Minimal X Config File and Compiz

[Callum Lerwick]

On Wed, 2006-09-13 at 09:30 -0400, Adam Jackson wrote:
> I'm open to suggestions for better heuristics.  Since Gnome is pretty 
> far from ever having a scalable UI, it might be sensible to modify the 
> above heuristic to "if multiple advertised modes match the physical 
> aspect ratio and we're somehow reasonably sure that it's not an LCD, 
> pick the one that comes closest to 100dpi".  It's that reasonably sure 
> part that's tricky.  Alternatively we could get gdm to randr to a 
> "sensible" size, but that just moves the problem to gdm, plus introduces 
> a flicker for the resize event.

Err. A better sanity check IMHO is to choose the highest resolution that
doesn't put the refresh rate under ~72hz. My crappy 17in displays can do
1280x1024, but at an eye murdering 60hz. I usually run them at 1280x960,
which allows you to squeeze a 70hz refresh out of them, and also has
square pixels. (Mind you, Xorg doesn't have 1280x960 at 70 modelines for
some reason, so I have to add them...)

Though on LCDs, 60hz isn't a problem, which brings us back to the "we
need to know if its an LCD or a CRT" problem...

Another issue is heat. Video cards get pretty damn hot these days, even
at idle. I have found this is directly affected by the dotclock
frequency. Last thing I need is for my machines to be sitting idle at a
login screen, at 1280x960 at 70 (121mhz dotclock) with their video cards
heating up the room. I actually put a call to "xrandr -s 800x600 -r 72"
on the end of /etc/gdm/Init/Default, this brings the dotclock down to
50mhz and the temperature difference is quite significant. (The heatsink
giving first degree burns vs being slightly warm) I've tested this on
various Geforce2's, TNT2s and a 3dfx Banshee.

Even Windows XP defaults to a very conservative resolution (800x600) and
its up to the user to increase it if desired. (Of course, pre-XP it was
640x480 8bit...)
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