[arandr-users] adding custom display resolutions on ARandR

[Paulo Silva]

hello  chrysn,

On 2/8/15, chrysn <chrysn at fsfe.org> wrote:
> hello paulo,
>
> On Fri, Feb 06, 2015 at 10:41:20PM +0000, Paulo Silva wrote:
>> i heard that XRandR allows us to add and remove display resolutions,
>> but i never did it successfully - i guess would be great if ARandR
>> would allow this, like adding modelines like used on xorg.conf? (this
>> is mostly because, for example, i know that my old cinescope display
>> supports 1280x960, but recently i can't get up to 1024x768 there)
>
> the tricky thing about adding resolutions is that you need to specify a
> complete mode line, and especially when a display does not support
> auto-detection of the mode line, chances are that the details of the
> mode line might matter.
>
> i've considered adding modeline support in the upcoming 0.2 release
> (developed as the 'verbose' branch), but i haven't seen practical use
> cases. have you successfully used xrandr to add and use the 1280x960
> mode, how did you obtain the required mode line, and do you know what
> went wrong with your device so the mode is not auto-detected?

i was only successful by editing /etc/X11/xorg.conf - i really don't
know how xrandr adds resolutions, from what i tried following online
instructions, none was successful (there is what i imagined that on a
gui-based tool like ARandR would be easier?)

about adding modelines, perhaps also adding it via modeline
calculation, like from
http://xtiming.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/xtiming.pl or
http://www.arachnoid.com/modelines/ would be an interesting idea, what
do you think?


>
>> another neat feature would be if resolutions could be grouped as
>> display proportion categories; like 1024x768, 800x600, 1280x960 and
>> 1600x1200 in the 4x3 group; 1280x1024 and 640x512 in the 5x4 group;
>> 1280x800, 1600x1000, 640x400 and 800x500 in the 8x5 group; etc...
>
> i'm not sure grouping them all is the right thing to do in this
> situation, but i'd consider adding the (sometimes rounded) aspect ratio
> and/or "grouping away" non-matching ratios. might look like that (lines
> in <> are non-selectable group headers, not sure yet how that works with
> HIG; texts in [] are my notes):
>
> Resolution > (X) 1920x1080
>              ( ) 1360x768    [ some rounding is involved ]
> 	     <Other aspect ratios>
> 	     ( ) 1600x1050 (8:5)
> 	     ( ) 1600x1024 (25:16)
> 	     ( ) 1400x1050 (4:3)
> 	     ( ) 1280x1024 (5:4)
> 	     ( ) 1440x900 (8:5)
> 	     ( ) 1280x960 (4:3)
> 	     ( ) 1152x864 (4:3)
> 	     ( ) 1024x768 (4:3)
> 	     ( ) 800x600 (4:3)
> 	     ( ) 640x480 (4:3)

yes, this would be great

>
> that might even work without an additional label for "Other aspect
> ratios", a plain separator might be enough. i figure that most times
> when you want to reduce the resolution, you either want bigger texts
> (eg. when your desktop environment doesn't scale everything with the
> text size -- in which case you want to stick to your aspect ratio), or
> you want to match another device's resolution (in which case you are
> looking for a particular one).
>
> would that cover your use cases? others on the list, what do you think?

perhaps having some preferences that you could enable and disable
resolutions by filtering their ratios - i guess would be useful


>
> (paulo, i've directed my reply to the -users mailing list which i
> consider suitable for such discussion. you can either subscribe[1] and/or
> reply directly to the list, or (in case you don't want to participate in
> public discussion) reply to me and i'll only post my replies to the list
> and keep you in bcc like now.)

thanks!
(btw, i'm sending to that via cc, but i think that will bounce this
message back since i'm not yet subscribed there)

>
> best regards
> chrysn
>

best regards too!
paulo


> [1] https://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/arandr-users
>
> --
> To use raw power is to make yourself infinitely vulnerable to greater
> powers.
>   -- Bene Gesserit axiom
>


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