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myucht

Member

Registered: 2012-03-19

Posts: 9

Changing resolution in i3wm causes screen size to shrink

On i3wm, I use xrandr when I use an external screen, such as the following command:

xrandr --output LVDS1 --auto --output VGA1 --auto --same-as LVDS1

This allows me to duplicate my screen on another monitor. However, when I do this, the effective screen size changes: the maximized windows will only fill about 3/4ths of the monitor from left to right. In addition, the right side of the system tray shift so that it fits within this smaller screen size. The rest of my i3bar and my background (using feh --bg-scale) still fill the entire screen. Additionally, I can move my mouse to every part of the screen, and floating windows can exist everywhere. Here's a screenshot depicting the situation. How can I resolve this issue?

Thanks in advance.

drcouzelis

Member

From: Connecticut, USA

Registered: 2009-11-09

Posts: 4,092

Website

Re: Changing resolution in i3wm causes screen size to shrink

Reading the thread title caused me to think that it was caused by a hardware setting on your monitor, but the actual problem you described sounds crazy!

Does the same thing happen in other window managers?

teateawhy

Member

From: GER

Registered: 2012-03-05

Posts: 1,138

Website

Re: Changing resolution in i3wm causes screen size to shrink

xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --same-as LVDS1

i3 will then use the lowest common subset of screen resolutions, the rest of your screen will be left untouched (it will show the X background). So, in our example, this would be 1024x768 (my notebook has 1280x800).

Looks like it is meant to be that way described in the userguide.