[vox-tech] using linux laptop with projector...

[Micah J. Cowan]

On Sat, Aug 13, 2005 at 04:24:41PM -0700, Boris Jeremic wrote:
> Hello There,
> 
> I want to use my laptop (RedHat 9) when I make presentations. I used to 
> be able (with old laptop) to change screen resolution from (current 
> 1600x1200) to whatever will the (outside) projector accept (usually 
> 800x600 or so...) It used to work (again on old laptop) with CRTL-ALT + 
> or - and the resolution would change.
> 
> When I use CRTL-ALT + or - now, the actual area of screen changes and 
> thus I loose part of screen (it shrinks toward middle part of screen so 
> that for example 800x600 is middle quarter of screen only). The big part 
> of X window is lost (top menu bar...) and so I cannot use it to show PDF 
> presentations, but have to (Yack) reboot to windows and show PDF there 
> (I use LaTeX, and foils, slides or beamer classes to make those PDFs...).
> 
> Any suggestion on what to do to get this change in resolution, while 
> maintaining the screen size (and coverage) would be appreciated.

I think you /just/ mean "screen coverage": your screen size appears to
be remaining the same.

Are you /quite/ certain you used to get different behavior? I don't
really believe it to be possible: for me, the behavior on all systems
has always been as you lately describe... *however*, you should be able
to move the currently visible portion of your X screen around, simply by
moving your mouse to the edges, which causes it to scroll. Now, as far
as actually changing the size of your display to dynamically match the
resolution (or currently visible area); I don't think it's ever been
possible to dynamically adjust the size of the display, at all, without
restarting X. Of course, I may well be wrong. But I've never seen it.

If I am correct, then your best option might be to edit your X
configuration file and remove all resolution specifications from the
appropriate line, except the one that you wish to display PDFs on.

You may not actually need to adjust the resolution at all, though: I
believe most PDF viewers have a "fullscreen" mode that should do what
you need for presentations. Xpdf certainly does (but it's a command-line
option: you can't "switch" between it and windowed mode), and Acrobat
Reader does (but I seem to recall an odd glitch in it, or something).

Anyway, I hope that's helpful. Hopefully if I'm wrong about the
workspace size, someone will correct me.

-- 
Micah J. Cowan
micah at cowan.name