VirtualBox - How to resize screen.

nezero · n00b Joined: 08 Jan 2014 Posts: 3

Hi All,

I'm new to managing a Gentoo system, though I've previously used pre installed Gentoo machines.

I have the current VirtualBox set up.

Ubuntu 12.04 (host) - Gentoo (guest)

Installing Gentoo from these instructions seemed to work fine, but my terminal window is tiny and I can't figure out how to resize it, can anyone give me some pointers?

Please let me know what info you need to help solve the problem.

I've also read a similar post that suggests a Gentoo Virtual Box WiKi page for setting it up. This WiKi page no longer exists and i can't find a new one.

I can't seem to get Copy/Paste going either! So i may have to pipe command results into a file and then pipe the file into wgetpaste to show you the results.

Here are the results of commands others have asked for in similar posts (bpaste)

gotyaoi · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 01 Apr 2013 Posts: 137

Virtualbox, unfortunately, doesn't supply drivers that support KMS as yet. It is sad. There is a manual way though.

If you're using grub2, there's a setting in /etc/default/grub, GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX. You can set it to your desired resolution/bit-depth. Mine looks like GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=1280x1024x24 for example. You may have to experiment a bit to find one that works for you. More info on that here: http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/GRUB2

Make sure to regenerate your grub config after changing the setting.

if you're using grub legacy, you can use the vga parameter to the kernel, vga=xxx. check this chart for reference http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VESA_BIOS_Extensions#Linux_video_mode_numbers

Again, you may need to experiment to find one that your video card supports.

You also need to make sure you have a framebuffer configured in your kernel. I can't think of the path offhand, but it's under device drivers->graphics somewhere.

Honestly though, depending on what your processor supports, making the console bigger will only be slow and painful. I just connect to my VM via ssh most of the time.

Also, a lot of the virtualbox-guest-additions features will only work in a desktop environment, I think. Just a heads up.

nezero · n00b Joined: 08 Jan 2014 Posts: 3

Thanks for your help. I'm doing it out of curiosity more then anything, as we should be able to do it I would like to know how!

When you say i should have a framebuffer configured, is that for the system or grub?

As the WiKi suggests that grub should have one by emerging with -truetype USE flag.

I tried setting it up but I can't be understanding the USE flags and reinstalling correctly, as I edited my /etc/portage/package.use and tried pretended to reinstall GRUB.

gotyaoi · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 01 Apr 2013 Posts: 137

I think the wiki says that to have grub use the framebuffer, you need +truetype, not -truetype. I'd also try 1024x768x24 instead of 1024x768x32. There are a lot of things that the virtualbox hardware doesn't always support, and 32 bit color depth is sometimes one of them.

If it still doesn't work, make sure you have a framebuffer driver in your kernel. Go into menuconfig, then Device Drivers->Graphics Support->Support for frame buffer devices->VESA VGA graphics support should be on.

litan · n00b Joined: 13 Aug 2012 Posts: 51

Hi nezero,

just a thought:
what is it exactly that you want?
More lines and colums in the console, so that you are able to have more text displayed,
or is it about the physical size, because you have an unreasonable high resolution?

if it is just the physical size of the console, just go to your VirtualBox menu
View -> Switch to Scale Mode
then resize the window. This does not need guest-additions, drivers or anything.

By the way: We are talking about a console, not a terminal emulator on a tiny graphical desktop, right?
If you want the other sort of resizing, it might be easier if you first install X.

Sorry if this was off-topic.

lazykoala · n00b Joined: 08 Jan 2014 Posts: 22

I have the same issue after installing gentoo on virtual box by following the gentoo installation handbook. I only installed the base gentoo system, without GUI.
When Gentoo boot on virtual box, the console window is very small, like 640 x 480. I solved the above by doing the following steps. (Some of them maybe not necessary)

1. re-config the kernel, add Device Drivers->Graphics Support->Support for frame buffer devices->VESA VGA graphics support, as gotyaoi said