The default way to interact with a KVM virtual machine is through the SDL screen. It would be really cool to have the guest OS draw a virtual window that is the same size as the physical screen in which one is seeing that window, so that then one is able to use the guest in fullscreen without needing to change video modes.
ESPECIALLY
When one owns a 1280x800 laptop and all 4:3 resolutions are distorted when going fullscreen.
My Ubuntu Hardy 32 bit guest automatically configured itself to use 1280x800 even when running with the standard Cirrus video card. For my Windows Server 2003 guest I have to use:
-std-vga
in the command line to use the standard Bochs VGA adapter, which supports 1280x800 in Windows. Maybe the Cirrus adapter supports that resolution now in Windows (I reinstalled the Ubuntu guest some time after I installed my Window guest so things might have changed) but at some point it was not possible.
Now both of my guests use 1280x800 as their resolution and thus look good when fullscreened.
EXCEPT
QEMU's fullscreen had trouble with Compiz in my old Xubuntu Feisty 64 bit host. I had to manually disable Compiz to avoid my QEMU/KVM window to fall back to windowed mode after I pressed Ctrl-Alt-F (which is the key binding to go fullscreen).
Now I updated to Xubuntu Hardy and as I made a clean upgrade, I no longer have Compiz installed (it comes by default only on Ubuntu - though I don't know about Kubuntu). However, this led to a cool discovery: XFCE's window manager, xfwm4 now comes compiled with compositing support:
This means that I can get transparencies and use AWN (thedock-like navigation bar at the bottom of the screen) without sacrificing the possibility of having my guests fullscreened (which is really really cool). I have to retry Compiz with QEMU/KVM in full screen, but for now, SCORE!
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