ArcaOS widescreen video not working in virtualbox

[Bennie Nelson]

I am really pleased with ArcaOS, but I have run into one issue. For a number of years I have been running eComstation in virtualbox (most recently, v5.1.14) with widescreen video support working just fine (1920 x 1200, 1920x1080, and 2560x1440). With ArcaOS, however, I have not been able to get any widescreen resolutions to show up in the Screen dialog for Snap, Panorama, or Gengradd. Has anyone else gotten ArcaOS to recognize widescreen resolutions in Virtualbox?

Thanks,
Bennie Nelson

[Doug Bissett]

I am really pleased with ArcaOS, but I have run into one issue. For a number of years I have been running eComstation in virtualbox (most recently, v5.1.14) with widescreen video support working just fine (1920 x 1200, 1920x1080, and 2560x1440). With ArcaOS, however, I have not been able to get any widescreen resolutions to show up in the Screen dialog for Snap, Panorama, or Gengradd. Has anyone else gotten ArcaOS to recognize widescreen resolutions in Virtualbox?

Thanks,
Bennie Nelson

Never, without using the wide screen activator (I don't even remember where that is, and it is probably not a good solution). There may be something in VBox that will add more resolutions.

I recommend that you do NOT use Panorama, or SNAP. They use GRADD, which is modified by the VBox additions, to make it use the host video driver. Panorama, or SNAP, may not even be used, or they are simply extra overhead that you don't need.

[Bennie Nelson]

VirtualBox has a command for adding custom video resolutions (example: "vboxmanage setextradata "VMNAME" CustomVideoMode1 "1920x1200x32"). I tried this with and without the VB Guest Additions, and I did try the ArcaOS-supplied Gengradd driver, but nothing has worked.

VirtualBox, eComstation 2.1, Panorama, VB OS2 Guest Additions, and widescreen formats have worked for me for a few years, so I thought it would work with ArcaOS, as well.

I do recall the widescreen activator, but I have not found it this time around, and I don't have any mention in my installation notes from the past that indicates I ever tried to use it.

Thanks for the quick reply, Doug.

Bennie

[Remy]

Hi Bennie

I would suggest you to give a try after issue of following commands from under virtualbox path where vboxmanage.exe is
a/ VboxManage setextradata global GUI/MaxGuestResolution any
b/ VboxManage setextradata "ArcaOS v5" "CustomVideoMode1" "1440x900x32"

I think that you should be able to see the 1440x900 into tee sreen resolution for panorama and if you already have defined enough video storage, you should be able to selet it. Are you ?

Cheers/2 

[Doug Bissett]

VirtualBox, eComstation 2.1, Panorama, VB OS2 Guest Additions, and widescreen formats have worked for me for a few years, so I thought it would work with ArcaOS, as well.

It should. There is really no difference in that part of VBox, or OS/2 video support, that I know of.

Thanks for the quick reply, Doug.

Pure luck. I probably won't be back for  a few days now. When I get a chance, I will see if I can figure it out. Feel free to experiment.

[Bennie Nelson]

I built a testbed VM (Gengradd video, no Guest Additions) and ran the suggested commands:
VboxManage setextradata "VM-NAME" GUI/MaxGuestResolution any
VboxManage setextradata "VM-NAME" CustomVideoMode1 "2560x1440x32"

After the reboot of the VM, the Screen dialog was updated to include 2560x1440x32. I selected it and rebooted with no problems. Installing the Guest Additions worked with no trouble also. I'm still experimenting with the original VM to see if there is a way to feed the MaXGuestResolution and CustomVideoMode data, but have not had any success, as of yet.

I consider this one solved. Thanks for the help.

Bennie Nelson

[madbrain]

Bennie,
I realize this is an old topic, but I could never get any custom resolution to work in either ECS or ArcaOS under Virtualbox, even with a brand new VM and GENGRADD.
Same problem under VB 5.2 and the recently released 6.0 . I will try with 5.1.14 that you had success with, but not too hopeful.
I wonder what is different about your system.

[madbrain]

Bennie,
I realize this is an old topic, but I could never get any custom resolution to work in either ECS or ArcaOS under Virtualbox, even with a brand new VM and GENGRADD.
Same problem under VB 5.2 and the recently released 6.0 . I will try with 5.1.14 that you had success with, but not too hopeful.
I wonder what is different about your system.

Unfortunately, VB 5.1.14 does not run at all on the current version of Windows 10, so that's not an option.

[Bennie Nelson]

I apologize for not following up on this issue. I did eventually discover that the higher resolutions needed to be enabled through a newer VirtualBox command:
VboxManage setextradata "VBOXname" GUI/MaxGuestResolution any

Once I ran this command (replacing "VBOXname" with the specific name of the virtual machine), I gained access to the higher resolutions, such as 2560x1440x32.

Regards,
Bennie Nelson

[madbrain]

I apologize for not following up on this issue. I did eventually discover that the higher resolutions needed to be enabled through a newer VirtualBox command:
VboxManage setextradata "VBOXname" GUI/MaxGuestResolution any

Once I ran this command (replacing "VBOXname" with the specific name of the virtual machine), I gained access to the higher resolutions, such as 2560x1440x32.

Regards,
Bennie Nelson

Unfortunately, I have already tried that (see above), but I still couldn't get it to work.

[madbrain]

I apologize for not following up on this issue. I did eventually discover that the higher resolutions needed to be enabled through a newer VirtualBox command:
VboxManage setextradata "VBOXname" GUI/MaxGuestResolution any

Once I ran this command (replacing "VBOXname" with the specific name of the virtual machine), I gained access to the higher resolutions, such as 2560x1440x32.

Regards,
Bennie Nelson

Unfortunately, I have already tried that (see above), but I still couldn't get it to work.

I think I figured out the root cause of my problem : there is a race condition in Virtualbox.

When using Vboxmanage, one must close the Virtualbox GUI, even if no VM is currently running. Otherwise, changes made by command-line are discarded by the GUI when starting the VM !

I was able to get my ECS VM with Gengradd to show all new resolutions this way.
However, there is severe display corruption at 3840x2160x32 . 2560x1600x32 seems to work OK - and that resolution actually shows out of the box. But of course it doesn't fill my screen.

I then installed SNAP and rebooted this same ECS VM, and it won't show any custom resolution, unfortunately.
Panorama shows all the custom resolutions, but has display corruption too. Some of it is related to the mouse pointer, but not all. This may be related to the lack of OS/2 additions on this VM.

On to try the ArcaOS VM now ...

[madbrain]

On to try the ArcaOS VM now ...

Same deal, basically. ArcaOS will run with Panorama at 3840x2160x32 . But there is very severe display corruption.
The mouse pointer often gets "lost". It just disappears after repainting problems. I tried using the comet pointer also. It's helpful to a degree. But once I move the mouse over the corrupt areas of the display, it gets lost too, like in the Bermuda's triangle.
I tried using the GENGRADD.DLL from the VBOX OS/2 additions, but everything went crazy at this resolution, even keyboard input was messed up.
Overall, it's essentially unusable at 3840x2160x32 due to the painting/ corruption problems.
I wonder if the issue is due to the amount of VRAM required. One page takes 31.6 MB in UHD with 32 bpp.
2560x1600 at 32bpp is just under 16MB, and has no issues. Maybe 3840x2160x16 will work as it will fit in 16MB also. Going to experiment more ...

[madbrain]

2560x1600 at 32bpp is just under 16MB, and has no issues. Maybe 3840x2160x16 will work as it will fit in 16MB also. Going to experiment more ...

So, 3840x2160x16 (64K color) worked under ECS with Panorama. I guess I was right about this 16MB VRAM issue.

However, no luck getting it to work under ArcaOS, which ships with a different version of Panorama. Only 16M color modes are showing in ArcaOS in Panorama, strangely. No 64K color modes.

I tried to revert to GENGRADD in ArcaOS with "SETUP.CMD GEN" in s:\cid\server\snap . This gets me to a state where only a single video mode is available in the display settings, 1920x1080x16M . Very odd.

[Lars]

1) do not use Panorama in the VM. There is absolutely no gain in doing so. GENGRADD will either work or not.
In fact, Panorama is based on GENGRADD with some very minor additional feature (saving and restoring screen parts from a memory buffer called "shadow" buffer). This speed issue is not really relevant in a VM (where the host needs to inferfere with the guest screen output anyway)

2) you can use the GENGRADD that comes with the OS/2 additions. in the past I also used the GENGRADD that comes with Panorama (it's located in \OS2\DLL) and it made no difference but I think it is a good idea to use the GENGRADD from the OS/2 additions.

2) have you increased the aperture size of the VM to 32 MB ? Of course you have to do that. If you do that you might also need to reduce the VIRTUALADDRESSLIMIT value in the guest. That's because more address space is now needed for kernel addresses (due to the larger aperture size). I recommend not going beyond 2048 for VIRTUALADDRESSLIMIT but you can experiment what works for you.

[Doug Bissett]

1) do not use Panorama in the VM. There is absolutely no gain in doing so. GENGRADD will either work or not.

I agree. Using SNAP, or Panorama, in a VM is unnecessary overhead, and does absolutely NOTHING for you.

I think it is a good idea to use the GENGRADD from the OS/2 additions.

Absolutely. It redirects video to the host video driver, probably meaning that Panorama, or SNAP, never even get used if they are installed in the guest.

2) have you increased the aperture size of the VM to 32 MB ?

I usually use 24 MB, but I have no reason to even consider using large screens. I always make the VBox window smaller than the host screen, but that is just my own preference (saves having to scroll it). The rules for the amount of video memory are the same for VBox, as they are for real machines. There is a limit, depending on how much video memory you have, and there is a limit to how much gengradd can handle (might even be 15 MB). You get the smaller of the two. The offered resolutions depend on what the BIOS offers, and VBox has ways to add custom entries to that list. If those custom entries stay within the capabilities of gengradd, and the video memory, it should work (but I must admit that I never bothered trying).

I recommend not going beyond 2048 for VIRTUALADDRESSLIMIT but you can experiment what works for you.

Personally, I find that VIRTUALADDRESSLIMIT, set to 2560, works best in all of my systems (even my antique IBM ThinkPad A22e, and virtual machines). Some systems will work with 3072, but most of them will produce many LIBCX log files, if I use 3072. All of them are running some version of ArcaOS, which has a patched kernel, to (partly) prevent problems with using upper shared memory space. Older versions of OS/2 probably should not go above (or below) 2048.