VirtualBox - Need help with xorg.conf res. settings

I am using an Acer X203W 20" LCD monitor and would like to add “1680x1050” to my resolution settings in xorg.conf. I would like to be able to resize the virtual screen to full screen instead of a small screen.

Running VirtualBox 2.1.6 with openSUSE 11.0 64-Bit guest on an openSUSE 11.1 64-Bit host machine.

I have checked VESA_BIOS settings and couldn’t find “1680x1050” listed.

Here’s a portion of my xorg.conf file:

Section "Monitor"
  Option       "CalcAlgorithm" "XServerPool"
  DisplaySize  481 375
  HorizSync    31-83
  Identifier   "Monitor[0]"
  ModelName    "1024X768@60HZ"
  Option       "PreferredMode" "1024x768"
  VendorName   "--> VESA"
  VertRefresh  56-75
  UseModes     "Modes[0]"
EndSection


Section "Modes"
  Identifier   "Modes[0]"
EndSection


Section "Screen"
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      15
    Modes      "default" 
  EndSubSection
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      16
    Modes      "default" 
  EndSubSection
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      24
    Modes      "default" 
  EndSubSection
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      8
    Modes      "default" 
  EndSubSection
  Device       "Device[0]"
  Identifier   "Screen[0]"
  Monitor      "Monitor[0]"
EndSection


Section "Device"
  BoardName    "Framebuffer Graphics"
    Driver      "vboxvideo"
  Identifier   "Device[0]"
  Screen       0
  VendorName   "VESA"
EndSection



Section "ServerLayout"
  Identifier   "Layout[all]"
  InputDevice  "Keyboard[0]" "CoreKeyboard"
  InputDevice  "Mouse[1]" "CorePointer"
  Option       "Clone" "off"
  Option       "Xinerama" "off"
  Screen       "Screen[0]"
EndSection


Section "DRI"
    Group      "video"
    Mode       0660
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
EndSection

I have checked Google, the virtualbox.org website and the UserManual.pdf file. However, I could not find an example on which section to edit and which to comment out.

My host machine is openSUSE 11.1 64-Bit and the guest OS is openSUSE 11.0 64-Bit.

Your help is greatly appreciated.

I’m stumped!!

I don’t think you can change Virtual Box because it’s their own driver that’d doing the screens, not, say, and ATI or nVidia driver - I think that’s one of the reasons I went to VMWare Server 2.0 - they had more different screen resolutions available.

make a backup of the file first.

I had this recently in VBox with PCLOS 2009

I am fairly certain you need to remove

Option       "PreferredMode" "1024x768"

and possible all the following:

SubSection "Display"
    Depth      15
    Modes      "default" 
  EndSubSection
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      16
    Modes      "default" 
  EndSubSection
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      24
    Modes      "default" 
  EndSubSection
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      8
    Modes      "default"

I will give it a try. I’m surprised that a VirtualBox HowTo has not been written on this topic for openSUSE (only a HowTo VirtualBox installation).
I’ve seen a couple of examples on Fedora - Ubuntu HowTo websites. However, Ubuntu including Fedora use very barren xorg.conf files.

Once I figure this out - I will post the entire xorg.conf file. I would like to create a sticky for this topic for others to use.

Please keep posting your ideas.

Thank you all for your help.

Cheers!

My post 13 March

Virtualbox Dynamic Windows - openSUSE Forums

I have a newly edited xorg.conf for guest openSUSE-11.0 below:

# /.../
# SaX generated X11 config file
# Created on: 2009-03-26T11:06:55-0400.
#
# Version: 8.1
# Contact: Marcus Schaefer <sax@suse.de>, 2005
# Contact: SaX-User list <https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/sax-users>
#
# Automatically generated by [ISaX] (8.1)
# PLEASE DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE!
#

Section "Files"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/misc:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/local"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/Type1"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/URW"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/Speedo"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/PEX"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/cyrillic"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/latin2/misc:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/latin2/75dpi:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/latin2/100dpi:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/latin2/Type1"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/latin7/75dpi:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/baekmuk:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/japanese:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/kwintv"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/truetype"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/uni:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/CID"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/ucs/misc:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/ucs/75dpi:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/ucs/100dpi:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/hellas/misc:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/hellas/75dpi:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/hellas/100dpi:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/hellas/Type1"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/misc/sgi:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/xtest"
  FontPath     "/opt/kde3/share/fonts"
  InputDevices "/dev/gpmdata"
  InputDevices "/dev/input/mice"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
  Option       "AllowMouseOpenFail" "on"
  Option       "ZapWarning" "on"
EndSection

Section "Module"
  Load         "glx"
  Load         "type1"
  Load         "extmod"
  Load         "dbe"
  Load         "freetype"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
  Driver       "kbd"
  Identifier   "Keyboard[0]"
  Option       "Protocol" "Standard"
  Option       "XkbLayout" "us"
  Option       "XkbModel" "logiex110"
  Option       "XkbRules" "xfree86"
EndSection


Section "InputDevice"
  Driver       "vboxmouse"
  Identifier   "Mouse[1]"
  Option       "Buttons" "9"
  Option       "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
  Option       "InputFashion" "Mouse"
  Option       "Name" "Virtual Box Pointer"
  Option       "Protocol" "explorerps/2"
  Option       "Vendor" "Sysp"
  Option       "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
  Driver       "vboxmouse"
  Identifier   "Mouse[3]"
  Option       "Buttons" "5"
  Option       "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
  Option       "Name" "ImPS/2 Generic Wheel Mouse"
  Option       "Protocol" "explorerps/2"
  Option       "Vendor" "Sysp"
  Option       "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection


Section "Monitor"
  Option       "CalcAlgorithm" "XServerPool"
  DisplaySize  481 375
  HorizSync    31-90
  Identifier   "Monitor[0]"
  ModelName    "1920X1440@60HZ"
  Option       "PreferredMode" "1920x1440"
  VendorName   "--> VESA"
  VertRefresh  50-60
  UseModes     "Modes[0]"
EndSection


Section "Modes"
  Identifier   "Modes[0]"
EndSection


Section "Screen"
  DefaultDepth 24
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      15
    Modes      "1920x1440" "1920x1200" "1900x1200" "1920x1080" "1600x1200" "1680x1050" "1600x1024" "1600x1000" "1400x1050" "1280x1024" "1440x900" "1280x960" "1366x768" "1280x800" "1152x864" "1280x768" "1280x720" "1024x768" "1280x600" "1024x600" "800x600" "768x576" "640x480" 
  EndSubSection
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      16
    Modes      "1920x1440" "1920x1200" "1900x1200" "1920x1080" "1600x1200" "1680x1050" "1600x1024" "1600x1000" "1400x1050" "1280x1024" "1440x900" "1280x960" "1366x768" "1280x800" "1152x864" "1280x768" "1280x720" "1024x768" "1280x600" "1024x600" "800x600" "768x576" "640x480" 
  EndSubSection
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      24
    Modes      "1920x1440" "1920x1200" "1900x1200" "1920x1080" "1600x1200" "1680x1050" "1600x1024" "1600x1000" "1400x1050" "1280x1024" "1440x900" "1280x960" "1366x768" "1280x800" "1152x864" "1280x768" "1280x720" "1024x768" "1280x600" "1024x600" "800x600" "768x576" "640x480" 
  EndSubSection
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      8
    Modes      "1920x1440" "1920x1200" "1900x1200" "1920x1080" "1600x1200" "1680x1050" "1600x1024" "1600x1000" "1400x1050" "1280x1024" "1440x900" "1280x960" "1366x768" "1280x800" "1152x864" "1280x768" "1280x720" "1024x768" "1280x600" "1024x600" "800x600" "768x576" "640x480" 
  EndSubSection
  Device       "Device[0]"
  Identifier   "Screen[0]"
  Monitor      "Monitor[0]"
EndSection


Section "Device"
  BoardName    "Framebuffer Graphics"
  Driver       "vboxvideo"
  Identifier   "Device[0]"
  Screen       0
  VendorName   "VESA"
EndSection



Section "ServerLayout"
  Identifier   "Layout[all]"
  InputDevice  "Keyboard[0]" "CoreKeyboard"
  InputDevice  "Mouse[1]" "CorePointer"
  Option       "Clone" "off"
  Option       "Xinerama" "off"
  Screen       "Screen[0]"
EndSection


Section "DRI"
    Group      "video"
    Mode       0660
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
EndSection


How I Did It

First, I backed up my original xorg.conf using the commands:

Open konsole and log in as root in guest openSUSE-11.0 by typing su
followed by the password.

cd /etc/X11

cp xorg.conf xorg.conf.vbox.bak

Then opened xorg.conf with vim text editor.

Type:

vim xorg.conf --and made my changes to xorg.conf - then:

Pressed esc key once and type: :wq
Pressed enter key to execute write and quit.
Typed: exit to exit konsole mode.

I selected Restart Computer to see my changes.

The guest openSUSE 11.0 booted to desktop. However, defaulted to “1392x768” resolution.

I then selected Start → Applications → System → Desktop Applet → KRandRTrAY. Left-click on the KRandRTray applet - select 1680 X1050 .

I selected Restore to maximize the virtual window. However, the panel wasn’t visible and the vertical and horizontal scroll bars were disabled.

To enable Full Screen mode press Host + F (the host key is the right CNTRL key). To see the VirtualBox top titlebar and scroll bars, press Host + F again.

I’m still working on the final document. However, I thought that I would post this to help some one.

Cheers!