Increase Screen Resolution for Ubuntu in Virtual Box

Virtualbox is one of the many virtualization softwares available online. Virtualization software helps you to try out different Operating system without logging out from your original operating system.

Ubuntu is one of the popular Linux Operating systems available. This article shows how to increase screen resolution of Ubuntu in Virtualbox. (By default, virtualbox only shows two screen resolutions)


1. Start Virtual box and log into Ubuntu.
2. Hit the right ctrl key so you can get your mouse pointer outside the virtual machine.
3. Go to top of virtual window, click on devices then select "Install Guest Additions". You will see a window pop up inside Ubuntu showing you that there are some new files mounted in a virtual CDROM drive. One of those files should be VBoxLinuxAdditions.run
4. Click inside the Ubuntu screen and open a Terminal.
5. Go to directory /media/cdrom0 ( cd /media/cdrom0 )
6. Check files in the directory (Use ls ). You should see amongst the files VBoxLinuxAdditions.run .
7. Run this file. (sudo sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run)
8. Reboot the virtual machine and log onto the Ubuntu. This time go to "System" - "Preferences" and then "Screen Resolution". You should now have more options.