DisplayConfigGTK
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Comment: Added discussion comment about Multi-Screen instead of Dual-Screen
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Added thought about display devices dynamics
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* ''TrondAndersen'': I think it's important to have support for dynamic display devices. When I remove my laptop from my docking, Ubuntu should figure out this and disable the second display so that new application windows doesn't appear on a non-existing area. When I plug in the cable to a projector, Ubuntu should find the new display device and my preferences about projectors should be followed. Ubuntu should find out what resolution this device supports and remember my overrides if I choose to do so. Is XRand the way to go? These use cases should be added. |
Summary
This specification describes the user interface, packaging and code aspect of a GTK port of the displayconfig tool of guidance, the KDE system administration suite.
Rationale
Most hardware of the system is configured automatically. But this is not the case for screens and graphic cards. E.g. currently there is no graphical way in a GTK/GNOME environment to extend the desktop to a second screen.
Use Cases
- Ilka wants to use a secondary screen for her laptop.
- Rene wants to change the default resolution for all users.
Implementation Plan
Since guidance already provides a backend for the X server configuration written in Python, the main task will be to write a frontend with pygtk.
Implementation
User Interface
Style
To be consistent with the other system administration tools of GNOME a capplet approach using explicit apply is chosen.
Object of the capplet
The main object of the capplet are screens. But since we cannot always ensure to detect the screens and their name correctly we have to make it possible for the user to define screens by the corresponding graphics card and output.
Basic layout
The capplet is separated into three sections:
- display mode: allows to configure the display mode of all screens
- dual screen mode: currently only dual screen is supported by the backend
- devices: allow to define device drivers
Ideas
- The screen has to fit on a 640x480 screen, since this is the fallback resolution of misconfigured devices.
- If the user clicks on the device button he or she wants to change the device. So doing an autodetection attemp and trying to select the detected device seems to be more helpful than to select the current one. Furthermore this avoids an extra click and button "select detected device".
- Using icons for the screens that help to identify them (normal screen, widescreen, laptop panel or tv out).
Screenshots (working)
attachment:displayconfig1.jpg attachment:displayconfig2.jpg attachment:displayconfig3.jpg attachment:displayconfig4.jpg
Outstanding Issues
* How to make a clear difference between system and user settings? Should there be a difference at all? Network manager allows all user who seem to sit in front of the computer to configure the network. Perhaps we should take the same approach here too.
BoF agenda and discussion
WolfgangSilbermayr:Wouldn't it make more sense to implement Multi-Screen instead of Dual-Screen? I think there are more and more systems available with two PCI-Express slots and sooner or later people will want to use three or four screens.
TrondAndersen: I think it's important to have support for dynamic display devices. When I remove my laptop from my docking, Ubuntu should figure out this and disable the second display so that new application windows doesn't appear on a non-existing area. When I plug in the cable to a projector, Ubuntu should find the new display device and my preferences about projectors should be followed. Ubuntu should find out what resolution this device supports and remember my overrides if I choose to do so. Is XRand the way to go? These use cases should be added.
DisplayConfigGTK (last edited 2008-08-06 16:16:51 by localhost)