virtual desktop
Bob Tennent
"virtual" display larger than the actual display in xorg.conf, and the
actual display will be shifted into the virtual area by pushing the
mouse against the relevant edge. What is the official term for this
feature? Recent releases of the Intel driver have not supported this
feature (in favour of something called RandR, which I gather doesn't
mean "rest and recreation"). But support for the feature I described but
cannot name has apparently been promised for some future release, or
perhaps is already available. Does anyone have definite information? I
refuse to upgrade the distribution on my laptop until I can confirm that
the feature will be available. On a desktop, I can install a video card
for which the driver supports the desired feature; I can't do that with
my laptop.
Bob T.
Grant
>I'm used to the "legacy" feature of X that allows you to specify a
>"virtual" display larger than the actual display in xorg.conf, and the
>actual display will be shifted into the virtual area by pushing the
>mouse against the relevant edge. What is the official term for this
>feature?
Viewport? I'm not sure if there was a special name, though I know
the feature you describe, 'cos I don't like it, used to turn it off.
Haven't noticed it in recent years.
> Recent releases of the Intel driver have not supported this
>feature (in favour of something called RandR, which I gather doesn't
>mean "rest and recreation"). But support for the feature I described but
>cannot name has apparently been promised for some future release, or
>perhaps is already available. Does anyone have definite information? I
>refuse to upgrade the distribution on my laptop until I can confirm that
>the feature will be available. On a desktop, I can install a video card
>for which the driver supports the desired feature; I can't do that with
>my laptop.
Probably because it's the older video chipsets are what provided the
feature?
I never did like the virtual screen idea, so not followed what became
of it over time. Maybe the hardware version fell out of use, but I see
xorg.conf still has the viewport so perhaps it's now done in software
with, say, the framebuffer driver?
Grant.
--
http://bugs.id.au/
Anton Ertl
>I'm used to the "legacy" feature of X that allows you to specify a
>"virtual" display larger than the actual display in xorg.conf, and the
>actual display will be shifted into the virtual area by pushing the
>mouse against the relevant edge. What is the official term for this
>feature?
Looking at the paragraph for the "Virtual" and "ViewPort" fields in
"man xorg.conf", the most frequently used term is "virtual screen
resolution"; another term used there is "virtual size".
>I
>refuse to upgrade the distribution on my laptop until I can confirm that
>the feature will be available.
I know how you feel. When I "upgraded" from Debian Etch to Lenny on
my laptop (an iBook G4), the X server (actually the Radeon driver)
could no longer unconditionally drive the external display port, but
wanted to detect a display there before it would drive it. I then
"downgraded" the X server etc. to Etch to regain that feature.
- anton
--
M. Anton Ertl Some things have to be seen to be believed
an...@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at Most things have to be believed to be seen
http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/anton/home.html
Lucas Levrel
> I'm used to the "legacy" feature of X that allows you to specify a
> "virtual" display larger than the actual display in xorg.conf, and the
> actual display will be shifted into the virtual area by pushing the
> mouse against the relevant edge. What is the official term for this
> feature?
Reading through my driver's man page (radeonhd), I found it's called
"panning". There's a section describing this in man xrandr, so you'll see
if I understood you correctly!
--
LL
Bob Tennent
> Le 16 f�vrier 2010, Bob Tennent a �crit :
I guess that's what it's called now, though I'm pretty sure that wasn't
the way it was described originally (before randr took it on). Thanks.
Bob
Bob Tennent
> Le 16 f�vrier 2010, Bob Tennent a �crit :
>
With that pointer I was able to determine that the panning feature is
supported by xrandr-1.3 which has been supported by the intel driver
since version 2.6.
To implement it, I've simply added the following in my .xinitrc:
xrandr --fb 2400x1600 --output LVDS1 --mode 1280x800 --panning 2400x1600
which gives me essentially a double-size virtual desktop easily
accessible on my tiny display. I can't imagine how people with
small laptop and netbook displays manage without this feature.
Thanks.
Bob T.
Jerry Peters
We get used to it. Having 9 virtual desktops helps, I just load each
application 1 to a desktop. The only real problem is apps that
*insist* on being larger than the desktop.
I'm currently using an AA1 netbook 1024x600. I may just try your
xrandr trick to see how I like it.
Jerry