Secondary monitor not detected in Virtualbox Linux Mint 17.3

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redpsalm
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Secondary monitor not detected in Virtualbox Linux Mint 17.3

Post by redpsalm »

I have a new ASUS ROG with a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M card and I am using a secondary monitor Intel HD Graphics 530.

I have set up a virtualbox with Linux Mint 17.3, two monitors and enough video memory (tried the max). When I start Linux Mint, I only get a single window (Oracle VM VirtualBox: 1). When I go to Preferences > Display, I have a single display "Unknown VGA-0" and that's it (Detect Displays does not make any difference). I first thought that I needed to upgrade the drivers (no drivers are listed in the driver manager) and tried to install NVIDIA drivers (358). That crashes Cinnamon and the driver manager is nowhere to be found.

There are therefore two issues (can't install NVIDIA drivers and can't use multiple monitors). Right now, I am trying to tackle the latter (but of course they may be related). Anyway currently at a loss trying to figure out what I could try next. Any suggestions?
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Cosmo.
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Re: Secondary monitor not detected in Virtualbox Linux Mint

Post by Cosmo. »

You cannot install the NVidia driver inside a virtual machine, as it uses a quite different - virtual - graphic hardware.

But you need to install the guest additions inside the virtual machine.
redpsalm
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Re: Secondary monitor not detected in Virtualbox Linux Mint

Post by redpsalm »

OK, the fact I cannot install a NVIDIA driver inside a virtual machine explains several points.

I had installed the guest additions BUT I must have done something wrong, possibly running this command: sudo apt-get install virtualbox-guest-x11, instead of (or after) using the Virtualbox command Devices > Insert Guest Additions CD Image... When I ran the latter again, the View > Virtual Screen 2 > Enable did the trick! So a big thank you as your comments lead me on the right track... :D
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