BetterWidescreenDetection

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Summary

This specification aims to describe what will be necessary to allow Ubuntu to detect widescreen monitors on both laptops and desktops more reliably and allow them to used in their native resolution.

Rationale

Using a monitor's native resolution is important. Incorrect detections present a sloppy system to new users, who won't know how to make use of the entire monitor. Ubuntu should automatically detect widescreen monitors and make the modifications necessary to use the monitor correctly.

Use cases

  • George has heard from his friends how great Ubuntu is. When he puts the install disc into his widescreen laptop, everything looks crystal clear. His screen resolution has been correctly detected and configured by 915resolution.
  • Amanda tries installing Ubuntu on her desktop. Her brand new widescreen monitor was correctly detected and configured, she didn't even realize it.

Scope

Every widescreen monitor is correctly detected and configured.

Design

Implementation

915resolution will be included in the install disc. If a chipset requiring this program is detected, 915resolution is automatically run. X starts with the correct resolution, as specified in /etc/X11/xorg.conf

MatthewGarrett: 915resolution doesn't help in the case of external outputs, since it only reprograms the resolution and not the mode timings.

SanderVanLoon: The long term solution would probably be to fix this problem in X.org itself.

MatthewGarrett: The modesetting branch of the i810 driver is gradually stabalising, and may be ready in the Feisty timeframe.

SanderVanLoon: Thank you for your reply, but as you can read in bug #63551 this problem with widescreen resolutions is not limited to notebooks with Intel chipsets, it also occurs if i connect my 20 inch widescreen monitor to my PC with a NVIDIA video card. Do you know if the X.org developers are also working to fix the problem as described in that bug?

Code

Data preservation and migration

Unresolved issues

915resolution takes 128kB of space installed. The CD may not have enough space for it to fit on the disc.

BoF agenda and discussion

Comments

Related links:

CategorySpec

BetterWidescreenDetection (last edited 2008-08-06 16:16:22 by localhost)