Can't enable full screen or scale Kali ARM64 in VirtualBox on Apple Silicon Mac

Kali Linux Forums Kali Linux General
1

Hi all, I’m running into an issue with screen scaling in VirtualBox and would really appreciate your help.

System Info:

  • Host machine: MacBook Pro with Apple Silicon (M3 chip), macOS Ventura
  • VirtualBox version: 7.1.6 (latest)
  • Guest OS: Kali Linux 2025.1a (ARM64 build)

Issue:
I successfully installed Kali ARM64 in VirtualBox, and everything works — tools, networking, login, etc. However, I’m stuck with a low screen resolution (1280x800), and I can’t enable:

  • Full screen (Command + F)
  • Scaled mode (Command + C)
  • Dynamic resizing

What I’ve tried:

  • Installing virtualbox-guest-x11 (not found in the ARM64 build)
  • Enabling contrib and non-free in sources.list
  • Manually adjusting resolution with xrandr

I now understand that Guest Additions may not be supported for ARM64 Kali guests, but wanted to ask:

Is there a workaround to enable better screen scaling in ARM64 Kali on Apple Silicon?

Or do I need to switch to the x86_64 (AMD64) build of Kali and run it via VirtualBox using Rosetta 2 for full Guest Additions support?

Thank you in advance for any guidance. I really appreciate what you all do!

2

first off, turn of any video (fullscreen) scaling in the VM manager software (virtual box), and just maximise the Kali screen, then set the display size to something suitable in Kali itself, and if your on a Mac then you will usually need to enable HIDPI mode as well.

The VM software will otherwise keep changing display settings and you’ll be fighting it every boot up. That’s what I do with Macs anyway.

3

Hi Fred,

Thank you for taking the time to share that invaluable information. I really appreciate your help — your explanation gave me a much clearer understanding of how to manage screen scaling inside VirtualBox on my Mac.

I’m going to disable VirtualBox’s fullscreen scaling, manually resize the Kali window, and adjust the resolution from within Kali itself like you suggested. I’ll also look into enabling HiDPI mode as you mentioned.

I’ll test it out and report back with how it goes. Thanks again for your support!

— Dave

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