Re: [AD] More X Mode Setting

[Peter Wang <novalazy@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On 2011-01-04, Thomas Fjellstrom <tfjellstrom@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On January 4, 2011, Peter Wang wrote:
> > On 2011-01-04, Thomas Fjellstrom <tfjellstrom@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > What do people think should happen? Do we even support xf86vm? It seems
> > > to have too many problems. the scrolling would make most apps using two
> > > monitors virtually useless. Dropping xf86vm would mean no modes or mode
> > > setting available in places where xrandr isn't available (real xinerama
> > > for example, the nvidia driver seems to disable xrandr when
> > > multi-head+xinerama is enabled).
> > 
> > AFAIK there is no solution.  If you want, feel free to restrict
> > XF86VidMode to single monitor use.
> > 
> > X really, really doesn't want you to change the resolution.  Even with
> > randr, it is going against the grain, otherwise the API would have some
> > provision to automatically restore the display mode on exit.
> > So, I wouldn't worry to much about it.
> 
> XRandR actually works rather well for Allegro's use. Should I add another hard 
> coded check for "more than one monitor" for this case, or just keep the 
> XGrabPointer, so it will just lock the mouse to one of the displays? That 
> would effectively make it near impossible to actually use additional displays 
> for anything.

I don't have dual monitors set up right now, so I don't know what the
current behaviour is.  If it works without XGrabPointer, that would be
best.

> > 
> > See also my and Matthew's independently arrived-at ideas for "emulating"
> > fullscreen modes.  We did it for non-matching colour depths in A4, we
> > can do it for non-matching resolutions modes in A5.
> 
> Then at some point we'd provide some "virtual" modes? Or just allow setting of 
> modes that don't appear in the mode lists? Right now, at least with the X 
> implementation, if the mode isn't in the mode list, it can't/won't set it. 
> (xrandr and xf86vm both theoretically support adding modes on the fly... but I 
> haven't really bothered to look into supporting that)

It would be a good place to start, but I see no technical reason to
restrict ourselves to the modes set up in the X server.  Although the
mode lists are usually detected nowadays, so likely to be comprehensive
anyway.

Peter