Video resolution in a VM

[Kurt Buff - GSEC, GCIH]

On Wed, Jan 2, 2019 at 1:13 PM Polytropon <freebsd at edvax.de> wrote:
>
> On Tue, 1 Jan 2019 17:05:09 -0800, Kurt Buff - GSEC, GCIH wrote:
> > I'm not able to get display resolution greater than 1280x720 - I'd
> > really like to get it to 1920x1080, to match the laptop capabilities.
> >
> > [...]
> >
> > The laptop shows two video displays in hdwwiz.cpl in Windows:
> >      Intel HD Graphics 630
> >      NVIDIA GeForce 940MX
> > but it looks as if the NVIDIA isn't active. Don't know why that is.
> >
> > When I run xvinfo, it shows no display available.
> >
> > For "display", pciconf says:
> >      vgapci0 at pci0:0:15:0:    class=0x030000 card=0x040515ad
> > chip=0x040515ad rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
> >          vendor     = 'VMware'
> >          device     = 'SVGA II Adapter'
> >          class      = display
> >          subclass   = VGA
> >
> > The .vmx files shows the following for the display:
> > vmotion.checkpointSVGAPrimarySize = "8323072"
> > svga.maxHeight = "1080"
> > svga.maxWidth = "1920"
> > svga.autodetect = "FALSE"
> > svga.vramSize = "8323072"
> >
> > Any thoughts would be appreciated.
>
> There are several things you can try:
>
> First of all, it seems that VMware does not properly "represent"
> the existing hardware to your FreeBSD VM instance, so you only
> seem to get the generic "SVGA card". Also, have you thought
> about increasing the VRAM size? You can never have enough
> of VRAM. :-)

I'll have to look that up.

> Try using xrandr to set the screen size from insie the VM.
> A command line
>
>         xrandr --size 1920x1080
>
> should work.

Dang. Nope.

I get the message:
"Can't open display"

> You can also try to use a specific X configuration fragment,
> for example /usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/screen-resolution.conf
> with a content like this:
>
>         Section "Screen"
>                 Identifier "Screen0"
>                 Device "Card0"
>                 SubSection "Display"
>                         Modes "1920x1080"
>                 EndSubSection
>         EndSection

No success with that just now. Also tried this, without success:

Section "Screen"
     Identifier "Screen0"
     Device "Card0"
     Monitor "Monitor0"
     DefaultDepth 24
     SubSection "Display"
          Viewport 0 0
          Depth 24
          Visual "TrueColor"
          Modes   "1920x1080" "1280x800"
     EndSubSection
EndSection


> You could then experiment with the setting DisplaySize (in mm)
> and the Option "DPI" (for example with "110 x 110"), depending
> on the actual properties of the hardware (!) you are using.
> A laptop display only has one sceen size and one resolution.
> Normally, X will calculate the correct information itself,
> which is usually obtained from the display, but this might not
> work as intended because of the "VM mangling"... ;-)

Hm. I will have to look that up as well.

Thanks for the help so far.

Kurt