[Bio-linux-list] VB guest window resizing problem

[Tim Booth]

Hi Sara,

The version of the guest additions that come with VirtualBox are not
necessarily compatible with the version of the X server that comes with
Ubuntu.  I'd highly recommend sticking with the virtualbox-guest-x11
package that comes with Ubuntu.  Has that somehow  been uninstalled?

I've seen various VirtualBox installations messed up by people who
thought they could "optimise" their installations by installing
different drivers but from what you say it was a regular update that
caused the problem.  Maybe an update didn't quite stick?  Could you
please check that:

1) There are no broken or part-installed packages reported by apt.
2) There are no fglrx or nvidia packages installed (dpkg -l | grep
'fglrx\|nvidia' should list nothing)
3) You have not somehow switched to the compatibility X server (dpkg -l
| grep 'xserver-xorg' should not show any -lts- packages)

You could also post your  /var/log/Xorg.0.log file to the list.  The
answer is quite likely buried somewhere in there, even if it doesn't
make much sense to you.

Cheers,

TIM

On Wed, Jun 8, 2016, at 02:36 PM, Tony Travis wrote:
> On 08/06/16 12:31, Sara Rassner wrote:
> > Hello,
> > 
> > I've been running Bio-Linux 8 in VirtualBox for some time and all of a
> > sudden it's throwing up some issues related to VirtualBox.
> > 
> > Yesterday, it would not complete booting up, but get stuck on a black
> > screen after the green Bio-Linux 8 logo with the green dots. After some
> > repeated reloading of guest additions I got to the point where it would
> > boot normally, but now I can no longer resize the Bio-Linux desktop
> > within the guest window, but rather I'm stuck with a very small one
> > (640x480, I think). In the past this has been a guest additions related
> > problem, but this time I'm not sure how to solve it.
> 
> Hi, Sara.
> 
> If you press the 'Esc' key, you will see the boot messages, which might
> help you to work out what is going wrong. Are you running the 'OVA' VM
> that Tim created or did you install Bio-Linux from an 'ISO' image?
> 
> > I'm running VirtualBox Version 5.0.20 r106931 with Extension pack 5.0.20
> > r106931 and the most up-to-date Guest Additions (that came with the
> > 5.0.20 update). After reading suggestions elsewhere, I tried using Guest
> > Additions 5.0.16. This didn't work, but in the process of swapping
> > between the two guest additions versions, I managed to move from
> > Bio-Linux not booting properly to booting. But I still can't resize the
> > window. If it helps: In the guest window, the 'Auto-resize guest
> > display' and 'virtual screen1' resizing options are all greyed out.
> 
> What is your host OS?
> 
> > I should say that I've also got Mageia 5 in VB and that is running
> > absolutely fine, window resizing as it should etc.
> 
> One problem might be running Unity, which requires hardware graphics
> acceleration. Without it, Bio-Linux/Ubuntu 14.04 will default to a low
> resolution screen and performance will be terrible :-(
> 
> > Any suggestions for how to solve this problem would be greatly appreciated!
> 
> Please give us some more details about the host OS and which Bio-Linux
> VM you're using. It would also be useful to know if you've upgraded your
> Bio-Linux 8?
> 
> Bye,
> 
>   Tony.
> 
> -- 
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-- 
Of course I'm a technophobe; I program computers for a living!