Display Serious Issue with Lubuntu

[Ali Linx]

On 05/10/2014 05:01 PM, Israel wrote:
> On 05/10/2014 06:53 AM, Ali Linx wrote:
>> On 05/10/2014 12:08 AM, Aere Greenway wrote:
>>> Ali, and all:
>> Hi Aere and everyone,
>>
> Hi Ali!

Hi my friend,

>>> I tried running Xubuntu (from a USB stick) on my HP Mini (which I
>>> think has an 11-inch wide screen - I didn't actually measure it).
>> Thanks a lot for your reply and for your tests :)
>>
>>> As far as I can tell, it behaved the same as Lubuntu.
>>>
>>> The screen resolution on this machine is 1024 x 576, which is lacking
>>> in the vertical dimension.
>> On my Samsung Notebook 11" display, the resolution was: 1024x600 on
>> both Xubuntu 14.04 LTS LiveUSB and Lubuntu 14.04 LTS that is installed
>> on that machine.
>>> In booting Xubuntu from the USB stick, when the window appeared
>>> giving you the choice to either try Xubuntu (or install Xubuntu),
>>> that window was too 'tall' for the screen, and the bottom was
>>> cut-off.  It was not resized to fit.
>> My LiveUSB is made by UNetbootin and the menu wasn't cut-off in my
>> case and everything was okay.
>>
>>> After booting, I checked the system settings, and the display size
>>> options were 1024 x 576 (the maximum), or a lesser resolution (which
>>> would have cut-off things even more drastically).
>>>
>>> When I ran my application, the bottom portion of the main window was
>>> cut-off (the same as with Lubuntu).  My system requirements state
>>> that it needs a minimum vertical dimension of 670 pixels, and 576 is
>>> not enough for it.
>> Maybe I didn't run enough application?
>> Would you please tell me what applications you tested?
>>
> I think he was testing HIS application that he made.  He codes a few (or
> maybe many) apps for Music creation in Java.  So the System requirements
> for HIS program are a minimum 670 pixels.

Aere is 'she' not 'he' :D
>>> As with Lubuntu, I could hold down the Alt-key, then click (and
>>> hold-down) the left track-pad button (anywhere in the window - not
>>> just on the title-bar), and drag the window upwards until the lower
>>> right corner was exposed.
>>>
>>> Then (as with Lubuntu), I was able to drag the lower-right corner
>>> upward and to the left.  This allowed me to reduce the dimensions of
>>> the window from its 'preferred' dimensions, to its 'minimum'
>>> dimensions, but no farther.
>> Yes, I can resize that - not sure I explained that? - but not all the
>> application allows you to do so. Some applications/tools by default,
>> are drawn in a way that none of the edges or borders are cut-off so I
>> can read exactly everything without resizing and sometimes with
>> resizing. However, some applications/tools don't actually allow you to
>> do that or these do but to a certain point where you can't go further
>> and after all, it is useless and you still miss the bottom part.
> I think the issue at hand is that the applications themselves are coded
> to have a certain minimum height/width in pixels.  As most devs do not
> work on a screen that small, and may not envision someone even trying to
> use a screen that small, they don't make a minimum width that will work
> on small screens.

Most likely that what happened which is, if true, really bad idea. As I 
wrote:

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/lubuntu-users/2014-May/007629.html

"IMHO, the maximum default size (default/initial size = the size of the 
window upon running it) of any window should be 'smaller' than the 
resolution of the display. If this is the default settings, then we 
would never have this issue no matter how small your screen is."


>>> If my application allowed it to be re-sized smaller than the minimum
>>> size, important controls would no longer appear within the window's
>>> panels.  That's why there is a minimum size the application can specify.
>>>
>>
>>> There was nothing in Xubuntu that scaled the entire window to fit
>>> within the screen.  If there is something you can do to make this
>>> happen, please let me know (because I am not aware of it).
>> What about maximize? not 100% sure what you mean? sorry!
>>
>>
>>> As far as I can tell, Xubuntu behaves the same as Lubuntu.
>> Maybe I didn't test enough. For me, they are not the same.
>>
> I think all the different distros have the same issue here.  And it may
> be something related to the display manager.  I am not sure if X is the
> issue here, or if it is something more along the lines of LightDM.  But,
> the issue you have is that the application window is drawn on the
> screen, and part of it is cut off because the window is larger than the
> screen size.
>
> This is a problem not with Lubuntu (AFAIK), but with the display server
> and how it handles drawing.  I think the area to concentrate on would be
> finding out if you can use the display server to emulate a higher
> resolution (i.e. dropping pixels) in order to make it appear to UI that
> the screen is larger than it is.  I wonder if there is someone who has
> done something to work around this issue??

Aere has the opposite thought. She thinks it is the applications not the 
system.

For me, I have no idea and 'still' waiting for Julien to step in - not 
sure when?!


>
> Anyhow, if you are interested in doing a bit of hacking...
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Config/Resolution
> You could edit the screen resolution to be higher than it is, and see if
> your problem is solved.  Though when you are messing around with this
> stuff MAKE A BACKUP OF THE WORKING CONFIG!!
> That way if you break something, you can always boot into single user
> mode, or use a liveCD (like puppy) to fix something (deleting the config
> that breaks it and restoring your backup)

You know me very well my friend, I have zero time to try anything. I'm 
glad that I can have some time to write this. More than this? I 
seriously can't, sorry.

For me? as I mentioned, this is no big deal. For the 'new' people I'm 
installing Lubuntu to? they will definitely need that. They're too busy 
to complain about it but once they will have some free time, they will 
give me hard time :(

This is one of the reasons (as mentioned before) why I can't use Lubuntu 
always. I use it only with Mini machines (11 inch display) or when the 
machine is super old. This is just one of the issues I'm having with 
Lubuntu ...

>>> - Aere
>> Thank you again :)
>>
>> @Everyone
>> Again, I'm asking :) yet no answer :)
>> Against which package should I report this?
>> Perhaps this is a general issue with Ubuntu not related to Lubuntu only?!
>>
>>
>

Thank you!

-- 
Ali/amjjawad
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/amjjawad