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wish to have an easier xorg setup?

Wed, 2007-04-04 20:00 — wahlau

being a new owner of a TFT monitor, i went through quite some steps (well, only half an hour, a record!) to get the display done under xorg. It is not new to anyone who uses Linux (or other distributions which use xorg) - you need to perhaps change things yourself to get the best out of it. Again in office i hear from my colleague complaining how painful the process is to get things done with xorg. This gave me an idea.

i forsee one should be able to just plug-in power cable, and start booting linux without hacking or changing any configuration settings. The current setups you can usually get things nicely set up, once you fresh install your box. If you change a new monitor, or bought a new monitor for your notebook, you will need to play around with the settings, at least a little. Reading from the press release of xorg 7.2, autoconfiguration is supported... not sure how good it is, but it should solve the issue hopefully.

If this feature is not as helpful as it should (think like current windows support for monitors - plugin and play), we need a solution. My idea now is:

1. a repository of xorg.conf, organized using notebook type and external display types.
2. a tool that will download and detect the right xorg.conf from the repository.
3. a tool that will detect types of display needed during bootup, to swap between different xorg.conf files.

with this we can have an alternative to our current limitation - hard time getting different displays working. Imagine in my case, having at least 3 types of settings needed in different locations. Such (semi)automatic approaches will do me real good without me swapping xorg.conf manually. yes, this is what i do now while communiting between office and home. These things should be hidden from users, to let them have a better user experience.

tell me what do you think.

Average: 3 (2 votes) : Thanks for your votes!

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Tue, 2007-08-28 22:14 — Kev (not verified)

I think you are spot on

I think you are spot on (although the other poster has a point about net connection).

Why is this stuff so hard?  All I want it to do is when I run my laptop standalone, it should use 1400x900, but when docked (with an external monitor) it should run at 1280x1024.  I can not for the life of me get this to work.  I've tried a billion different xorg.conf, and been googling for days, but I can't seem to get a straight answer.  Some people seem to suggest that it works fine, others are using script kludges to change xorg.confs on boot etc etc.

As far as I can tell, the X system is capable of 'probing' or autodetecting the monitor connected, why can't it then just use the correct resolution.  It seems like you have to hand configure the xorg.conf to tell the X system stuff it already knows...crazy.

I also can't seem to find a definitive guide to editing the xorg.conf file.  Simple things like: I understand that if you are running a dual monitor setup (ie. two screens at once) then you need two 'Device, Monitor, Screen' sections and also some settings relating to 'Clone, Merge, Xinerama' etc.  But what if you run one monitor at a time, it just changes between docked/undocked.  Do I need multiple Device/Monitor/Screen/ServerLayout settings, and if so how do you select which one to use or how to make it automatic.  Or do I just use one ServerLayout with two monitor sections, or do I just use one Screen section with all possible resolutions that could be used for both monitors, and it will select the most appropriate one?.......the options go on, you get the idea.

Of course maybe all this is nothing to do with the X system as such, and its perculiarities with my particular Linux distro, who knows, but its driving me mental :).

Thu, 2007-08-30 14:57 — wahlau

perhaps changes are coming

i did made an update where with the latest xorg in feisty, i longer need a xorg.conf to get my settings right. I now run my Ubuntu without a valid xorg, and a restart of X usually helps me to detect my available display. Not as easy as Windows or Mac OS X, but it works much simpler as compared to the time before this post. I did read that the latest Ubuntu Gusty (coming this October) would be even better supported. So let's see. Linux is improving fast, and all we need is time and patience, plus some understanding.

Thu, 2007-04-05 07:07 — lowks (not verified)

repository

Let me get you right here. So the repository will be online ? This means I need a net connection to get the display working right ?

Thu, 2007-04-05 13:48 — wahlau

yes and no

with the idea you should already have a working display (out of the box configuration). the repository is for your references when you need to change your current xorg.conf. so no one should go and hack xorg.conf just to say get his new TFT monitor to work, for example. :)

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