[SOLVED] Fedora 32 VirtualBox guest: Resolution stuck at 800x600 after fresh install
Fedora 32 as a VirtualBox guest was not behaving well. It would not let me change its resolution which was stuck at 800x600. It was déjà vu for me. The host was the same openSUSE Leap 15.1 with VirtualBox Version 6.0.18_SUSE r136238 installed.
INSTALLING VIRTUALBOX GUEST ADDITIONS
Installing VirtualBox Guest Additions in Linux guests is surprisingly more involved than on FreeBSD.
First, we need to get the tools to build the VirtualBox drivers:
sudo dnf install dkms kernel-devel gcc make bzip2 perl
I had downloaded the VirtualBox Guest Additions version 6.0.18 ISO for the openSUSE Tumbleweed guest earlier. So, I inserted it into the Fedora 32 VM and:
cd /run/media/msiyer/VBox_GAs_6.0.18
sudo ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run
Did not work. I was asked to check logs to see what went wrong. So, that is what I did. Saw compilation errors:
Building the main Guest Additions 6.0.18 module for kernel 5.6.12-300.fc32.x86_64.
Error building the module. Build output follows.
make V=1 CONFIG_MODULE_SIG= CONFIG_MODULE_SIG_ALL= -C /lib/modules/5.6.12-300.fc32.x86_64/build M=/tmp/vbox.0 SRCROOT=/tmp/vbox.0 -j4 modules
make[1]: warning: -jN forced in submake: disabling jobserver mode.
test -e include/generated/autoconf.h -a -e include/config/auto.conf || ( \
echo >&2; \
echo >&2 " ERROR: Kernel configuration is invalid."; \
echo >&2 " include/generated/autoconf.h or include/config/auto.conf are missing.";\
echo >&2 " Run 'make oldconfig && make prepare' on kernel src to fix it."; \
echo >&2 ; \
/bin/false)
make -f ./scripts/Makefile.build obj=/tmp/vbox.0 \
single-build= \
need-builtin=1 need-modorder=1
I suspected this could be the result of a great version mismatch between VirtualBox Guest Additions and Fedora 32 Kernel version. So, I decided to download a newer version Guest Additions ISO. I was pleasantly surprised to see that 6.1.8 had arrived. Immediately downloaded it and:
cd /run/media/msiyer/VBox_GAs_6.1.8
sudo ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run
The compilation was a success
Verifying archive integrity... All good.
Uncompressing VirtualBox 6.1.8 Guest Additions for Linux........
VirtualBox Guest Additions installer
Removing installed version 6.0.18 of VirtualBox Guest Additions...
Copying additional installer modules ...
Installing additional modules ...
VirtualBox Guest Additions: Starting.
VirtualBox Guest Additions: Building the VirtualBox Guest Additions kernel
modules. This may take a while.
VirtualBox Guest Additions: To build modules for other installed kernels, run
VirtualBox Guest Additions: /sbin/rcvboxadd quicksetup <version>
VirtualBox Guest Additions: or
VirtualBox Guest Additions: /sbin/rcvboxadd quicksetup all
VirtualBox Guest Additions: Building the modules for kernel
5.6.12-300.fc32.x86_64.
VirtualBox Guest Additions: Running kernel modules will not be replaced until
the system is restarted
Resolution issue was resolved.
CONCLUSION
- Resolution issue resolved
- The openSUSE Leap 15.1 host has VirtualBox version 6.0.8 installed in it while the Fedora 32 guest has VirtuaBox Guest Addtions version 6.1.8 running the show.
- Clipboard copy does not work. Most probably due to the above issue.