The fighting and tinkering is your problem. You are fighting the wrong enemy.
Virtual machines have their own ideas about graphic hardware, and by default they show generic VESA to guest.
In the VMWare world, there is a "VMWare Guest Daemon", that combined with vmware driver adjusts the guest resolution according to VMWare settings (fit to window, etc).
In VirtualBox world, there should be something similar. Quick googling shows, that VBoxLinuxAdditions provides custom display driver.
Also note, that if a) you install guest tools without package manager and b) these guest tools do not support dkms (though VirtualBox should support it), then you will have rebuild kernel modules after each kernel upgrade! This may be your "integration broke for some reason, I need to re-install". Just use dkms and let the operating system worry about reinstalling drivers.
Regarding VirtualPC, it is broken in it's own, special ways. Sometimes I wonder that it works at all. Microsoft does not support other guest systems than Windows.
> The fighting and tinkering is your problem. You are fighting the wrong enemy.
Yes of course, it is my fault that the software I installed did not "just work" and reported the issues when someone claimed "it just works". Using one of the most popular open source VMs is just wrong!
> Quick googling shows, that VBoxLinuxAdditions provides custom display driver.
The first thing I do is install the custom drivers. It still does not update the available set of resolutions. And using xrandr etc too has been a hit or miss until recent updates. Infact the last set of helpful information about dealing with this issue is a Ubuntu forum discussion from 2006.
> these guest tools do not support dkms
So, it cannot be disputed that "Linux just works". Linux does not have built-in drivers for widespread hardware such as Virtualbox. And why do we need to rebuild kernel modules after every incremental monthly kernel revison. Certainly does not sound like "it just works".
>Regarding VirtualPC, it is broken in it's own, special ways.
The keyboard driver error was reported by users on real hardware. Not just VirtualPC. I just happened to run into the error on VirtualPC. Ubuntu did not pick up a fix for this for 6 months, when the Linux kernel mainline already had the fix 6 months ago.
> Sometimes I wonder that it works at all. Microsoft does not support other guest systems than Windows.
You are wrong. You seemed to have missed the entire fiasco around the Novell-Microsoft "partnership" around Virtualization.
Saying that Ubuntu/Linux just works and if it doesn't it is the users fault, is plain misleading and completely misses the point of "it just works". Every piece of software "just works" if all non-working situations can be conveniently blamed on the user. I don't get the defensiveness around some particular piece of software.
> Yes of course, it is my fault that the software I installed did not "just work" and reported the issues when someone claimed "it just works". Using one of the most popular open source VMs is just wrong!
Despite this, VirtualBox is not "supported hardware". Did you see any claim about Ubuntu support on VirtualBox site (no, only "Linux 2.6") or VirtualBox support in Ubuntu materials? Exactly.
VirtualBox is not one of most popular open source VM. It is a popular VM among desktop users that want it for free. That's different.
Even VMWare is not supported by Ubuntu (but Ubuntu is supported by VMWare).
Supported systems work out of the box. For example, when installing Ubuntu on Intel based system, the experience is smooth as a butter. On unsupported systems, it is matter of luck - when 10.10 came out, I've installed it on Toshiba Tecra M7. Everything except fingerprint reader worked out of the box - Nvidia graphics, Intel Wifi, Bluetooth, SD card reader, even the softmodem and Wacom digitizer (it is a tablet).
> So, it cannot be disputed that "Linux just works". Linux does not have built-in drivers for widespread hardware such as Virtualbox. And why do we need to rebuild kernel modules after every incremental monthly kernel revison. Certainly does not sound like "it just works".
Nice omission of "if". I'm not expert on VirtualBox (and I don't want to be). It is on the vendor/maintainer of the modules to make it. Nvidia binary modules for example do support it, so normal user is not aware of the rebuilding when booting with new kernel.
And again, VirtualBox is not widespread hardware.
> You are wrong. You seemed to have missed the entire fiasco around the Novell-Microsoft "partnership" around Virtualization.
That's Virtual Server. Different product, that still does not support Ubuntu (only SLES).
I never said that problems with VirtualBox is a users fault. I said that making two products work that in the way that their vendors do not support is not for the faint of heart. Have you ever tried to run OSX client under any VM? Thought so.
Nor does it insist on any particular hardware configuration.
But instead, what we have here are fanboy comments on how Ubuntu just works and if it doesn't work, how the hardware is not up to a certain spec unavailable on Ubuntu's website, how it is so awesome for you and silly challenges to install OSX on a VM.
> Have you ever tried to run OSX client under any VM? Thought so.
I just don't understand why "OSX under VM" line is being trotted out all the time. I have never used OS X. I am merely disputing the statement "Linux/Ubuntu just works"
Virtual machines have their own ideas about graphic hardware, and by default they show generic VESA to guest.
In the VMWare world, there is a "VMWare Guest Daemon", that combined with vmware driver adjusts the guest resolution according to VMWare settings (fit to window, etc).
In VirtualBox world, there should be something similar. Quick googling shows, that VBoxLinuxAdditions provides custom display driver.
Also note, that if a) you install guest tools without package manager and b) these guest tools do not support dkms (though VirtualBox should support it), then you will have rebuild kernel modules after each kernel upgrade! This may be your "integration broke for some reason, I need to re-install". Just use dkms and let the operating system worry about reinstalling drivers.
Regarding VirtualPC, it is broken in it's own, special ways. Sometimes I wonder that it works at all. Microsoft does not support other guest systems than Windows.