How-To Change Screen Resolution on Mac VirtualBox

If you are stuck with the default 1024×768 resolution in VirtualBox when you install Mac then here is a way to solve it.

First Start the Mavericks Virtual Machine. Once booted, open finder and go to the root of the HDD where Mac is installed. Go to Extras and edit the file named org.chamelon.Boot.plist or  com.Apple.Boot.plist. It might be named differently, but it will have a Boot in it’s name.

 

Open the file with TextEdit. It should look like something similar to this,

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
	<key>EthernetBuiltIn</key>
	<string>y</string>
	<key>GraphicsEnabler</key>
	<string>y</string>
	<key>Kernel Flags</key>
	<string>npci=0x2000 dart=0</string>
	<key>Timeout</key>
	<string>2</string>
	<key>UseKernelCache</key>
	<string>y</string>
</dict>
</plist>

DO NOT COPY THE ABOVE CODE TO YOUR FILE IF IT LOOKS DIFFERENT IN YOURS. YOU JUST NEED TO ADD THE BELOW CODE TO YOUR FILE.

Before the </dict> tag, add this two line,

<key>Graphics Mode</key> 
<string>1920x1080x32</string>

Once done, Power off the machine and close the window.

Now open CMD if you are running windows or Terminal if you are running Mac/Linux as your Host machine. Go to the path where VirtualBox is installed. In windows, (by default)

C:\Program Files\Oracle\Virtualbox

so in your CMD/Terminal type in,

cd "C:\Program Files\Oracle\Virtualbox"

After that, run command,

vboxmanage setextradata "Name of virtual machine" "CustomVideoMode1" "1920x1080x32"

 I am using 1920×1080 as my resolution, change it to whatever you need. If the resoltion exceed your screen resolution, then you will see scroll bars in VirtualBox or you will have to use it in scaled mode which will be bad. In windows you can find your screen resolution under Control Panel>>Display>>Screen Resolution.

Now start your virtual machine and your resolution would be changed.

Change Screen Resolution on Mac VirtualBox

Tested on Mac 10.x

Have any questions ? Comment..

Sugavanas: Founder of TheTechTerminus.