Setting the Virtual resolution should be easier

Bug #275977 reported by Alberto Milone
6
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
gnome-control-center (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Wishlist
Alberto Milone
Intrepid
Fix Released
Wishlist
Alberto Milone

Bug Description

Binary package hint: gnome-control-center

FFE request:

The following patches will make the process extremely easy for users so that:

1) the user tries to enable an external monitor (a la xinerama)

2) if screen-resolution-extra is installed:
she is asked the permission to change the virtual resolution and then she's told to log out and log back in.
Otherwise if screen-resolution-extra is not installed:
she is asked to install screen-resolution-extra (with just a mouse click) and to log out and log back in.
Either way her settings are saved in ~/.config/monitos.xml.desired

3) On next login, if everything's ok (i.e. the connected outputs are the same and the framebuffer is enough), the gnome-settings-daemon will load the settings from ~/.config/monitos.xml.desired and the user will have her multiple screens layout automatically applied without problems.

This will require:
1 patch for gnome-desktop (which is used by gnome-settings-daemon)
1 patch for gnome-control-center (which uses gnome-desktop and screen-resolution-extra, the latter being only an option, not a dependency)
an update of screen-resolution-extra so that it only applies the settings without duplicating the calculation of the required framebuffer (now done in gnome-desktop)

See the debdiffs attached below.

Revision history for this message
Alberto Milone (albertomilone) wrote :
Changed in gnome-control-center:
assignee: nobody → albertomilone
importance: Undecided → Wishlist
Revision history for this message
Martin Pitt (pitti) wrote :

NACK for beta, too intrusive. FFE approved for immediately after the beta release. Bryce, I think you worked with Alberto on this. Can you please give this some testing and see whether it works for you as well, and if you are ok with it, upload it? Thank you!

Changed in gnome-control-center:
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Martin Pitt (pitti) wrote :

Oh, rationale for my approval: UI-wise this is a relatively small change. Functionality wise this is not *really* a feature, but rather a bug fix. This creates quite some headache amongst users, and fixing that to make multi-monitor mode work out of the box is a good intrepid goal.

Revision history for this message
Bryce Harrington (bryce) wrote :

I'll plan to do some testing of this in coming days. I've reviewed the changes in detail and think they look good. seb128 has also had a chance to look and gave an ok for upload.

I agree this is a bug fix rather than a new feature. Note that an earlier upload provided a preliminary fix, such that it will add the Virtual option necessary for dual head. However the earlier fix was a bit clunky and potentially confusing to users (requiring extra restarts and re-running the config tool); this upload removes that clunkiness and ensures for a smooth user experience.

I'll report back when I've had a chance to run it and play with it a bit.

Revision history for this message
Alberto Milone (albertomilone) wrote :

In the mean time the packages are being updated (before beta) therefore I think that having the patches separately from the debdiff might help a bit:

gnome-desktop:
http://albertomilone.com/ubuntu/gnome/final/gnome-desktop/29092008/100_load_desired_settings.patch

gnome-control-center:
http://albertomilone.com/ubuntu/gnome/final/gnome-control-center/29092008/109_screen_resolution_extra.patch
http://albertomilone.com/ubuntu/gnome/final/gnome-control-center/29092008/110_screen_resolution_package.patch

screen-resolution-extra: no patch is required. The code is in trunk: https://code.launchpad.net/~albertomilone/screen-resolution-extra/main

Revision history for this message
Bryce Harrington (bryce) wrote :

Btw, the g-c-c patch needs to have its Build-Deps upped to the gnome-desktop version, since it FTBS without the patched version now.

Revision history for this message
Alberto Milone (albertomilone) wrote :

Bryce: you're right. Here's a better debdiff for the gnome-control-center.

Changed in gnome-control-center:
status: Confirmed → Fix Released
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