Running Ubuntu 14.04 on Virtualbox at 1920x1080

Question

I have created a Ubuntu 14.04 VM on Virtualbox 4.3.16 (running on Windows 8). I have installed all of the Ubuntu virtualbox-guest* packages.

The highest screen resolution that I can set in the Ubuntu VM is 1280x960 (4:3). The other options are 1024x768 and 800x600. What I really want is to set the screen resolution to be identical to that of the host OS. ie. 1920x1080.

Does anyone know how to do this?

Solution

Make sure you have Auto-resize Guest Display ticked, under the View drop-down menu (Host + G). You can tell what it's currently set to by its tiny icon. Then try moving the window around, i.e. restoring it down/maximising.

Ubuntu should then automatically scale its display with respect to its window size.