How to resize Alpine Linux terminal in VirtualBox?

Question

Please help me with info, how to resize terminal window of Alpine Linux inside the VirtualBox so that it would fill all the host virtualbox window.

Alpine version: virt-3.7.0
VirtualBox version: 5.2.12 (macOS host)

I've also installed virtualbox-guest-additions and virtualbox-guest-modules-virthardened with apk like this:

apk add virtualbox-guest-additions virtualbox-guest-modules-virthardened

But it still does not work.

Answer 1

I'm assuming you're talking about the standard linux console, not a graphical terminal inside Xorg or Wayland. That being the case:

With extlinux bootloader

Alpine defaults to using extlinux when installed on a machine that's booted in BIOS mode.

You can set the terminal size by editing /boot/extlinux.conf:

1. Remove nomodeset from the line starting APPEND.
2. Add a video=... line at the end of the APPEND line, with the resolution you want. For example, video=1440x900.
3. Reboot.

With grub bootloader

Alpine defaults to grub when installed on a machine booted in EFI mode.

Edit /etc/default/grub:

1. Find the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT line, and remove nomodeset.

2. Add these two lines:

   GRUB_GFXMODE=1440x900
   GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD=1440x900
   

3. Run grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg as root (or use sudo if you have it set up).
4. Reboot

---

The virtualbox guest additions packages only provide support for Xorg video, and a few other things like shared folders.

Answer 2

I installed with the following steps.

echo "http://nl.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/testing" >> /etc/apk/repositories
apk update
apk upgrade --update-cache --available
apk add virtualbox-guest-additions
rc-update add virtualbox-guest-additions default
echo vboxpci    >> /etc/modules
echo vboxdrv    >> /etc/modules
echo vboxnetflt >> /etc/modules

This increases the display resolution.