[solved] XFCE resolution

ConnorBehan · 2007-09-17 20:26:10

This may require a backstory so here goes:

When I first installed Arch I wanted to make sure X.org worked before I installed my final WM, why? I have no clue. I installed X.org and configured it so that 1024x768 was my default resolution. I installed xorg-twm and added twm to my xinitrc to see if twm worked. It did and startx started a twm session in 1024x768. I then proceeded to install XFCE4 and when I was finished startx started twm and startxfce4 started xfce4 and 1024x768 was the default resolution. (This is the best resolution I can possibly use and still have GLX/DRI, that's why I use it).

This was all going perfectly until today when I wanted to verify the bug in the molecule Xscreensaver hack (see my other thread). I started molecule when DRI/GLX was not enabled and it worked perfectly where it hadn't before. To disable DRI/GLX what I should have done was edited xorg.conf to tell X to simply not load those modules. But what I did was I set the resolution to 1280x960 (just to see if DRI/GLX would still work... I was pretty sure 1024x768 was the max for 3D acceleration on my card but I just wanted to be sure). Anyway, XFCE started in 1280x960, DRI didn't work and molecule did work. So far so good.

To get DRI working again, I went into xorg.conf, changed the resolution to 1024x768 and restarted the X server. Xfce started in 800x600! Well I should say it was 1024x768 at the splash screen for about a second, then switched to 800x600 and the mouse moved to the lower right hand corner. The display menu in Xfce settings did not even have 1024x768. I changed xorg.conf so that 1280x960 was again the default resolution and started Xfce... this time Xfce loaded at 1280x960 for a split second then switched to 1024x768. The only problem is, this does not accomplish DRI because the resolution has to be 1024x768 when X starts not a split second later.

This was really making me mad, so I reinstalled xfce4 and even xfce4-goodies... no luck. I noticed that startx still accepted my resolution perfectly in twm so I thought it might have been that the startx shellscript is more robust than the startxfce4 shellscript. I uninstalled twm and changed every single file named xinitrc or .xinitrc on my hard drive to say exec xfce4-session and NOT twm. Curiously, startx still starts twm even though twm is NOT installed. I think I am losing my mind. I don't have to resolve all of these problems... I just want Xfce to start in 1024x768 when I put 1024x768 and ONLY 1024x768 in my xorg.conf. This is what it did BEFORE... I'm trying to get it to do that again.

Last edited by ConnorBehan (2007-09-17 20:58:28)

ConnorBehan · 2007-09-17 20:53:06

Sorry I jumped to conclusions... for some reason when I installed X.org originally startx did nothing until I installed twm and added that to xinitrc. I'm sure doing the same for xfce would have worked but... I guess I just wanted to see what twm looked like... I dunno.

So when I typed startx it showed 3 terminals and a clock, I just assumed those were part of twm since installing it made them show up. Turns out I was wrong, they are xterm and xclock I think which are referenced in xinitrc. Commenting them out, made xinitrc pay attention to my exec xfce4-session line and start xfce4. So that solves two of my problems:

* Xfce loads when I type startx
* Twm indeed will NOT load because it is NOT installed anymore... that would be REALLY weird if it did

However I am still left with my main problem. When I type startxfce4, xfce4 starts in a resolution lower than what is in my xorg.conf. When I type startx, xfce4 still starts in a resolution lower than what is in xorg.conf.

ConnorBehan · 2007-09-17 21:06:07

Sorry this was not an excuse to bump up my post count by 3... it was a short lived but very frustrating problem, I had no idea I would have been able to find the solution.

I went to ~/.config/xfce4/mcs_settings/ and deleted display.xml. It provides Xfce with the default for what resolutions should be listed in the display settings. (And i guess overrides xorg.conf if the two are inconsistent). Changing xorg.conf then changing it back, must have made it always want to be one resolution lower than normal. Don't ask me why... I feel like spending 10 years or so learning C, C++, assembly and openGL just so I can get some sort of position on the X.org developer team, get familiar with the code and learn how it all works because right now my understanding of how it all works SUCKS.

Anyway, startx loads xfce in the correct resolution and 3D acceleration works... if anyone has their xfce being stubborn with resolutions, try deleting display.xml.

kagerato · 2007-09-18 00:18:36

If the solution was deleting an XFCE config file, XFCE was at fault. Not sure why some desktop environments modify the screen resolution independently of X. The "correct" mechanism would be to edit xorg.conf and change the resolution on-the-fly (at user configuration), in my opinion, rather than have some kind of second-stage mode-setting after X startup.

Arch Linux

#1 2007-09-17 20:26:10

[solved] XFCE resolution

#2 2007-09-17 20:53:06

Re: [solved] XFCE resolution

#3 2007-09-17 21:06:07

Re: [solved] XFCE resolution

#4 2007-09-18 00:18:36

Re: [solved] XFCE resolution

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