23 am
I use Vista 64 ubuntu 9.04 along with a virtual box 3.06 and this problem has been plaguing me for a long time. I tried doing what you said and it worked flawlessly on one machine, but not my other two. I tried to see if there was anything different I accidentally did or something I changed and it turned out when I copy and pasted I ended up leaving out one of the quotes after vboxvideo. Just thought I say this in case anyone out there might have done the same thing..
January 7th, 2010 at 5:58 am
thanks!
it works with a virtualbox in w7 and xubuntu 9.10 @1280×1024 inside the virtualbox 3.1.2
January 16th, 2010 at 8:35 am
Great!! It worked fine, thanks!!
February 7th, 2010 at 11:39 pm
same as others, about 2 hours trying to solve this issue but finally I fix it tnx a lot.
I’M RUNING UBUNTU ON VISTA, AND IT WORKET tnx a lot!!!
February 17th, 2010 at 8:27 pm
awesome, thanks for the great guide