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[[!meta title="Configuring screens with Webconverger's xrandr"]]

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/8dePy1O_FCM?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Tutorial above which turns off the laptops screen and configures the browser to take advantage of attached screen.

homepage=http://www.changiairport.com/flight-info/flight-status/passenger-arrivals
chrome=neon
noblank
xrandr=--output%20LVDS1%20--off%20--output%20HDMI1%20--auto
xrandr-all=--rotate%20left

This is a little tricky, since we need to use [[debug]] mode to find the names of our attached displays.

Finding the names of your output screens

  1. Run in [[debug]] mode
  • Launch a terminal, [Shift]+[Alt]+[Enter]
  • Run xrandr to find the names

Manually setting up a monitor that isn't automatically setup

Sometimes EDID is not transmitted or is incorrect. Then you need to override the lack of EDID information from the monitor and set the resolution accordingly. This may occur, for example, when using video extenders, splitters and the like, that don't pass the DDC out-of-band electrical signals that provide the EDID. Removing pin 12 from one of the ends of the VGA cable will achieve this as well.

When EDID is not received, the OS defaults to lower resolutions, such as 1024x768 and higher resolution modes are not available. As a result, the xrandr-all of the boot [[API]] is ineffective at setting resolutions.

Instead, we can use xrandr from the boot [[API]], but we need to do some investigation in [[debug_mode|debug]] to get the video output names and the like and to test things out.

Manually adding the resolution and testing

To force a given resolution to a video output, we need to:

  1. create the given resolution mode
  • assign the resolution mode to the desired video output
  • set the video mode for the given video output

Create the given resolution mode

First, it's good to check the resolutions available:

xrandr

Sample output:

Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1024 x 768, maximum 8192 x 8192
DVI-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
VGA-0 connected 1024x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
   1024x768       60.0*
   800x600        60.3     56.2
   848x480        60.0
   640x480        59.9

The computer in this example has three video outputs: VGA-0, HDMI-0 and DVI-0, but only VGA-0 is connected. Make a note of the name of the video output name specific to your machine.

Let's say we want to add 720p resolution to the output VGA-0 as we know that the display device supports it. The resolution that we need (i.e. 1280x720) is not listed for the output VGA-0 so we add it using xrandr --newmode <Modeline>. We use cvt to obtain the necessary modeline as follows:

cvt 1280 720 60

or use the Web application version here: http://cvt.webconverger.com/?x=1280&y=720&r=60

Output:

# 1280x720 59.86 Hz (CVT 0.92M9) hsync: 44.77 kHz; pclk: 74.50 MHz
Modeline "1280x720_60.00"   74.50  1280 1344 1472 1664  720 723 728 748 -hsync +vsync

For the sake of consistency with existing modes, and to avoid the double quotes that may cause some problems parsing, we will substitute the mode name "1280x720_60.00" with 1280x720.

Thus, to create a new resolution mode:

xrandr --newmode 1280x720 74.50  1280 1344 1472 1664  720 723 728 748 -hsync +vsync

We can verify that the mode was created:

xrandr

Sample output:

Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1024 x 768, maximum 8192 x 8192
DVI-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
VGA-0 connected 1024x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
   1024x768       60.0*
   800x600        60.3     56.2
   848x480        60.0
   640x480        59.9
  1280x720 (0x14f)   74.5MHz
        h: width  1280 start 1344 end 1472 total 1664 skew    0 clock   44.8KHz
        v: height  720 start  723 end  728 total  748           clock   59.9Hz

Assign the resolution mode to the desired video output

xrandr --addmode VGA-0 1280x720

Verify by running xrandr

Sample output:

Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1024 x 768, maximum 8192 x 8192
DVI-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
VGA-0 connected 1024x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
   1024x768       60.0*
   800x600        60.3     56.2
   848x480        60.0
   640x480        59.9
   1280x720       59.9

Set the video mode to the desired resolution on the given output

xrandr --output VGA-0 --mode 1280x720

Using the Webconverger xrandr [[API]] to force a given resolution

The same steps as above need to be accomplished, so we pass three xrandr parameters at boot in the correct order:

720p resolution example:

xrandr=--newmode%201280x720%2074.50%201280%201344%201472%201664%20720%20723%20728%20748%20-hsync%20%2Bvsync
xrandr=--addmode%20VGA-0%201280x720
xrandr=--output%20VGA-0%20--mode%201280x720

Notice: You can use http://cvt.webconverger.com/?x=1280&y=720&r=60 to help calculate the first line.

1080p resolution example:

xrandr=--newmode%201920x1080%20173.00%201920%202048%202248%202576%201080%201083%201088%201120%20-hsync%20%2Bvsync
xrandr=--addmode%20VGA-0%201920x1080
xrandr=--output%20VGA-0%20--mode%201920x1080

Note that in the second and third parameter you should substitute VGA-0 for your specific output name obtained by running xrandr. All three parameters above are to be appended in order to the boot parameters on one line, each separated by a space.