VB 3.0.6: Auto-resize does not work anymore for Linux Guest -> video driver wasn't loaded

[Jakob.Englhauser]

After upgrading from VBox 3.0.4 to 3.0.6, auto-resize doesn't work anymore for a Linux Guest (Debian testing) on a Windows host (WinXP SP3) --- resolution stays fixed at 800x600x32. Same problem occurs when running that Linux Guest on a Linux host.

Guest info:

~/ uname -a
Linux pan 2.6.30-1-686 #1 SMP Sat Aug 15 19:11:58 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux

~/ ps aux | grep -i vbox
root 2283  0.0  0.0   3112   692 ?  Sl   07:58   0:02 /usr/sbin/vboxadd-service
*    2982  0.0  0.2   6916  1808 ?  Sl   08:00   0:01 /usr/bin/VBoxClient --clipboard
*    3002  0.0  0.1   6764  1192 ?  Sl   08:00   0:01 /usr/bin/VBoxClient --seamless

'/usr/bin/VBoxClient --autoresize' seems to be missing.

[Michael Thayer]

Can you check whether you have any .vboxclient-*.pid files in your home directory on the guest which are owned by root or something? And what happens if you try to start VBoxClient --display manually? You might also try with the --nodaemon option.

[Jakob.Englhauser]

I have:

~je/ ls -al .vboxclient-*
-rw-r----- 1 je je 5 2009-09-24 08:00 .vboxclient-clipboard.pid
-rw-r----- 1 je je 5 2009-09-24 08:00 .vboxclient-seamless.pid

This doesn't work:

~je/ VBoxClient --display
VBoxClient: unrecognized option `--display'

Probably I was meant to do this:

~je/ VBoxClient --autoresize

Returns to the prompt, no process afterwards:

~je/ ps aux | grep -i autores

I tried also this, same result:

~je/ VBoxClient --autoresize -d
~je/ ps aux | grep -i autores

From the VBox.log, shortly before shutting down the vm:

09:37:27.805 Guest Additions capability report: (0x4) seamless: no, hostWindowMapping: no, graphics: yes
10:44:29.502 VMMDev::SetVideoModeHint: got a video mode hint (1014x737x0) at 0
10:44:32.430 VMMDev::SetVideoModeHint: got a video mode hint (885x632x0) at 0
10:44:33.400 VMMDev::SetVideoModeHint: got a video mode hint (1275x827x0) at 0
10:44:33.944 VMMDev::SetVideoModeHint: got a video mode hint (1048x716x0) at 0
10:45:33.584 Guest disables mouse pointer integration
10:45:33.689 Display::handleDisplayResize(): uScreenId = 0, pvVRAM=00000000 w=720 h=400 bpp=0 cbLine=0x0
10:46:45.906 Display::handleDisplayResize(): uScreenId = 0, pvVRAM=04920000 w=800 h=600 bpp=32 cbLine=0xC80
10:46:46.584 Guest requests mouse pointer integration
10:48:42.894 Guest disables mouse pointer integration
10:48:43.066 Display::handleDisplayResize(): uScreenId = 0, pvVRAM=00000000 w=720 h=400 bpp=0 cbLine=0x0

While searching bugreports, I found a reference to xrandr - here I get:

~je/ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 640 x 480, current 800 x 600, maximum 800 x 600
default connected 800x600+0+0 0mm x 0mm
   800x600        61.0*
   640x480        60.0

Could this be related to the problem?

[mdmadph]

Working for me with an Ubuntu 9.04 guest and Virtualbox 3.0.6?

Probably a stupid question, but you did reinstall the 3.0.6 Guest Additions, right?

[Jakob.Englhauser]

Probably a stupid question, but you did reinstall the 3.0.6 Guest Additions, right?

Not stupid at all, but yes, I did, also rebooted afterwards. Meanwhile I noticed that the problem persists, even after a fallback to VirtualBox 3.0.4. Other changes done at the same time during the last upgrade:

• grub -> grub2
• x11/xserver-xorg updates

I fell back the grub change - problem persists.
Looking at Xorg.0.log (the one attached was generated after the fallback to 3.0.4), my problem could be related to the X updates.

Working for me with an Ubuntu 9.04 guest and Virtualbox 3.0.6?

That's good news!

[Michael Thayer]

For some reason, your guest is not using the VirtualBox Guest video driver (vboxvideo). And indeed, in VirtualBox 3.0.6 the resizing daemon is still VBoxClient --autoresize; it is renamed to --display in the VirtualBox trunk code.

[Jakob.Englhauser]

michael, seems you pointed towards the right direction. After some useless actions, like 'modprobe vboxvideo', restarting the X-server, generating new initramfs, rebooting, I finally replaced the generic xorg.conf by a vbox-specific one like described in ​http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=15679. After restarting X, plus a manual VBoxClient --autoresize, autoresize started to work again (cheers!!).

I checked vdi backups for which I know autoresize was working with, and those have the generic xorg.conf in place, which is a bit puzzling.

Anyway, no problem to use the xorg.conf tuned for vbox.

Thanks a lot for your immediate support!

[Michael Thayer]

Thanks for the feedback. Closing.