VirtualBox to use dual monitors

I am running Kubuntu Hardy Heron, with a dual monitor setup, and have VirtualBox on it running Windows XP in seamless mode.

My problem is, I can't get VirtualBox to extend to the second monitor.
How can this be achieved?

edited Aug 30 '17 at 16:57

Scott

15.9k113990

asked Aug 26 '08 at 5:24

fnord_ix

1,90921614

migrated from stackoverflow.com Feb 16 '10 at 10:44

This question came from our site for professional and enthusiast programmers.

Of course if you have the guest additions installed, you could make the window as large as you like. Obviously this won't make Virtualbox use multiple displays, but it will expand across as many monitors as your host machine supports.

– willoller
Sep 2 '10 at 5:10

ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=433359

– Der Hochstapler
Jun 5 '13 at 9:48

@David: For your bounty to be useful, better explain what is missing in the accepted answer.

– harrymc
Jun 19 '13 at 5:38

@harrymc the step in the accepted answer that says perform the standard "Extend the desktop onto this display" method based on the Guest OS is vague, and it is not clear how to perform this on a Ubuntu Guest. Is there some program, driver, or specific configuration to do this? Also, there are three sections. How do they differ and in which context would I choose one over the other?

– David LeBauer
Jun 19 '13 at 15:06

"Extend the desktop onto this display" is referring to the guest OS's built-in method for managing multiple monitors. This differs between different guest OSes, of course.

– jpaugh
Sep 8 '17 at 19:56

add a comment |

I am running Kubuntu Hardy Heron, with a dual monitor setup, and have VirtualBox on it running Windows XP in seamless mode.

My problem is, I can't get VirtualBox to extend to the second monitor.
How can this be achieved?

edited Aug 30 '17 at 16:57

Scott

15.9k113990

asked Aug 26 '08 at 5:24

fnord_ix

1,90921614

migrated from stackoverflow.com Feb 16 '10 at 10:44

This question came from our site for professional and enthusiast programmers.

Of course if you have the guest additions installed, you could make the window as large as you like. Obviously this won't make Virtualbox use multiple displays, but it will expand across as many monitors as your host machine supports.

– willoller
Sep 2 '10 at 5:10

ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=433359

– Der Hochstapler
Jun 5 '13 at 9:48

@David: For your bounty to be useful, better explain what is missing in the accepted answer.

– harrymc
Jun 19 '13 at 5:38

@harrymc the step in the accepted answer that says perform the standard "Extend the desktop onto this display" method based on the Guest OS is vague, and it is not clear how to perform this on a Ubuntu Guest. Is there some program, driver, or specific configuration to do this? Also, there are three sections. How do they differ and in which context would I choose one over the other?

– David LeBauer
Jun 19 '13 at 15:06

"Extend the desktop onto this display" is referring to the guest OS's built-in method for managing multiple monitors. This differs between different guest OSes, of course.

– jpaugh
Sep 8 '17 at 19:56

add a comment |

I am running Kubuntu Hardy Heron, with a dual monitor setup, and have VirtualBox on it running Windows XP in seamless mode.

My problem is, I can't get VirtualBox to extend to the second monitor.
How can this be achieved?

edited Aug 30 '17 at 16:57

Scott

15.9k113990

asked Aug 26 '08 at 5:24

fnord_ix

1,90921614

I am running Kubuntu Hardy Heron, with a dual monitor setup, and have VirtualBox on it running Windows XP in seamless mode.

My problem is, I can't get VirtualBox to extend to the second monitor.
How can this be achieved?

linux ubuntu multiple-monitors virtualbox

edited Aug 30 '17 at 16:57

Scott

15.9k113990

asked Aug 26 '08 at 5:24

fnord_ix

1,90921614

edited Aug 30 '17 at 16:57

Scott

15.9k113990

asked Aug 26 '08 at 5:24

fnord_ix

1,90921614

edited Aug 30 '17 at 16:57

Scott

15.9k113990

edited Aug 30 '17 at 16:57

Scott

15.9k113990

edited Aug 30 '17 at 16:57

Scott

15.9k113990

asked Aug 26 '08 at 5:24

fnord_ix

1,90921614

asked Aug 26 '08 at 5:24

fnord_ix

1,90921614

asked Aug 26 '08 at 5:24

fnord_ix

1,90921614

migrated from stackoverflow.com Feb 16 '10 at 10:44

This question came from our site for professional and enthusiast programmers.

migrated from stackoverflow.com Feb 16 '10 at 10:44

This question came from our site for professional and enthusiast programmers.

Of course if you have the guest additions installed, you could make the window as large as you like. Obviously this won't make Virtualbox use multiple displays, but it will expand across as many monitors as your host machine supports.

– willoller
Sep 2 '10 at 5:10

ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=433359

– Der Hochstapler
Jun 5 '13 at 9:48

@David: For your bounty to be useful, better explain what is missing in the accepted answer.

– harrymc
Jun 19 '13 at 5:38

@harrymc the step in the accepted answer that says perform the standard "Extend the desktop onto this display" method based on the Guest OS is vague, and it is not clear how to perform this on a Ubuntu Guest. Is there some program, driver, or specific configuration to do this? Also, there are three sections. How do they differ and in which context would I choose one over the other?

– David LeBauer
Jun 19 '13 at 15:06

"Extend the desktop onto this display" is referring to the guest OS's built-in method for managing multiple monitors. This differs between different guest OSes, of course.

– jpaugh
Sep 8 '17 at 19:56

add a comment |

Of course if you have the guest additions installed, you could make the window as large as you like. Obviously this won't make Virtualbox use multiple displays, but it will expand across as many monitors as your host machine supports.

– willoller
Sep 2 '10 at 5:10

ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=433359

– Der Hochstapler
Jun 5 '13 at 9:48

@David: For your bounty to be useful, better explain what is missing in the accepted answer.

– harrymc
Jun 19 '13 at 5:38

@harrymc the step in the accepted answer that says perform the standard "Extend the desktop onto this display" method based on the Guest OS is vague, and it is not clear how to perform this on a Ubuntu Guest. Is there some program, driver, or specific configuration to do this? Also, there are three sections. How do they differ and in which context would I choose one over the other?

– David LeBauer
Jun 19 '13 at 15:06

"Extend the desktop onto this display" is referring to the guest OS's built-in method for managing multiple monitors. This differs between different guest OSes, of course.

– jpaugh
Sep 8 '17 at 19:56

Of course if you have the guest additions installed, you could make the window as large as you like. Obviously this won't make Virtualbox use multiple displays, but it will expand across as many monitors as your host machine supports.

– willoller
Sep 2 '10 at 5:10

ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=433359

– Der Hochstapler
Jun 5 '13 at 9:48

@David: For your bounty to be useful, better explain what is missing in the accepted answer.

– harrymc
Jun 19 '13 at 5:38

@harrymc the step in the accepted answer that says perform the standard "Extend the desktop onto this display" method based on the Guest OS is vague, and it is not clear how to perform this on a Ubuntu Guest. Is there some program, driver, or specific configuration to do this? Also, there are three sections. How do they differ and in which context would I choose one over the other?

– David LeBauer
Jun 19 '13 at 15:06

"Extend the desktop onto this display" is referring to the guest OS's built-in method for managing multiple monitors. This differs between different guest OSes, of course.

– jpaugh
Sep 8 '17 at 19:56

add a comment |

6 Answers
6

active

oldest

votes

VirtualBox 3.2.1 supports multiple guest monitors. The documentation was not clear on how to enable this.

Basic Setup

Power off your virtual machine if it's on.

From the main VirtualBox window, select your VM and choose “Settings”.

Choose “Display”.

Below “Video Memory” is “Monitor Count”. Slide it to 2, and adjust your video memory if VirtualBox complains.

Start your guest and perform the standard "Extend the desktop onto this display". This will be different per guest OS. (Guest Additions need to be installed.)

A second "Oracle VM VirtualBox" window will appear with the second display. You can resize it however you want.

Seamless/Fullscreen

Enter Seamless or Fullscreen. I'll assume your HostKey is the default “RightCtrl”.

If the screens are on the wrong displays,
hit RightCtrl+Home.

From the View Menu, choose “Virtual Display 1” and set it to the Host display you want. The other displays will shuffle around to accommodate this. If you have more than two virtual displays, repeat with “Virtual Display 2” and so on.

Headless

Set the number of monitors with VBoxManage modifyvm "vm name" --monitorcount X

Enable multiple vrdp connections with VBoxManage modifyvm "VM name" --vrdpmulticon on

Use VBoxHeadless to launch as normal.

Connect to monitor 1 with rdesktop -d @1 ip-address-of-host and connect to monitor 2 with rdesktop -d @2 ip-address-of-host. This is explained in lomaxx's answer. (You might be able to use @ instead of @, depending on your shell.)

edited Sep 8 '17 at 20:05

jpaugh

1,062716

answered Nov 5 '10 at 0:12

bobpaul

1,259117

Silly me, messing with this for two hours before googling it. Forgot to install VM additions; thx.

– tsilb
Mar 29 '11 at 19:44

This resolved my issue of seamless mode appearing on a different monitor than full screen/normal mode. Right-ctrl/Home fixed it, allowing me to move to "Host Screen 3". Thanks for the thorough post!

– Tim S.
May 17 '17 at 12:41

1

Once the machine booted, on the VirtualBox menu I also had to click 'View > Virtual Screen 2 > Enable'

– n00b
Dec 6 '18 at 17:28

add a comment |

I am running Debian Sid and i was able to get windows 7 and xp to run in seamless in dual monitor mode, with 3D acceleration, you need to install your guest additions in safe mode.

the steps i took were:

install os with dual screens enabled already, if your o/s is already installed i am unsure if you will get support, though i would recommend following the below to do so.

after install hit F8 while booting up windows

select run in safemode with networking (networking isnt really needed, but thats the step i took)

then install guest additions 32bit (dual screens works in 64 but 3D does not)
reboot and you should have dual screens available with 3D support on One monitor (:1)

i couldn't get it to work on both. I did Not have vrdp enabled to do this and it worked just fine.

answered Jun 14 '10 at 16:40

Levi De Haan

113

add a comment |

Start your guest and perform the standard "Extend the desktop onto this display" method based on the Guest OS. (Guest Additions need to be installed.)

This one confused me. I looked all over the Guest Additions and couldn't find it. In the hopes that it might help someone else, it is talking about the Control Panel in Windows itself. In the Control Panel click on Display -> Setting and there you will see the "Extend the desktop onto this display".

answered Oct 13 '14 at 12:18

Ilan Tal

12217

add a comment |

AFAIK you can use multiple monitors only in the following instances:

Multiple monitors currently work only with Windows XP guests, and
Guest Additions must be installed, as the implementation resides in the
Guest Additions video driver.

Multiple monitors work only with the VBoxHeadless frontend. You must
also enable VRDP multiconnection mode (see chapter 7.4.6, VRDP multiple
connections, page 94) to access two or more VM displays when the
guest is using multiple monitors.

VirtualBox User Manual

For reference,
archived copy of Version 1.6.4 of the manual, from July 29, 2008

edited Aug 30 '17 at 16:45

Scott

15.9k113990

answered Aug 26 '08 at 5:34

lomaxx

1185

add a comment |

I found that if I moved the Virtual Box VM Launcher on to the secondary monitor, and THEN pressed "Start" I was able to resize the window that appeared to fit onto my secondary monitor. If I started it from my primary monitor, I could not resize it any larger than my primary monitor.

answered Sep 5 '13 at 18:42

Willster

1011

add a comment |

-1

As long as you have guest editions installed, all I had to do was go to

Settings -> Display -> Monitor count -> Change to two (This is with the machine powered off running Windows 10).
Then, once I had started the machine I went to View -> Virtual Screen 2 -> Enable

Not sure if this will work for you.

answered Jan 19 at 21:42

Mark Deven

589322

1

The accepted answer already outlines this solution

– Ramhound
Jan 19 at 21:54

add a comment |

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6 Answers
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