same monitor, different workspace resolutions

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m.ardito
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Joined: Mon May 19, 2014 6:47 am
Location: Torino, Italy

same monitor, different workspace resolutions

Post by m.ardito »

Hi,
I'm using cinnamon on 18.3, on a laptop with nvidia gtx1050 card.
display is hidpi, ~4k, and even if I already found how to adapt most settings for the high resolution, to avoid microscopic texts/icons, sometimes I really wish to run some tool on a different resolution.

Ideally it would be great to have a different "workspace" (in a broad meaning) which I could switch to, which has a 2k resolution, eg. and maybe bind some tool to run only there, or easily move it there. Common cinnamon workspaces cannot change resolution independently, it seems, I found nothing about it.

IDK if and how this could be possible on linux with any kind of configuration. I'm quite used to linux servers and desktops, but never had to fiddle with displays and in this I really am a newbie, and have poor knowledge.

I only found this: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=180904
where, as I get it, it is suggested how it could be done
to create a "virtual" display by adding a new mode to one of the disconnected displays listed in xrandr using

xrandr --addmode VIRTUAL1 1024x768

I then simply enabled the display like you would normally:

xrandr --output VIRTUAL1 --mode 1024x768 --left-of HDMI3
and it seems quite promising, but before destroying my settings I really need to get more info on this, and be sure it could really work, and how to get back if something is not working or works badly.

here is my current xrandr output, if it could help:

$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 8 x 8, current 3840 x 2160, maximum 32767 x 32767
eDP-1-1 connected primary 3840x2160+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 344mm x 194mm
3840x2160 60.00*+
2048x1536 60.00
1920x1440 60.00
1856x1392 60.01
1792x1344 60.01
1920x1200 59.95
1920x1080 59.93
1600x1200 60.00
1680x1050 59.95 59.88
1600x1024 60.17
1400x1050 59.98
1280x1024 60.02
1440x900 59.89
1280x960 60.00
1360x768 59.80 59.96
1152x864 60.00
1024x768 60.04 60.00
960x720 60.00
928x696 60.05
896x672 60.01
960x600 60.00
960x540 59.99
800x600 60.00 60.32 56.25
840x525 60.01 59.88
800x512 60.17
700x525 59.98
640x512 60.02
720x450 59.89
640x480 60.00 59.94
680x384 59.80 59.96
576x432 60.06
512x384 60.00
400x300 60.32 56.34
320x240 60.05
DP-1-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-1-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-1-2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)


Or, can nvidia tools help in this respect? I doubt.

Any suggestions, or links to relevant web pages to read, a xrandr tutorial?

Thanks,
Marco
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
acerimusdux
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Joined: Sat Dec 26, 2009 3:36 pm

Re: same monitor, different workspace resolutions

Post by acerimusdux »

Interesting. The easiest way I know to have a second display, different resolution, is to just log on as another user on another tty, and run startx -- :1. But that doesn't give you any flexibility to move things between the two, not really practical for workflow, most of the time. Unless what you want to run is completely separate. An xrandr solution with a virtual display looks much more promising........
m.ardito
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Posts: 26
Joined: Mon May 19, 2014 6:47 am
Location: Torino, Italy

Re: same monitor, different workspace resolutions

Post by m.ardito »

Yes for now I resorted to switching different users, but that has downsides. All users settings are independent, not just screen resolution.
I once used on Windows an utility named Dexpot (no typo here : https://www.dexpot.de), which IIRC worked quite well in this respect...

I don't really understand if not having a VIRTUAL display listed above is an issue, for me. Should it be there? I'm currently using nvidia proprietary drivers, to be able to render wiith cuda on Blender , could it be needed to switch to nouveau (or whatever it is called the open source driver)?
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