Mavericks Guest OS Resolution resets on restart

[AzironaZack]

I run a virtualized automation lab via VMWare Fusion.  This lab is used to QA test Mac software.  I have dozens of VMs running on a variety of Mac hardware using VMWare Fusion 6.0.2.  The problem I am seeing is that the Mavericks VMs have their screen resolution reset to 1024x768 upon every reboot and that is the only resolution available in the System Preferences Display panel.

The way I set up VMs is like so:

1. Using the VMWare Fusion app create a new VM and install the operating system.

2. Install VMWare Tools in the guest.  Restart the VM.

3. Configure the guest OS with my settings.  This always includes setting the screen resolution to something above 1400x1050.  I do this by stretching the window in the VMWare Fusion application or by setting the resolution via System Preferences.

4. Shutdown the VM and make a copy of it.  This copy is my default state.

In actual use after that the VMs are run headless using vmrun with the nogui argument.  For all versions of OS X VMs the resolution stays the same when the VM is restarted.  For Mavericks VMs the resolution is changed to 1024x768.

For all other OSes multiple resolutions show up in the System Preferences Display panel.  For Mavericks only that one resolution appears in the Scaled options.

I have tried the steps in KB 1003:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=1003&slice...

but that did not fix the problem.

I have tried turning 3d acceleration on and off and the problem exists in both cases.  Changing the resolution by resizing the window while using VMWare Fusion app works fine but that is not possible when running headless.

Tech support via phone suggested I post this problem to the community and see if there are any answers here.  Thanks in advance.

Message was edited by: AzironaZack to add more details.

[Lotusshaney]

The URL appears dead, going to a godaddy holding page.

can I ask has anyone got the zip file I can download ?

THanks

[reto]

Hi HPReg

How do you mean Hexadecimal? I cannot convert your values into decimal with the following converter:

http://www.binaryhexconverter.com/decimal-to-hex-converter

Can you give me please a hint? I would like to have the resolution 1280x1024.

Thanks best regards

Reto

[HPReg]

> Can you give me please a hint? I would like to have the resolution 1280x1024

1280 in decimal is 0x500, i.e. on 32-bit 0x00000500 (that is 0xmnklijgh in my comment)

1024 in decimal is 0x400, i.e. on 32-bit 0x00000400 (that is 0xuvstqrop in my comment)

So run these commands once for all in the guest (in Terminal.app):

   sudo nvram AC20C489-DD86-4E99-992C-B7C742C1DDA9:width=%00%05%00%00

   sudo nvram AC20C489-DD86-4E99-992C-B7C742C1DDA9:height=%00%04%00%00

then restart the Mac OS guest. That resolution will now automatically be applied for you at each restart of the guest.

[reto]

Thanks a lot for the hint! It works perfectly with 1280x1024.

We have now tried to achieve 1920x1080 as resolution with this commands:

sudo nvram AC20C489-DD86-4E99-992C-B7C742C1DDA9:width=%00%07%80%00

sudo nvram AC20C489-DD86-4E99-992C-B7C742C1DDA9:height=%00%04%38%00

But the resolution is now on 2560x1600.

What would be the right command for 1920x1080?

Thanks a lot for your efforts

Thanks, Reto

[Mazeno00]

@reto: I was wondering the same thing, and after more detailed reading of  HPregs post, I found the nvram commands should be:

sudo nvram AC20C489-DD86-4E99-992C-B7C742C1DDA9:width=%80%07%00%00

sudo nvram AC20C489-DD86-4E99-992C-B7C742C1DDA9:height=%38%04%00%00

In order for these to work on ESXi 6.0 for my 10.10 VM, I had to tinker with the amount of video ram size in the VM settings as well. The nvram settings worked only after adjusting the default of  4MB, after testing with 10MB and getting a display width of only 1850-something, I put it at automatic, and lo and behold, the 1920*1080 setting works.

[HPReg]

> In order for these to work on ESXi 6.0 for my 10.10 VM, I had to tinker with the amount of video ram size in the VM settings as well. The nvram settings worked only after adjusting the default of  4MB, after testing with 10MB and getting a display width of only 1850-something, I put it at automatic, and lo and behold, the 1920*1080 setting works.

Yes, a lot of people are hitting this issue (the video ram size is too small). Would you mind telling other forum users how you put it at automatic?