[OpenIndiana-discuss] Identical Installs but different screen Res

[Harry Putnam]

Dmitry Kozhinov <dima at desktopfay.com> writes:

> I have exactly the same question.
> OI allows me to select maximum resolution of 1024x768 only.
> LCD monitor has slightly better resolution (1152x1024?). The monitor
> has a VGA connector, and videocard has a DVI. I believe that my
> videocard is capable of supporting much higher resolutions than
> 1024x768 (some nVidia, cannot remember exact model, I am now away from
> my server). Monitor is plugged via DVI-VGA adapter, and likely this is
> why OI cannot recognize monitor model (recognizes as generic
> monitor). nVidia card is recognized. How can I convince OI to set
> higher resolution?
>
>> Can anyone offer any ideas about how to get higher screen res.

I have no technical knowledge of how the vm interplay's with the host
OS or hardware.

But, I can tell you that since I posted my question, I did discover
that one of the vms I spoke of had not had the guest additions
installed.  My faulty memory told me it had, but on installing the
latest additions I found the vm (vm2) that had the lower res now went
up to the higher res available on vm1.

So not sure what makes that happen but guessing a newer more robust
video driver in the additions.

So cutting to the chase; you might make sure the vm of yours with low
res, has had the latest guest additions installed.

If you have an older version installed you can remove it with

   `pkgrm SUNWvboxguest'

before installing the current version.

A small note on version: It is a total pain in the neck to discover
what version of guest additions is running.  I never did get it
figured out.  I found nifty commands on linux that will show it
(lsmod) but that command is unknown on my OpenIndiana vm.

None of the things I dreamed up worked and after pounding away at
google for a good half hour I decided it wasn't worth the time and
effort.

I suggest just to uninstall the current package with cmd mentioned
above and then install the pkg from vbox-4.3.10 r93012.  Far as I know
that is the most recent release and will have the most recent
additions.

You probably have all this covered but for completeness:

Install additions:

on vbox vm GUI interface: `Devices/Install guest additions cd image'

Force unmount if necessary in dialog resulting from above menu item.

cd as root (if you go there as user and try to use sudo it will fail.
I never bothered with pfexec so not sure if that would work either):
 cd  /media/VBOX*

  pkgadd -d ./VBoxSolarisAdditions.pkg

  Follow the prompts from there.

Let us know if any of this helped.