Dual head configuration etc
I think in Gutsy Ubuntu will have the new Xrandr that should make dual head configuration a snap. One thing I notice myself doing when I install a new monitor is instantly googling for “horizontal sync” and “vertical refresh”. I am not quite sure what the plans are for the configuration applet, but (and I hope this idea is already being thought about and I am just behind on things) maybe a database of monitors and their settings (hsync, vrefresh, native resolution and dpms) would be nice to have in an “add a monitor” type database?
If anyone has any plans for this etc, or can verify there are no plans for this, drop me a line. I searched the wiki but didn’t see exactly what I was looking for, and I imagine this would be the first place we could start by listing monitor name, model, type, resolution (lcd only), vrefresh, hsync, and dpms, build up a database there and then just run a script over it and put it into a pygtk selector.
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#1 by Dave Taylor on May 27, 2007 - 2:13 pm
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get-edid from the read-edid package is a good place to start. It fails for me though but my monitor is V cheap so not the best one to test.
#2 by martin on May 27, 2007 - 3:00 pm
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randr 1.2 doesn’t use static monitor data in almost all cases. It might need “quirk” lists for monitors that lie about their specs but generally there is just no need anymore to configure monitor settings. It should auto detect the refresh rate. randr only needs setup of the desired resolution (if the auto selected one isn’t right) and the layout (clone, side by side, etc).
#3 by dronno on May 27, 2007 - 3:01 pm
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All the sane monitors report the most important attributes themselves, so you don’t really have to build a database for the basic operation. It would be more DRY to just fix that reporting in case it is broken with a few rare monitors.
#4 by Jonathan on May 27, 2007 - 3:35 pm
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As the previous 3 comments said, getting the monitor information isn’t very useful. A windows-style configuration applet, which allows the user to configure a multi-head system with a few clicks, will be much more appreciated! I know I spent DAYS getting my dual-head ATI to work, and then it only worked in 1024×768-1024×768, which is pretty low-res nowadays. Thanks…
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#5 by dronno on May 27, 2007 - 5:00 pm
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The display adapters do report what ports have monitors attached. The monitors report the preferred resolution / refresh rates. There’s really not much information you would really need for automatically perfectly working dualhead setups.
#6 by glatzor on May 28, 2007 - 3:44 am
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XRandR has also its limitations. So we should focus on working solutions and not a hype. Nevertheless it seems to be a quite attractive technique.