up vote 3 down vote favorite
share [g+] share [fb]

I have for years been using VirtualBox under Linux (currently Ubuntu 9.10) to run Windows XP Pro as a guest OS. It worked fine until today, for some reason, the Windows guest stopped resizing to match the size of the VB window. Also, the maximum resolution permitted by Windows is now 800x600. I have upgraded to the latest stable VirtualBox and reinstalled the Guest Additions without changing anything. Any suggestions? I'd rather not revert to the last snapshot if possible because I've installed lots of software since, e.g. Adobe Flex Builder.

EDIT: I tried starting a CentOS virtual machine and while it works fine in text mode, it cannot display in X (black window), indicating that the problem is either in VirtualBox itself or in Xorg. Ubuntu did update Xorg recently.

link|improve this question
67% accept rate
feedback

3 Answers

up vote 1 down vote accepted

Sorry to waste Molly's time. Purging and reinstalling VirtualBox seems to have fixed it. I imagine some setting was wrong, but since I use this VM for work I couldn't leave it unfixed long enough to debug.

link|improve this answer
not to worry. you got it fixed, that's what matters :) – Molly7244 Jan 29 '10 at 11:40
feedback
up vote 0 down vote

Device Manager > Display Adapters

is the VirtualBox Graphics Adpter installed or is it the Standard VGA Controller?

link|improve this answer
VirtualBox Graphics Adapter. – CarlF Jan 29 '10 at 0:48
remove it and let windows pick it up again. – Molly7244 Jan 29 '10 at 1:07
No effect. See my edits to the question. – CarlF Jan 29 '10 at 2:19
How much video memory is assigned to the VBox, check the display setting for the VBox in the console. – Molly7244 Jan 29 '10 at 2:25
It was 12 megs. Just before reading your comment I increased it to 22, which had no effect. Again, everything was working fine with these settings, then stopped. – CarlF Jan 29 '10 at 2:44
show 2 more comments
feedback
up vote 0 down vote

Use the key combination HOST + G to toggle automatic resizing. This is also available through the menu Machine -> Autoresize guest display.

link|improve this answer
feedback

Your Answer

 
or
required, but never shown

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.