Adding more video modes
To add custom video modes for selection from the Screen object:
- Ensure that the VM has been shut down.
- On the host, open a command prompt or terminal, and type the following:
VBoxManage setextradata global GUI/MaxGuestResolution any <Enter> VBoxManage setextradata "<VM-name>" "CustomVideoMode1" "<custom resolution>" <Enter>
where:
<VM-name> = name of ArcaOS virtual machine
<custom resolution> = the desired resolution, e.g., 1366x786x32
<Enter> = the <Enter> key (do not type this)and where all typed parameters are enclosed in quotes.
- Restart the VM and go to the screen object. Select the newly added resolution, and restart the VM.
More information concerning custom video modes may be found in the VirtualBox documentation.
You may add up to 16 custom video modes using this procedure (CustomVideoMode1…CustomVideoMode16). Adding and selecting a video mode which matches your display’s native resolution should result in a full screen VM with no filler bars and 1:1 scaling.
Catching the very fast boot blob during ArcaOS startup
It seems that the early boot stage under VirtualBox lasts only a few brief moments, and perhaps not long enough to catch the white rectangle in the upper left of the screen (the boot blob) when one must press Alt-F1 to access the Recovery Choices screen.
To work around this, it is helpful to set the Recovery Choices checkbox on the Desktop Properties notebook’s Archives tab to Display at each system startup, and then set a reasonable timeout period in the dialog below. This ensures that the Recovery Choices screen is always shown, but without requiring a keypress to continue the normal boot cycle.
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