VirtualBox/Ubuntu 9.10: Changing Screen Resolution   November 4th, 2009

At this stage I am assuming that you already have Sun VirtualBox installed and that you have gone through the process of installing a new virtual machine and installed the latest Ubuntu release.  It’s at this stage once you have started Ubuntu that you’ll be greeted with a low resolution screen, when you go to the display options you’ll find that you only get options to choose 800×600 or 640×400 which let’s face it, is not very helpful with modern screens.  Personally, I am running a 1920×1200 resolution so found the default virtual Ubuntu almost unworkable.

Fortunately, there is a simple way to overcome this; all you need to do is follow the following steps:

  • Start your virtual box and log into Ubuntu in the normal way
  • Hit the right ctrl key so that you can get you mouse pointer outside of the virtual box as you’ll now need to work with the host machine
  • Go to the top of the virtual window, click on Devices and then select Install Guest Additions.  You’ll now see the virtual CDROM installed within Ubuntu and a new icon will appear on the desktop
  • Click back inside the virtual box again and go to Applications, Accessories and then Terminal
  • Type cd /media/cdrom0 and then hit enter
  • Type sudo sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run and then hit enter.  You should then see the following:
Untitled-1

  • You now need to reboot the virtual machine
  • Log back into Ubuntu and go to System, Preferences then Display.  You should now have more options than the original low resolution options you had.

Depending on your specific hardware, you may still find that you’d like a different combination or higher resolution than the new ones which are listed; again, there is a solution:

  • Open Terminal again by going to Applications, Accessories and Terminal
  • Type sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf and then hit enter.  You will be asked for your password, type this and hit enter again
  • The text editor will now load, before changing anything make a backup by going to the file menu and choose save as, changing the file name to xorgbak.conf
  • Now to make the changes.  Unlike previous versions you will not see a long list of configuration options, 9.10 creates these settings dynamically.  However you can still add specific combinations so add your desired settings here (Caveat: Working with xorg.conf is a topic in itself so do not add code here unless you are sure what you are doing, you WILL break the installation and either have to fix it from the command line or reinstall the virtual machine), this will vary depending on your hardware and the resolution you are trying to achieve.
  • You must now do a save as but ensure you change the filename back to the original xorg.conf otherwise you will overwrite the backup you have just created.
  • Restart the virtual box and you should now have the new screen resolutions!

Enjoy!




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    This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 at 2:56 pm and is filed under Blah, Linux, Technology Related, Ubuntu, VirtualBox. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

    17 Responses

    November 4th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
    David Hurst Says:

    Nice to see you using a real OS for a change Mike… ;-)

    November 4th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
    David Hurst Says:

    For anyone wishing to give Linux a try, Ubuntu is great, but I’ve found Mint (which is based on Ubuntu) is better at identifying and configuring your hardware. http://www.linuxmint.com

    We use Mint as a development environment and it’s really very good.

    November 4th, 2009 at 4:30 pm
    Mike Says:

    Thanks for the heads up, I’ll download and give it a go in my VM.

    November 5th, 2009 at 12:24 am
    Mike Says:

    Well, I now have Linux Mint up and running in a VM too, as it is very much based on Ubuntu, the above steps are the same to enable a higher resolution within the VM window.

    In terms of whether I like it more than Ubuntu or not; the jury is still out. My initial thoughts were that it looked fab but perhaps that’s just because it’s new and fresh and we all know what they say about a change. I think certainly in terms of the menu, I still prefer Ubuntu – but that’s just me.

    I’ll have a play around over the next few days when my eyes aren’t so heavy and see what I think…

    November 18th, 2009 at 6:48 am
    PianoGuy Says:

    Thanks heaps for this!… if anyone else has anything, it would be much appreciated.

    November 21st, 2009 at 4:26 pm
    Piano Says:

    Hello :) I bookmarked this site. Thanks heaps for this!… if anyone else has anything, it would be much appreciated.

    November 22nd, 2009 at 12:30 am
    Brad Bartlett Says:

    Just tried this solution and it didn’t work. The VBoxLinuxAdditions ran and said it completed successfully. I rebooted the VM and the display preferences are still stuck on 800×600 with the monitor being unrecognized. Mouse pointer integration works now thought so the Additions did have some effect. Any suggestions on what to try next?

    I running Unbuntu 9.10 guest on Virtual Box v3.0.12r54655.

    Thanks for any assistance.

    November 29th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
    Mike Says:

    Hi Brad,

    What resolution options do you have on your monitor natively, which GPU are you using etc.

    The above steps worked fine for me so perhaps it’s owing to different hardware…

    Mike

    December 27th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
    dedlock Says:

    Hello,
    Tried a few different options to accomplish this and then came across yours. Easy to follow and did the trick. Thanks vey much.

    January 17th, 2010 at 5:47 am
    Roland Says:

    Hi,

    I’ve just installed Ubuntu 9.10 on a VirtualBox VM and have tried the above instructions, but my xorg.conf file is completely blank. I’m sure that I’ve done everything up to that point correctly (guest additions have been installed). I’m not sure what to do at this point as I’m a Linux novice. What should I do?

    January 17th, 2010 at 10:47 am
    Mike Says:

    Hi Roland, it’s normal for the xorg.conf to be blank in Ubuntu 9.10, the way in which this part of the configuration is used has changed slightly to older versions and essentially, this is written dynamically by the OS. However, as per the post you can manually write specific instructions based on your hardware. I can’t really comment on what you need to enter here as this will be different in each case based on what hardware you are using. Can you post some specifics…

    March 11th, 2010 at 3:42 pm
    Hui Says:

    Thanks, Mike. It helps a lot.

    April 23rd, 2010 at 4:51 am
    Kumaresan Says:

    It just worked for me! Great tips…Thank you!!!

    September 8th, 2010 at 4:19 pm
    John Says:

    hey man, nice blog…really like it and added it to bookmarks. keep up with good work

    September 8th, 2010 at 4:24 pm
    Mike Southby Says:

    Thanks John, appreciate the comment!

    November 21st, 2010 at 9:09 pm
    Andreas Says:

    Hi Mike, thank you for this blog. Very clear and understandable. However the “sudo sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run” does not work for me. I get “sh: Can’t open .VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run”. Actually, I am using the 64bit version. So I am actually doing “sudo sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions-amd64.run”, but same result. Don’t know what to do. Will be thankful for any help.
    Regards, Andreas

    November 22nd, 2010 at 6:34 am
    Andreas Says:

    Hi again. Problem solved. I just ran the GuesAdditions by cicking on the CD symbol. And then clicking on OpenAutorunPrompt. Can change the resolution now :-)

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