Ubuntu server terminal doesn't resize screen in VirtualBox

server virtualbox resolution screen

10,876

The auto-resize feature is for the X Window System.

From VirtualBox Manual - 4.2.2.2. Graphics and mouse integration:

In Linux and Solaris guests, VirtualBox graphics and mouse integration goes through the X Window System. ...After installing the Guest Additions into a fresh installation of a supported Linux distribution..., the guest's graphics mode will change to fit the size of the VirtualBox window on the host when it is resized.

Your best option is probably to SSH into the machine (using PuTTY). In that case, here's a few questions to see next:

10,876

Author by

Dan Dascalescu

Bio Co-founded the visa-free startup ship, Blueseed, the Quantified Self Forum (a community for self-trackers), and two web startups using meteor. Former Developer Advocate at Google - Progressive Web Apps (PWA), Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), Chrome OS, and AR (Lens). Former localization engineer at Yahoo!. I currently discourage localization in general, for reasons I haven't seen successfully challenged since 2009, with the exception of translating basic computer programming materials as a way to onboard new developers. More about me on on Wikipedia or on my website. My CV is on StackOverflow Careers. Interests Entrepreneurship and disruptive technologies, biotech, 3D printing, brain-computer interfaces, prediction markets. Applying ~20 years of experience in software development and ~5 in the startup world in CTO roles at emergent tech companies. Thanks If you feel grateful, here's my Amazon wishlist.

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

Dan Dascalescu over 1 year

(Not talking about resizing the desktop edition as most other questions do.)

I've installed Ubuntu 14.04.1 server 64-bit in VirtualBox 4.3.10 (not .20, which apparently isn't compatible) but the screen won't grow beyond 80x50 or something like that:

I've gone through the steps to install the official guest additions, which ultimately fail with an X.Org error. Well, duh. I need a server box, without a window manager.

How do I make the terminal match the resolution of the VirtualBox window?

UPDATE

I've since installed virtualbox-guest-utils and rebooted numerous times. The "Autoresize Guest Display" option is still disabled.

Has nobody else encountered this problem? Or do you just ssh into the box?
- Brandon about 8 years
  
  Did you ever find an answer to this?
Dan Dascalescu over 9 years

Tried that, got an error during installation. Updated my post.
Rohith Madhavan over 9 years

Which version of Virtualbox are you using? 4.3.20?
Rohith Madhavan over 9 years

Did you try rebooting? I can see that the Xserver got installed this time.
Dan Dascalescu over 9 years

I did. The Auto-resize Guest display option is grayed out.
Rohith Madhavan over 9 years

I would suggest that you downgrade and install Virtualbox 4.3.10 instead. The virtualbox-guest-utils package supports 4.3.10 and works perfectly on my system.
Rinzwind over 9 years

What @RohithMadhavan posts is correct and should be the way to do this. Might be a bug... I have 4.3.10 too and works perfectly.