Sunday, October 19, 2008

Virtualbox resolution problem

Problem: Guest machine doesn't switch to full screen even after installing VBox additions.

One possible solution:
Switch to seamless mode (host key + L ), and then back to full screen mode. !!




I run Windows XP on Ubuntu using Virtualbox, and recently came across this resolution problem: my notebook resolution is 1280X800 and in the virtual machine, it was just not allowing me to set the resolution to this ! Most people asked me to install VBox additions but I had already installed them... others asked me to increase the video memory of the virtual machine to 20 MB because that gave more options for resolution... even then, all other resolution options were there except 1280X800 !!

It was really annoying to have some other resolution and as a last resort, i thought of using the seamless mode (host+L). It was cool, but I had to switch off the compiz effects. Then, i tried the full screen mode again..... and guess what.... the screen resolution was automatically set to 1280X800 !!!

Saturday, October 11, 2008

The GUI doesn't load, shows a crappy binary screen with hell lot of cursors !

The GUI doesn't load, shows a crappy binary screen with hell lot of cursors !

Possible
Solution: 'sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg'


Now, this was the problem I was facing since the last 5 days, and had to resort to the use of
Windows to read the lecture slides coz the tests are on.
Research: I logged in via the recovery mode (as root) and tried the 'startx', 'x', and other X server
commands, but in vain.... everytime the shitty screen came up instead of the cool blue login screen.
I used to log out of the X server mode using 'CTRL+ALT+ BACK SPACE', and the following log
used to be displayed in the root terminal:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
X window System Version 1.3.0
Reles Date: 19 April 2007
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0, Realease 1.3
Build Operating System: Linux Ubuntu(xorg-server 2:1.3.3.3.dfsg-12ubuntu8.3)
Current operating system: Linux sa...... 2.6.22-14-generic #1 SMP Tue Feb 12
07:42:25 UTC 2008 i686
using file: /etc/X11/Xorg.conf
.
.
(EE) AIGLX: Screen 0 is not DRI capable
xinit": connection to X server lost.
waiting for X server to shut down FreeFontPath: FPE
"user/share/fonts/X11/misc"
refcount is 2, should be 1, fixing.
Now, I checked the mentioned Xorg.conf file, and everything seemed pretty perfect! After 5 days of
messing around here and there, I finally found the solution (though I still don't know the reason why
the hell it occured). I again viewed the Xorg.conf file in less and found some comments how to
reconfigure it. The xorg.conf file looks like this:
# xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration
tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package
upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the
xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be
automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
# sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg
Section "Files"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "kbd"
Option "CoreKeyboard"
..

.
.
.
.
And I tried reconfigure it, and VOILA ! i am writing this using Open-office doc !(obviously in my GUI).


Happy researching