virtual display

Hi,

I like my netbook, even more as I have winxp and xubuntu successfully running

One minor thing: as the display is not too big, i wanted to set up a bigger virtual display. So I added this line in xorg.conf, subsection display:

virtual 1024 800

As far as I know this should create a virtual display of the given size and i should be able to "move" the small physical display over the larger virtual one. But unfortunately it didn't work. So, any ideas, how I could get this working?

Thanks,
Stephan

 

Hi stephen0h,

I don't have an answer to your display question, but I do recall seeing it here regarding tweaking the stock Linpus install, so I'll search and come back.

In the meantime, did you have to do anything to get Xubuntu to display at 1024x600? Whereas Ubuntu 8.04.1 installed at 1024x600 for me without any tweaking, Xubuntu 8.04.1 is running at 800x600 (as does Mint 5 XCFE CE). I'd like to switch from Ubuntu to Xubuntu to free up memory.

Cheers,
AJ

Update: Fixed typo

 

Hi,

it would be nice if you could come up with something regarding this - unfortunately i didn't find anything.

Regarding xubuntu: it started off with 1024x600 right away, it was not necessary to do anything manually.

regards,
stephan

 

Stephen,

The thread I was thinking of is this one.

I haven't done an install of Xubuntu to the AspireOne yet, just a LiveUSB boot.
When you say it just worked, was that after installation, or even on live boot?

I'll boot it up, capture a screen shot with my display settings, and post it here.
Maybe a copy of my xorg.conf for comparison as well. Back soon,

AJ

 

Rebooted Xubuntu, and then had to dope slap myself.

I got thrown off by the size of the icons in Xubuntu, making me think I was at 800x600, instead of 1024x600.
Just to make sure, I changed the resolution from "Default" to "800x600", and the now I can see that 1024x600 is indeed the default resolution.

Next step ... figure out how to shrink the icons, so the stop taking up so much space ...

 

My guess would be that the huge icons are because of the small high-res display (high DPI). Ubuntu usually sets 96 DPI no matter what size/resolution you actually have, but maybe Xubuntu doesn't... or maybe only 'partly' sets it. Maybe it sets it for Xft but doesn't use that value for the icons? I bet someone knows, but that someone isn't me .

I find that the easiest way to get X to use some specific DPI setting is to pass the -dpi option when starting it.

startx -- -dpi 96

Or, since you most likely use gdm:

* Edit your gdm.conf (might not be /etc/gdm/gdm.conf for Xubuntu)
* Find the section server-Standard
* Add -dpi 96 (or whatever value you wish to use ) to the command definition
* Restart gdm and run ps ax | grep X to make sure you changed the right file and section...

If that doesn't fix it xfce is to blame - and most likely has some GUI tool for setting a DPI value .

 

Many thanks mh. You lead me to the solution.
I went to Applications -> Settings -> Settings Manager
Selected User Interface
Changed the Font from Sans 9 to Sans 8
Font DPI was set to "System Default"; changed it to 96.
I logged out, and back in, and the sizes were much better for me.

Cheers,
AJ

Edit: fixed typos