Large Virtual Desktop on Xorg
One of my laptops still features a 1366x768 display which is very small for GUIs encountered today. For example the Xilinx Vivado GUI features a file menu that is so tall that the "Exit" choice will not even be visible on this laptop. Also for some other dialogues the important buttons for an interaction are simply not visible.
One option to cope with this certainly is to reduce the font size until things fit again, but another elegant solution is to configure the Xorg server with a large "virtual desktop". In such a setup the logical desktop is larger than the physical display and the LCD is just a view port onto that logical desktop following the mouse. Such a setup can be enabled dynamically on a modern Xorg server with the XRandR extension.
In order to enable it, we first have to find the name of the output device:
[dzu@harry ~]$ xrandr Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1366 x 768, maximum 8192 x 8192 LVDS-1 connected primary 1366x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 309mm x 173mm 1366x768 60.10*+ 40.07 1360x768 59.80 59.96 1280x720 60.00 59.99 59.86 59.74 1024x768 60.04 60.00 960x720 60.00 928x696 60.05 896x672 60.01 1024x576 59.95 59.96 59.90 59.82 960x600 59.93 60.00 960x540 59.96 59.99 59.63 59.82 800x600 60.00 60.32 56.25 840x525 60.01 59.88 864x486 59.92 59.57 800x512 60.17 700x525 59.98 800x450 59.95 59.82 640x512 60.02 720x450 59.89 700x450 59.96 59.88 640x480 60.00 59.94 720x405 59.51 58.99 684x384 59.88 59.85 680x384 59.80 59.96 640x400 59.88 59.98 576x432 60.06 640x360 59.86 59.83 59.84 59.32 512x384 60.00 512x288 60.00 59.92 480x270 59.63 59.82 400x300 60.32 56.34 432x243 59.92 59.57 320x240 60.05 360x202 59.51 59.13 320x180 59.84 59.32 VGA-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) HDMI-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) DP-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) HDMI-2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) HDMI-3 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) DP-2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) DP-3 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) [dzu@harry ~]$
So obviously the LCD corresponds to the "LVDS-1" output on this machine and the maximum size for our virtual desktop is 8192 x 8192. Let's enable a smaller virtual desktop and check again the configuration with the xrandr command line tool:
[dzu@harry ~]$ xrandr --output LVDS-1 --mode 1366x768 --panning 1600x1200 [dzu@harry ~]$ xrandr Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1600 x 1200, maximum 8192 x 8192 LVDS-1 connected primary 1600x1200+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 309mm x 173mm panning 1600x1200+0+0 1366x768 60.10*+ 40.07 1360x768 59.80 59.96 1280x720 60.00 59.99 59.86 59.74 1024x768 60.04 60.00 960x720 60.00 928x696 60.05 896x672 60.01 1024x576 59.95 59.96 59.90 59.82 960x600 59.93 60.00 960x540 59.96 59.99 59.63 59.82 800x600 60.00 60.32 56.25 840x525 60.01 59.88 864x486 59.92 59.57 800x512 60.17 700x525 59.98 800x450 59.95 59.82 640x512 60.02 720x450 59.89 700x450 59.96 59.88 640x480 60.00 59.94 720x405 59.51 58.99 684x384 59.88 59.85 680x384 59.80 59.96 640x400 59.88 59.98 576x432 60.06 640x360 59.86 59.83 59.84 59.32 512x384 60.00 512x288 60.00 59.92 480x270 59.63 59.82 400x300 60.32 56.34 432x243 59.92 59.57 320x240 60.05 360x202 59.51 59.13 320x180 59.84 59.32 VGA-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) HDMI-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) DP-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) HDMI-2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) HDMI-3 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) DP-2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) DP-3 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) [dzu@harry ~]$
And that's it. We can now at least interact with GUIs requiring more screen estate than what our LCD can offer. It is of course somewhat clumsy and not really a long term solution, but sometimes this allows us to proceed in situations where we would otherwise be blocked.
Disabling the virtual desktop again is also easy:
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