[gentoo-user] Constraining X display resolutions

[gentoo-user] Constraining X display resolutions

[Peter Humphrey]

Hello list,

My monitor is 1600 x 1200 but I like to run it at 1400 x 1050 (anno 
domini etc.). So far, though, KDE 4 doesn't remember the resolution at 
shutdown so it restarts at 1600 x 1200. I have to go through the 
rigmarole of setting it again every time I log in. I have raised a bug 
report but I don't suppose it's very high on anyone's list.

Meanwhile, is there an entry I can make in xorg.conf, or elsewhere, to 
force KDE to display just the single resolution, 1400 x 1050?

-- 
Rgds
Peter.

Re: [gentoo-user] Constraining X display resolutions

[Frank Steinmetzger]

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Am Montag, 26. April 2010 schrieb Peter Humphrey:
> Hello list,
> 
> My monitor is 1600 x 1200 but I like to run it at 1400 x 1050 (anno
> domini etc.). So far, though, KDE 4 doesn't remember the resolution at
> shutdown so it restarts at 1600 x 1200. I have to go through the
> rigmarole of setting it again every time I log in. I have raised a bug
> report but I don't suppose it's very high on anyone's list.
> 
> Meanwhile, is there an entry I can make in xorg.conf, or elsewhere, to
> force KDE to display just the single resolution, 1400 x 1050?

You haven't told us what kind of monitor that is, but it sounds like it's a 
flatscreen. In that case you should definitely run it on its native 
resolution, or else your display will be blurry and strain your eyes far more.
However, Linux GUIs are very good at geometric upscaling, so I suggest 
increasing font and icon sizes.
-- 
Gruß | Greetings | Qapla'
What do you call a dead bee? - A was.

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Re: [gentoo-user] Constraining X display resolutions

[Indexer]

On 27/04/2010, at 8:48 AM, Frank Steinmetzger wrote:

> Am Montag, 26. April 2010 schrieb Peter Humphrey:
>> Hello list,
>> 
>> My monitor is 1600 x 1200 but I like to run it at 1400 x 1050 (anno
>> domini etc.). So far, though, KDE 4 doesn't remember the resolution at
>> shutdown so it restarts at 1600 x 1200. I have to go through the
>> rigmarole of setting it again every time I log in. I have raised a bug
>> report but I don't suppose it's very high on anyone's list.
>> 
>> Meanwhile, is there an entry I can make in xorg.conf, or elsewhere, to
>> force KDE to display just the single resolution, 1400 x 1050?
> 
> You haven't told us what kind of monitor that is, but it sounds like it's a 
> flatscreen. In that case you should definitely run it on its native 
> resolution, or else your display will be blurry and strain your eyes far more.
> However, Linux GUIs are very good at geometric upscaling, so I suggest 
> increasing font and icon sizes.
> -- 
> Gruß | Greetings | Qapla'
> What do you call a dead bee? - A was.

The best way to achieve this would be to set your resolution manually in xorg.conf, rather than using the KDE4 tool.

William

Re: [gentoo-user] Constraining X display resolutions

[Stroller]

On 26 Apr 2010, at 12:57, Peter Humphrey wrote:
> ...
> My monitor is 1600 x 1200 but I like to run it at 1400 x 1050 (anno
> domini etc.).

Assuming it is an LCD / TFT or otherwise not-a-big-glass-tube monitor,  
this will make the display LESS sharp. You should make the icons &  
fonts *themselves* larger instead, if this is what you are trying to  
achieve.

Stroller.

Re: [gentoo-user] Constraining X display resolutions

[Peter Humphrey]

On Tuesday 27 April 2010 00:18:19 Frank Steinmetzger wrote:

> You haven't told us what kind of monitor that is,

Because it isn't pertinent to what I asked.

> but it sounds like it's a flatscreen. In that case you should definitely
> run it on its native resolution, or else your display will ... strain
> your eyes far more.

It doesn't. I've always had blurred vision (myopia in one eye and 
astigmatism in the other, both fairly severe) and I'm better at 
resolving blurred images than picking detail out of small ones. I'm 
trying to reduce the neck-ache caused by straining forwards to see the 
screen.

> However, Linux GUIs are very good at geometric upscaling, so I suggest
> increasing font and icon sizes.

I'll try that anyway; it may give me a better compromise. Thanks.

-- 
Rgds
Peter.

Re: [gentoo-user] Constraining X display resolutions

[Mick]

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On Tuesday 27 April 2010 17:06:07 Peter Humphrey wrote:
> On Tuesday 27 April 2010 00:18:19 Frank Steinmetzger wrote:
> > You haven't told us what kind of monitor that is,
> 
> Because it isn't pertinent to what I asked.
> 
> > but it sounds like it's a flatscreen. In that case you should definitely
> > run it on its native resolution, or else your display will ... strain
> > your eyes far more.
> 
> It doesn't. I've always had blurred vision (myopia in one eye and
> astigmatism in the other, both fairly severe) and I'm better at
> resolving blurred images than picking detail out of small ones. I'm
> trying to reduce the neck-ache caused by straining forwards to see the
> screen.
> 
> > However, Linux GUIs are very good at geometric upscaling, so I suggest
> > increasing font and icon sizes.
> 
> I'll try that anyway; it may give me a better compromise. Thanks.

I've had the same problem on a high resolution (1920x1080), small size screen 
(15.6").  The characters are tiny and anything else but native resolution 
makes images and characters blurred.  The solution was to increase the font 
size on the terminals and KDE apps.  However, I don't know how to make the 
characters in the Firefox menus and body larger.  Am I supposed to run 
gconftool-2 with some esoteric options?

-- 
Regards,
Mick

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Re: [gentoo-user] Constraining X display resolutions

[Walter Dnes]

On Tue, Apr 27, 2010 at 11:02:53PM +0100, Mick wrote

> anything else but native resolution makes images and characters blurred.

  There is one exception to that general rule.  If you divide the X and/or
Y dimensions by a whole number, the result may be blocky fonts, but at
least there is no interpolation.  For a 1920x1080 screen, dimensions like

 960x1080   960x540   960x360
 640x1080   640x540   640x360
 480x1080   480x540   480x360

would involve no interpolation.  Of the possibilities listed, the only
sane ones are 960x1080, 960x540, 640x540, 640x360, and 480x360.  If you
have a VGA input on the LCD monitor, and if you know the monitor's safe
horizontal and vertical frequency ranges, you can go to a site like
http://xtiming.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/xtiming.pl or
http://amlc.berlios.de/ and generate custom modelines for the reduced
sizes.  You may need "doublescan" for some of the smaller screens.

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>

Re: [gentoo-user] Constraining X display resolutions

[Mick]

On 28 April 2010 06:35, Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org> wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 27, 2010 at 11:02:53PM +0100, Mick wrote
>
>> anything else but native resolution makes images and characters blurred.
>
>  There is one exception to that general rule.  If you divide the X and/or
> Y dimensions by a whole number, the result may be blocky fonts, but at
> least there is no interpolation.  For a 1920x1080 screen, dimensions like
>
>  960x1080   960x540   960x360
>  640x1080   640x540   640x360
>  480x1080   480x540   480x360
>
> would involve no interpolation.  Of the possibilities listed, the only
> sane ones are 960x1080, 960x540, 640x540, 640x360, and 480x360.  If you
> have a VGA input on the LCD monitor, and if you know the monitor's safe
> horizontal and vertical frequency ranges, you can go to a site like
> http://xtiming.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/xtiming.pl or
> http://amlc.berlios.de/ and generate custom modelines for the reduced
> sizes.  You may need "doublescan" for some of the smaller screens.

Hmm, that's all the choice that I have I'm afraid:

$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1920 x 1080, maximum 1920 x 1920
VGA-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
LVDS connected 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y
axis) 344mm x 193mm
   1920x1080      60.0*+
   1680x1050      60.0
   1400x1050      60.0
   1280x1024      59.9
   1440x900       59.9
   1280x960       59.9
   1280x854       59.9
   1280x800       59.8
   1280x720       59.9
   1152x768       59.8
   1024x768       59.9
   800x600        59.9
   640x480        59.4
DisplayPort-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

Anyway, I'm not the OP and I don't want to hijack the thread ... but
thanks all the same Walter. I didn't know about the xtiming page.
-- 
Regards,
Mick

Re: [gentoo-user] Constraining X display resolutions

[Nils Larsson]

måndag 26 april 2010 13:57:56 skrev  Peter Humphrey:
> Hello list,
> 
> My monitor is 1600 x 1200 but I like to run it at 1400 x 1050 (anno
> domini etc.). So far, though, KDE 4 doesn't remember the resolution at
> shutdown so it restarts at 1600 x 1200. I have to go through the
> rigmarole of setting it again every time I log in. I have raised a bug
> report but I don't suppose it's very high on anyone's list.
> 
> Meanwhile, is there an entry I can make in xorg.conf, or elsewhere, to
> force KDE to display just the single resolution, 1400 x 1050?

If you're using a kernel with kernel mode setting enabled you can add 
the video= parameter to the kernel command line in grub.cfg(or 
menu.lst). So if you set video=1400x1050, X will think that's the highest 
resolution it can set.

Re: [gentoo-user] Constraining X display resolutions

[Frank Steinmetzger]

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Am Mittwoch, 28. April 2010 schrieb Mick:

> > > However, Linux GUIs are very good at geometric upscaling, so I suggest
> > > increasing font and icon sizes.
> > 
> > I'll try that anyway; it may give me a better compromise. Thanks.
> 
> I've had the same problem on a high resolution (1920x1080), small size
> screen (15.6").  The characters are tiny and anything else but native
> resolution makes images and characters blurred.  The solution was to
> increase the font size on the terminals and KDE apps.  However, I don't
> know how to make the characters in the Firefox menus and body larger.  Am
> I supposed to run gconftool-2 with some esoteric options?

There's a package that lets GTK apps look like KDE apps, including font, 
called kcm_gtk. It adds a page to System settings under
Appearance->Appearance called GTK styles and fonts.
-- 
Gruß | Greetings | Qapla'
No user was harmed by sending this Outlook-free message.

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Re: [gentoo-user] Constraining X display resolutions

[Håkon Alstadheim]

Frank Steinmetzger skrev:
> Am Mittwoch, 28. April 2010 schrieb Mick:
>
>   
>>>> However, Linux GUIs are very good at geometric upscaling, so I suggest
>>>> increasing font and icon sizes.
>>>>         
>>> I'll try that anyway; it may give me a better compromise. Thanks.
>>>       
>> I've had the same problem on a high resolution (1920x1080), small size
>> screen (15.6").  The characters are tiny and anything else but native
>> resolution makes images and characters blurred.  The solution was to
>> increase the font size on the terminals and KDE apps.  However, I don't
>> know how to make the characters in the Firefox menus and body larger.  Am
>> I supposed to run gconftool-2 with some esoteric options?
>>     
>
> There's a package that lets GTK apps look like KDE apps, including font, 
> called kcm_gtk. It adds a page to System settings under
> Appearance->Appearance called GTK styles and fonts.
>   

Running fluxbox myself, but the idea should work across desktops: use 
xrandr and lie to X about the physical  size of your screen. On my TV I 
run xrandr first once without arguments to get the actual size, dive the 
sizes by two and run xrandr like so: "xrandr --fbmm 443x247". This is a 
32" 16:9 TV. Stick this last bit somewhere early in your login-sequence. 
Works beautifylly.

Re: [gentoo-user] Constraining X display resolutions

[Etaoin Shrdlu]

On Tuesday 27 April 2010, Mick wrote:

> I've had the same problem on a high resolution (1920x1080), small size
>  screen (15.6").  The characters are tiny and anything else but native
>  resolution makes images and characters blurred.  The solution was to
>  increase the font size on the terminals and KDE apps.  However, I don't
>  know how to make the characters in the Firefox menus and body larger.  Am
>  I supposed to run gconftool-2 with some esoteric options?

What's wrong with Firefox's preferences? 

Edit -> Preferences -> Content -> Advanced...

and you can customize fonts (including size and other behavior).

Re: [gentoo-user] Constraining X display resolutions

[Mick]

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On Friday 30 April 2010 18:49:40 Etaoin Shrdlu wrote:
> On Tuesday 27 April 2010, Mick wrote:
> > I've had the same problem on a high resolution (1920x1080), small size
> >  screen (15.6").  The characters are tiny and anything else but native
> >  resolution makes images and characters blurred.  The solution was to
> >  increase the font size on the terminals and KDE apps.  However, I don't
> >  know how to make the characters in the Firefox menus and body larger. 
> > Am I supposed to run gconftool-2 with some esoteric options?
> 
> What's wrong with Firefox's preferences?
> 
> Edit -> Preferences -> Content -> Advanced...
> 
> and you can customize fonts (including size and other behavior).

Right, but it doesn't seem to affect the menus. 
-- 
Regards,
Mick

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Re: [gentoo-user] Constraining X display resolutions

[Frank Steinmetzger]

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Am Freitag, 30. April 2010 schrieb Mick:
> On Friday 30 April 2010 18:49:40 Etaoin Shrdlu wrote:
> > On Tuesday 27 April 2010, Mick wrote:
> > > I've had the same problem on a high resolution (1920x1080), small size
> > > 
> > >  screen (15.6").  The characters are tiny and anything else but native
> > >  resolution makes images and characters blurred.  The solution was to
> > >  increase the font size on the terminals and KDE apps.  However, I
> > >  don't know how to make the characters in the Firefox menus and body
> > >  larger.
> > > 
> > > Am I supposed to run gconftool-2 with some esoteric options?
> > 
> > What's wrong with Firefox's preferences?
> > 
> > Edit -> Preferences -> Content -> Advanced...
> > 
> > and you can customize fonts (including size and other behavior).
> 
> Right, but it doesn't seem to affect the menus.

Have you tried what I suggested? Here, KDE and Firefox menus have the same 
font size.
-- 
Gruß | Greetings | Qapla'
Concious smokers drink decaf.

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