On Thu, Feb 4, 2010 at 9:17 AM, Grant <emailgr...@gmail.com> wrote: >>> I've only ever used my laptop's VGA-out into 4:3 screens and it always >>> works great. I've now plugged it into a 16:9 screen for the first >>> time, and it still displays 4:3 on that screen and on my laptop. Is >>> there a way for it to detect the proper aspect ratio? Maybe it >>> depends on the monitor's EDID? If not, can I manually change the >>> aspect ratio? >>> >>> - Grant >> >> Not sure about how well it will work automatically, but try running >> >> xrandr >> >> and reading the output. It should tell you what monitors you have >> hooked up and what resolutions and scan frequencies they support. I >> did this and then put the ones I wanted into my xorg.conf file and was >> good to go. >> >> Hope this helps, >> Mark > > Thanks Mark. Is there a slick way to restart xorg without rebooting > so you can switch between VGA-out mode and non? When I'm doing > VGA-out, my laptop's screen changes to match the aspect ratio of the > output so it's good to be able to switch. > > - Grant
Not sure of the best way to do that, but is it really necessary? I suppose you could try (from the console) /etc/init.d/xdm restart and see if it does what you want. Note that you can set up your screens using xrandr itself. I'm not very good at it but I've played with it and it works. Duncan on the amd64 list posted a couple of commands he uses. They look like this: xrandr --verbose --fb 1920x2400 --output DVI-0 --mode 1280x800 --panning 1920x1200+0+0/1920x1200+0+0/20/20/20/20 --output DVI-1 --mode 1280x800 -- panning 1920x1200+0+1200/1920x1200+0+1200/20/20/20/20 Clearly that's a mouthful but I'm sure it makes sense once you get down to the basics. I think you can break it apart into something like: xrandr --verbose --fb 1920x2400 --output DVI-0 --mode 1280x800 --panning 1920x1200+0+0/1920x1200+0+0/20/20/20/20 --output DVI-1 --mode 1280x800 --panning 1920x1200+0+1200/1920x1200+0+1200/20/20/20/20 where DVI-0 and DVI-1 are the monitors and everything else is info to xrandr is what to do. You would change the output names to whatever yours are called. The first line 1920x2400 sets up (I think) the overall screen size and then the next two lines set up the two monitors. I think in his case they sit vertically, not horizontally like mine and possibly yours do. In my case I run 1280x1024 on the left monitor and 1680x1050 on the right monitor. I can drag stuff left and right just fine. It gets messed up if I play a game though. Anyway, there's some stuff for you to look at and consider. Cheers, Mark
