VirtualBox-4.2.18-88780-Win / Auto-resize Guest Display

[Willard Dawson]

VirtualBox-4.2.18-88780-Win Auto-resize Guest Display does not work at all Windows 8 Enterprise guest Windows 7 Professional host

VirtualBox-4.2.16-86992-Win Auto-resize Guest Display works as expected

[ericleeclark]

Same issue here with VirtualBox-4.2.18-88780, Mac OS X 10.8.4 host, Windows 8 Enterprise guest. I thought it might have been a conflict with guest additions and even tried spinning up a new Win 8 VM... issue remains.

[ericleeclark]

Note: I was able to revert back to Virtualbox 4.2.16 r86992 (OS X host) and reinstall the extension pack to regain auto-resize functionality with my Win 8 Ent guest.

[Rob Ritch]

I am experiencing the same issue. It will not auto resize to match the resolution of my host display. If I reinstall guest additions and reboot it works until the next time the host resolution changes. I run Virtual Box on a laptop so I switch between the laptop display and an external monitor. All was working fine prior to 4.2.18. Host system is ubuntu 13.04

[Legorol]

This may be a duplicate of ticket #12093.

I also had this bug in 4.2.18 when 3D video acceleration was turned off in VM settings. The symptom was that the guest size was restricted to only a few standard resolutions, such as 1024x768 or 1152x864, all of which smaller than the monitor's resolution. In windowed (non-fullscreen) mode, when trying to readjust the window size, it would snap to the nearest standard resolution. In fullscreen mode, the resolution couldn't be set to the monitor's resolution.

Guest Additions for 4.2.18 were installed. Turning on 3D acceleration fixed the problem, but then I would encounter the bug in ticket #9775, so I had to revert to 4.2.16.

This issue appears fixed for me in 4.3.0. Bug #9775 still applies, but I can run the VM without 3D acceleration without encountering this bug.

[markjones]

Yes, I see the same issue with 4.2.18 and 4.3. I am using it on Mac OS with an Ubuntu 13.04 and 13.10 VM and as soon as I install the guest host additions on Ubuntu and reboot the Ubuntu VM, that's when the first problems start to show up. Nothing is wrong after the reboot at the Ubuntu login screen. In fact, the key things to notice that nothing is wrong are:

1. The Mac OS X Window title bar is still present with the red, yellow, and green buttons and says Ubuntu.
2. The mouse when inside the Ubuntu window clicks in the area that you expect.

However, as soon as you log in, the following changes:

1. The Mac OS X Window title bar goes away.
2. To click on anything correctly, you have to click about 1/4 inch below where you want to click. All of the graphics have moved up to occupy the space where the window title bar were, but the mouse event system doesn't really know them to be there so it thinks they are still about 1/4 inch lower.

Also, if you try resizing the screen to see if that will cause it to readjust and fix things, all things go haywire. Sometimes the entire Ubuntu desktop goes black. Sometimes you get scroll bars. Sometimes the entire Ubuntu desktop shifts down about 2" within the window itself.

I've reverted to 4.2.16 for the time being.

[Ondrej Balaz]

I am affected by this bug on 4.2.18, 4.3.0 as well. When I check auto-resize option and have guest additions (4.3.0) installed, guest resolution scales down with host window size, but never enlarges. In 4.2.18 at least fullscreen worked but it does not in 4.3.0. From log I can see that window change hint is propagated properly.

Host is Linux and Guest is Windows 7. I've reverted to 4.2.16 until this issue is solved.

[misha]

Please attach a VM log file here.

[basslj]

This also applies for the Host type: OS X 10.9

[Ondrej Balaz]

In my case this issue seems to be rather mis-configuration than bug. After looking into VirtualBox source code I found out there is a setting called 'GUI/MaxGuestResolution' which limits maximum guest resolution and is also hard limit for Auto-Resize feature.

If Auto-Resize feature works only for shrinking but not for enlarging resolution as in my case it's probably because you're (somehow?) out of this limit. To fix it shutdown the VM with latest Guest Additions installed. And do:

% vboxmanage getextradata global GUI/MaxGuestResolution

If this yields e.g. Value 800,600 just change it to auto by:

% vboxmanage setextradata global GUI/MaxGuestResolution auto

and start VM. Resolution should change when you enlarge guest window.

You can also use 'any' instead of auto. That should remove any limit (e.g. host screen resolution) and worked for me well too. In case output was already auto or any it still might be limited on VM-specific level. Try to inspect using:

% vboxmanage getextradata <vmname> GUI/MaxGuestResolution

and fix it same way as for global. If it just outputs No value set! problem is probably still somewhere else ...

[aeichner]

Please reopen if still relevant with a recent VirtualBox release.