window is not resized when the X is restarted

[Stéphane Charette]

When a Debian Etch 4 64-bit guest is taken from text-mode into X, the VirtualBox window is not resized correctly. It stays the same size as the 80x25 text-mode console. The X desktop is then incorrectly drawn within this too-small window. (See attached.)

Repro steps:

1. start Debian Etch 4 64-bit guest
2. start a terminal window
3. at the prompt, type "sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop"
4. the VB window will be resized, and you should now be in a text-mode console window
5. login
6. type "sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start"
7. X will now start, but the VB window will remain the same size as it was for the text-mode console; the desktop will look "scrambled" as shown in the attached image

Note how the VB window wont correctly resize any bigger. It seems fixed at this size. (See attached image #2.)

To fix this problem:

1. press: <HOST>+CTRL+F1
2. one you are at the guest's text console, press ALT+F7 to return to X

The VB window will resize itself to accommodate the full desktop, and no redraw problem remains.

[Stéphane Charette]

scrambled desktop when a large desktop is forced to display in a small VB window

[Stéphane Charette]

scrambled desktop is not fixed/redrawn even when the VB window is enlarged

[Martin Heimes]

same here with debian etch 32bit guest except that the contents of the too small window is not scrambled, just cut off.

same workaround

debian lenny host 32bit if that matters

[John Robinson]

I'm having the same problems, running Ubuntu 8.10 as my host, and RedHat 5.3 as a guest, both are 32-bit. The workaround provided above works for me

[Frank Mehnert]

This looks like a duplicate of #2779.

[sej7278]

Workaround doesn't fix resizing - now its just stuck at 1024x768 instead of 640x480.

Seemless mode still doesn't work.

It kind of is a duplicate of my ticket 2779, although there I add comments about Solaris, another workaround and a possible cause.

Apparently Sun QA tested Linux guests - I'd like to know which guest/host combination they used as it seems nobody else has gotten it to work.....

[grogd]

Same initial problem on Centos 5.2 with all latest updates (kernel 2.6.18-92.1.22.el5).

Work around listed here fixes login window size and allowed me to reconfig display and adjust size as desired after login.

Right now the copy/paste is not working, but it has never been 100% reliable.

Hopefully 2.1.1 will fix all so no work around is required.

[Martin Heimes]

same problem with Ubuntu 6.06 guest ... just for the record

[Michael Stevens]

I'm also seeing this problem, Windows Vista host, Debian stable guest.

[Michael Thayer]

Marked #2779 and #2877 as duplicates.