Ubuntu server terminal doesn't resize screen in VirtualBox

Question

(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:

enter image description here

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?

Did you ever find an answer to this? – Brandon May 06 '16 at 17:20 — Brandon, May 06 '16 at 17:20

score 2 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:39

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:

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 01 '14 at 08:38

0

Try to install the guest additions using -

sudo apt-get install virtualbox-guest-utils

and reboot.

Then, press host+g to fit the guest in the virtualbox window.

answered Dec 01 '14 at 08:38

Rohith Madhavan

8,279

Tried that, got an error during installation. Updated my post. – Dan Dascalescu Dec 01 '14 at 08:43
Which version of Virtualbox are you using? 4.3.20? – Rohith Madhavan Dec 01 '14 at 08:44
Yes. Also sudo apt-get install dkms says it's at the newest version. Why is this so complicated :/ – Dan Dascalescu Dec 01 '14 at 08:47
Did you try rebooting? I can see that the Xserver got installed this time. – Rohith Madhavan Dec 01 '14 at 08:49
I did. The Auto-resize Guest display option is grayed out. – Dan Dascalescu Dec 01 '14 at 08:52
2

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. – Rohith Madhavan Dec 01 '14 at 08:59
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. – Rinzwind Dec 01 '14 at 11:19

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:37

0

The solution posted here addresses the problem. The solution is to change the terminal window size within the VM machine.

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:37

Community

1

answered Sep 23 '15 at 12:18

user453890

11

Ubuntu server terminal doesn't resize screen in VirtualBox

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