Changing dimensions of a Screen in XOrg at runtime

ZIYAD A. M. AL-BATLY zamb at saudi.net.sa
Thu May 5 08:50:43 UTC 2005


On Thu, 2005-05-05 at 10:08 +0200, Reinhard Tartler wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Is this possible at all in Xorg? Consider the following: Works on his
> laptop at home, where he uses his external 1280x1024 display in
> Xinerama mode with his internal 1024x768 display. After finishing
> work, he suspends his laptop. Next morning, he leaves home, and wants
> to continue work in train, but without his external display. So he
> boots his laptop to find that the application on his external Display
> are not accessible anymore.
> 
> Later, at work he connects his laptop to an external Display with
> 1400x1080. He gets back his old applications, but the display is only
> driven at 1280x1024, the dimensions of his home display.
> 
> You get the idea what I mean. Is it possible to change the dimensions
> of a screen in Xorg at runtime, so Bob would not need to edit his
> /etc/X11/Xorg.conf and restart X11 (and with this all his
> applications)? Are there any plans at freedesktop.org for this?
> 
> What workarounds for this are you using? Restarting X11 is my
> workaround, but that isn't really satisfying :(
> 
> -- 
> regards,
>     Reinhard
> 
Maybe I didn't understand what you're saying (and I'm sure there are
much more experience people in the list whom are better than me and will
answer your needs) but here goes nothing: Set your '/etc/X11/xorg.conf'
at the largest resolution that you need (or even larger) and make sure
that RANDR (not a spelling error) Extension is enabled (it's enabled by
default unless otherwise disabled in the xorg.config file, but to make
sure it's enabled run "xdpyinfo | grep RANDR" from within X) and use
"System" --> "Preference" --> "Screen Resolution" (or use the command
"xrandr" from a terminal under X) to switch between resolutions whenever
needed/desired.

Now, as I said, I'm not expert on X and I certainly didn't face this
kinda problem before, so I don't know if it'll work with Xinerama or
not.

Ziyad.




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