# Problems With Resolution



## tripseven (Jan 5, 2018)

Starting to get a little handle on this Fluxbox WM. But I cannot get screen resolution to work in my favor. If I login with smart-tv HDMI plugged in I get resolution 1920x1080, which does not play well with my laptop resolution of 1366x768. If I unplug HDMI before logging in it seemingly looks correct.

Funny thing I found is that looking at TV with HDMI plugged in at login is an Eterm window (on the TV) that did not display on my laptop. I clicked and clicked and clicked the Eterm tab on my laptop but nothing appeared...until I did login without HDMI plugged in. Then I get a more robust looking Eterm window (that used to be on my TV) with some graphics background now residing on my laptop.

I tried `xrandr -s 1366x768` in my .fluxbox/startup file but no dice...still 1920x1080 at startup with HDMI plugged in at login. Strange that it appeared at 1920x1080 that my laptop screen and TV would share the same screen. Meaning I could move my mouse towards the right of my laptop continuously and then appear on my TV.

Can anyone help me get my laptop to start at resolution 1366x768 while at the same time get my TV to run 1920x1080 when I choose HDMI TV?

Thanks in advance!


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## SirDice (Jan 5, 2018)

The howto section is not for asking how to do things. Thread moved.


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## tripseven (Jan 5, 2018)

Scatterbrained the meaning of HowTo


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## tripseven (Jan 6, 2018)

Another embarrassing moment...it's doing exactly what it's suppose to do as per the Handbook paragraph I must have missed...ugh! What fooled me was my background was stretched to fill both my laptop display and the HDMI display.

_"Four outputs were found: the built-in panel LVDS1, and external VGA1, HDMI1, and DP1 connectors.

The projector has been connected to the VGA1 output. xrandr(1) is now used to set that output to the native resolution of the projector and add the additional space to the right side of the desktop:"_

https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/x-config.html


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## tripseven (Jan 6, 2018)

Is there a way to keep my TV HDMI cable plugged in always and not have the additional space to the right of the desktop until told to do so? Basically leaving HDMI turned off at startup of Fluxbox. It's quite annoying having the mouse pointer run off the right side of my laptop display while using just the laptop.


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## Sensucht94 (Jan 6, 2018)

Try:
`xrandr --output HDMI-0 --off --output LVDS-0 --auto`

in any start-up script you use (.xinitrc, .xsession,.xprofile, or any "autostart"/"init" file your WM uses). If you look over the xrandr(1) man page, and try some commands accordingly, you'll discover you can do pretty much everything with `xrandr`, even scale 1/4 of the output to fit a small screen, and put the 3/4 left into another.

Also, if you have any problem that is not closely related to your previous one, feel free to open a new thread in a proper section, instead of posting here, which makes it harder for users to keep track of the questions asked


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## thebardian (Jan 6, 2018)

This may or may not be helpful because I am no xrandr expert, but I like the app called 'lxrandr' and find it very helpful.


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## tripseven (Jan 6, 2018)

Sensucht94 said:


> If you look over the xrandr(1) man page, and try some commands accordingly



From a newb perspective (this newb at least) the man pages are a bit intimidating regarding syntax. While the examples are helpful, they don't cover the finest of details, eg yesterday I played around with some commands and ended up changing all my fonts into the tiniest fonts that I could no longer read them (not even with a magnifying glass lol) and had to resort to remembering the layout of where things are to reverse my changes.
That's not to say I don't use the man pages but I tend to spend a lot of time searching here and other forums for syntax so I don't back myself into a corner.

Thanks for taking the time to respond!


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## tripseven (Jan 6, 2018)

Sensucht94 said:


> Try:
> `xrandr --output HDMI-0 --off --output LVDS-0 --auto`



Great...that worked. Thanks again!


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## tripseven (Jan 6, 2018)

thebardian said:


> This may or may not be helpful because I am no xrandr expert, but I like the app called 'lxrandr' and find it very helpful.



Thanks, I'll keep that in mind if I become defeated by xrandr.


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## thebardian (Jan 6, 2018)

tripseven said:


> Thanks, I'll keep that in mind if I become defeated by xrandr.


If you use it, it adds an autostart entry in ~/.config/autostart , but if you use a simple window manager that doesn't load *.desktop autostart files, like I do, you can add this bit to ~/.xinitrc which does the job just the same,

```
$(cat $HOME/.config/autostart/lxrandr-autostart.desktop \
   | grep Exec \
   | cut -d "'" -f 2)
```



tripseven said:


> From a newb perspective (this newb at least) the man pages are a bit intimidating regarding syntax. While the examples are helpful, they don't cover the finest of details, eg yesterday I played around with some commands and ended up changing all my fonts into the tiniest fonts that I could no longer read them (not even with a magnifying glass lol) and had to resort to remembering the layout of where things are to reverse my changes.
> That's not to say I don't use the man pages but I tend to spend a lot of time searching here and other forums for syntax so I don't back myself into a corner.
> 
> Thanks for taking the time to respond!



Regarding the predicament you found yourself in, it would have been much easier for you to switch to another console and fix the changes outside of Xorg. Then kill Xorg sudo 'pkill X' and login again or restart the computer. See the "Virtual Consoles" section in the handbook, which is very simple to read for more info https://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/consoles.html


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## Deleted member 30996 (Jan 6, 2018)

tripseven said:


> Is there a way to keep my TV HDMI cable plugged in always and not have the additional space to the right of the desktop until told to do so? Basically leaving HDMI turned off at startup of Fluxbox. It's quite annoying having the mouse pointer run off the right side of my laptop display while using just the laptop.



I've never used multiple monitors but see if you have workspace warping enabled in the Fluxbox - Configure section of the x11-wm/fluxbox right-click menu.

I'm glad you're continuing to use and familiarize yourself with FreeBSD. 

You said you used my tutorial but never specified if you used ports or packages. If you used ports, do you think it was easy or hard using ports-mgmt/portmaster?


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## tripseven (Jan 7, 2018)

Trihexagonal said:


> I've never used multiple monitors but see if you have workspace warping enabled in the Fluxbox - Configure section of the x11-wm/fluxbox right-click menu.
> 
> I'm glad you're continuing to use and familiarize yourself with FreeBSD.
> 
> You said you used my tutorial but never specified if you used ports or packages. If you used ports, do you think it was easy or hard using ports-mgmt/portmaster?



Ports all the way on this build...not because I know what Im doing but rather due to my minimal research of mixing the two and since I started out with ports I will stick with it. Honestly, at this point I cannot see how PKG is any easier other than the time it takes to install the big stuff. And since you mentioned "ports-mgmt/portmaster," what's the difference in that and using Freshports.com? Seems no different to me at this point??? I do update often as suggested even though I don't have a full handle why...but time will tell.

Once I get a good handle on Freebsd I would like to run its VPN capability...that's what initially intrigued me to learn it by way of Mr Denninger at Market-Ticker. I've been nailed multiple times by identity theft over a few years and luckily it didn't cause me a financial burden. Called the cops only to be told 'We can't help you due to the vast amount of reports in this regard.' Sorry, way off topic...


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## tripseven (Jan 7, 2018)

Trihexagonal said:


> I've never used multiple monitors but see if you have workspace warping enabled in the Fluxbox - Configure section of the x11-wm/fluxbox right-click menu.



It's enabled since I can drag a window left or right into another workspace. Will play with it tomorrow to see how it works. Thanks for the heads up!


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