Re: X thinks my screen is larger than it actually is
>
> Thanks for this response, but it doesn't apply in my case. I don't have a
> virtual screen set up, the only resolution mention in my file is 640x480.
> The laptop pages don't help - frankly because it isn't an issue with laptops
> - it's an X server problem. I get the same results using a desktop. The
> Xservers (or window managers) simply don't stay within the confines of
> 640x480 resolution - and they should. If I maximize a window, it puts it in
> the full 640x480 window - so why does X/window-managers put these windows off
> the screen when the are first painted? That's just sloppy.. I know in most
> cases I can reposition them, but I shouldn't have to. If I only have 480
> pixels high, why does a window pop up that goes beyond this limit?
>
> -Jay
This is not sloppy of X/window-managers, this is sloppy of the client
programs you are running. Programs decide how large they want their
windows to be. Many X11 programs can be configured using X resources to
have a certain default size. To learn about resource specifications,
have a look at the man pages of X and xrdb, and at the files in
/usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/. A common way to handle your personal
preferences, is to have a file .Xresources in your home directory, and
read it with the xrdb command in your .xsession file, like
xrdb -merge $HOME/.Xresources
The size of windows is determined with the geometry resource. E.g., in
my .Xresources I have the following lines for xdvi:
XDvi*shrinkFactor: 4
XDvi*expert: 1
XDvi*sideMargin: 1.5
XDvi*background: NavajoWhite
XDvi*geometry: 1266x993+0+0
This asks for a window size of 1266x993 pixels. Note that this is
without the window borders, since the xdvi program cannot know what
borders the window manager puts around them.
Besides all this, there are X programs that simply assume that you have
a higher resolution than 640x480. This is because many X programs
originate from unix workstation platforms, which rare have resolutions
lower than 1024x678.
HTH,
Eric Meijer
--
E.L. Meijer (tgakem@chem.tue.nl)
Eindhoven Univ. of Technology
Lab. for Catalysis and Inorg. Chem. (SKA)
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