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jowy
Contributor
Contributor

CentOS 8 guest: How to make resolution persistent after logging off or rebooting the guest?

I have an iMac 27" with Retina Display 5k -> Resolution 5120 x 2880.

Every time after I restart the CentOS 8 guest machine, I need to right click on the Desktop -> Display Settings -> I have to click 200% on the scale and then click on "Apply" to save the settings.

Is there a way that make this scaling (200%) persistent rather than doing it manually ?

  • I need to mention that I didn't touch the vmware tools. As CentOS 8 comes with its default vmware tools.
  • Vmware Fusion 12: 

    Professional Version 12.1.0 (17195230)

My settings as per the attached zip file.

Thank you! 😊

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ColoradoMarmot
Champion
Champion

Rather than using vmware-tools, I think the recommendation is to use open-vm-tools instead.

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jowy
Contributor
Contributor

I didnt install any tools. As I said, the centos comes with its open vmware tools.

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bluefirestorm
Champion
Champion

The scaling of the display can be set using xrandr. The display of the VM should be called Virtual1.

You can then write a script that calls xrandr (to set the scaling, resolution, etc) and this script can be configured to be called on every login to the CentOS VM.

A CentOS expert/forum can provide you with better details than I can.

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wila
Immortal
Immortal

Hi,

VMware Tools will adjust your screen resolution depending on your settings.

In the menu go to "Virtual Machine" -> Settings -> Display

Uncheck the checkbox at "Automatically adjust user interface size in the virtual machine"

--
Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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jowy
Contributor
Contributor

There is no such "checkbox", however, I tried Stretch, Resize, Center, nothing is working..

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jowy
Contributor
Contributor

@bluefirestorm , 

 

I have tried the following link, https://forums.centos.org/viewtopic.php?f=54&t=75036&p=322345&hilit=xrandr#p322345 , but it seems there is no resolution for the time being..

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bluefirestorm
Champion
Champion

I don't have a CentOS VM. The display name is Virtual1 in an Ubuntu VM. If you execute xrandr without any parameters it lists out the names of the display. Or execute

xrandr --listactivemonitors

So what you would have execute (in Terminal and later in the login script) should look something like this.

xrandr --output Virtual1 --scale 0.5x0.5

The scale of 0.5 in the xrandr should be equivalent to 200%. There is always xrandr --help or man pages to look at if the forums don't give an exact answer.

Try it out first in Terminal and once you're OK with it you would then have this xrandr executed in a user login script of the CentOS VM.

 

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wila
Immortal
Immortal

Hi,


@jowy wrote:

There is no such "checkbox", however, I tried Stretch, Resize, Center, nothing is working..


I'm sorry, I had checked against a Windows VM, you are correct that the checkbox is not available for a CentOS 8 VM.

Normally I would have expected the Stretch and Center option to work as well.. but you already tried those.
Perhaps the grub settings work for you.
See:
https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-Workstation-Player/Cannot-run-linux-centos7-guest-with-reso...

Or perhaps Woody's solution from this thread still works:
https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-Fusion-Discussions/Linux-Guest-Desktop-Background-in-Full-S...

--
Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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