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I have seen several debates on different forums but could not reach to a solution. My notebook has a UHD display running windows 8 as host OS. I have tried Vmware and virtualbox as VMs to have the experience of Ubuntu 14.04 as guest OS. The problem is with the screen resolution I get in the VM, either on a full screen or in any other view size. It's nano and awful.

My question specifically is: Is there any VM which supports Ubuntu 14.04 in such a way that we can control the resolution with the best results for user on any notebook with a UHD display?

OR

If any plausible solution exists, even for the mentioned VMs, which I am missing?

tod
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    I must ask since you did not state it, have you installed VMware Tools on guest OS? For my understanding it's a must have to get better control of VM's display and resolution -along with many other features it naturally supports of course. – emrecnl Sep 16 '15 at 17:37
  • that really made no difference.. – tod Sep 17 '15 at 09:03
  • Well I know one thing VMware Workstation 12 Pro supports UHD http://www.vmware.com/products/workstation/features – emrecnl Sep 17 '15 at 11:09
  • If you're unable to change the resolution to suit your host's graphics hardware, I'm certain you don't have the extension pack installed. What packs do you have installed for either hypervisor? – wulfgarpro Sep 20 '15 at 10:53

3 Answers3

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VirtualBox or VMware does not care what resolution the guest or the host is running. Both use what they find. To view correctly in the guest system, the installed guest operating system is solely responsible and in your case 14.04.

But as I already wrote here:

The 4K technology is relatively new. On the other hand your system is relatively old. If you want to improve the situation, then you must use newer software versions. A first step is to update your system to Vivid or to Wily in some days. And then the application developers are required. The individual applications have to be adjusted.

Therefore install Vivid or Wily and have patience and in any case, install the guest addons, e.g. VMware Tools and/or Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack.

Community
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A.B.
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If you run a VM on Windows, then run a host within the VM, the display drivers presented to the host, are those of virtual hardware created by the VM. Your host, will have no idea you're running a UHD display, unless you could pass the whole device to the host (which could only be done, if the actual running OS, windows, was using a different display device).

I believe if you use VMWare, and have VMware tools installed in the host, you can resize the VM screen, like a regular desktop window. Without tools, you have to specify the display resolution in the vm config file. Looking at an Ubuntu VM I have running under Workstation 10, I can emulate up 10 monitors, each with up to a 2560x1600 resolution. I'm not sure how to have those multiple monitors display on my physical host, but it must be possible.

But remember when you run under a VM, you're not running on your actual machine, the host is running on a virtual host, which you can design as you wish, with whatever hardware you want. If you want to emulate a UHD display, in the host, you'll need a VM that can emulate one (I was unable to find one given a cursory search in google).

If you're just trying to run Ubuntu in full resolution, did you try running rebooting the system to use Ubuntu on a Live CD. It will then use whatever drivers it has installed to use your UHD display, as much as it's able. With the Kubuntu live CD, I've installed Nvidia drivers and tested out a full x display, to be sure the hardware could support running my desktop, before re-installing. Live CD stores modifications to the virtual hard disk in memory, so you have the perception of a normal running machine, without actually touching the existing HD.

sibaz
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I ran into a simular issue with my Surface Pro. The solution that I use is simply changing the settings in ubuntu to set the dpi. You can simply go to all settings > displays > scale for menu and title bars and mess with this value until you find something that is easy for you to read. If you core issue is with graphics performance this will not help and you will also need to install the tools like others have answered.

Thomas Mullaney
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