wahlau's online hut

remember me having display issues? naw, not really problems, but just not knowing how to get things done the way i would like it to be. And today while having some little time (oh, time is so precious) i found another nice command to do wonder things - xrandr, the primitive command line interface to RandR extension.

though named primitive, but it is exactly how you can use command line input (CLI) to modify your display properties on the fly (which means, no restart of X server or so). pretty neat? yeah, remember the time people laugh at you and say why your linux desktop cannot change screen like in windows? now the time is over :) you can now show off how flexible your screens can be :) 

i will just share what i tried and is working for me now. i will perhaps compile all my screen/display setting experiences soon in the linux adventures section. 

first run xrandr without any commands. you should see the available sizes display plus some options

wahlau@wlt43:~$ xrandr
 SZ:    Pixels          Physical       Refresh
*0   1024 x 768    ( 413mm x 315mm )  *75
 1    800 x 600    ( 413mm x 315mm )   75
 2    640 x 480    ( 413mm x 315mm )   75
Current rotation - normal
Current reflection - none
Rotations possible - normal
Reflections possible - none

so you know which sizes you have on your display. to change display to different sizes, issue the command with -s N, where N is the size number (in my case, 0-2):

wahlau@wlt43:~$ xrandr -s 2

this will change the display size to 640 x 480 immediately. if you think this is cool, try this if you have dual display without xinerama (which is 2 individual displays on gnome)

wahlau@wlt43:~$ xrandr -display :0.1 -s 1

you will notice display size of your second display is now changed!

ideas: 
now it is time to play around (not for me, i should continue work) with other parameters. i am particularly interested with --screen and -- rotate. Shall update when i try it later.

next what i would do is to find ways to issue this command in a script when i change my location. It would be nice to know when i am at some place which display i would like to have. then that is a step ahead in having a clever desktop :)

til then, enjoy.

references:

1. nixCraft: Linux resize screen size quickly : put the command in a launcher would allow you to change screen size with one click. That is pretty neat idea :)