Problems after upgrading Whonix - cannot full size Whonix-Workstation screen

Hello guys;
The Virtualbox issue comes up around here from time to time. I have had exactly the same issues at one time or another with the screen size. Through some experimentation and a deep dive into Virtualbox, these are some common ways to mitigate the screen issues:

  1. have a recent kernel. Whonix takes care of this so just make sure to have a fully updated Whonix system.
  2. Don’t fiddle with the guest additions. It comes already installed in Whonix. If you have a guest additions iso on your host, do not use it.
  3. Graphics. Always try to use VMSVGA. This is the ‘recommended’ choice from virtualbox. The others are really there for systems that cannot accomodate vmsvga.
  4. Ram. Have enough allocated to your workstation. 2gb or more works well.
  5. On your host, please make sure that the version of Virtualbox running is not too far away from the version of the Whonix guest additions. In other words, if guest additions are 6.1.x, do not have your host use 6.0.x.
  6. Keep your host’s Virtualbox up to date. Sometimes small changes are pushed and if you do not update, it will cause a conflict.

For reference, here is what i am running:
Debian Buster Host. kernel 4.19.0-10
Virtualbox version 6.1.12 (from oracle website)
Host graphics are intel. Virtualbox graphics is VMSVGA.
(Sometimes, when the screen would not size correctly in past versions, I would restart the virtual machine and re-size to fullscreen early before it finishes booting. This seemed to fix the issue)
With the current Virtualbox listed above and all the specs and also with a full updated Whonix, I have no problems with screen. (1920x1080 by the way)

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