§ ¶UI gripe #247

It's annoying when some programmer makes a dialog that is too big to fit on screen, but it's especially irritating when it's the display settings dialog :

Time for another rousing game of Guess the Tab Order....

Comments

Comments posted:

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alt-leftclick lets you move the window when clicking it anywhere. A nice unixism that never made it across to windows.

nine - 21 09 09 - 18:40

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Hmm... I don't think the problem is in the NVIDIA configuration panel. I mean: I've never had trouble with it (even at 640x480 screen resolution), so I guess the issue is more related to your specific configuration.

Have you checked the xorg.conf ?

The Bishop - 21 09 09 - 18:46

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overscan?

null - 21 09 09 - 19:26

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No, it's indeed an Nvidia panel problem - I had the same trouble once when my resolution was reduced to 640x480.

Remember that you can still edit your xorg.conf file by hand, if need be... Okay, it sucks, but it works.

Mitch 74 (link) - 21 09 09 - 19:33

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Clicking the upeer left corner/move function lets you move the window out of screen using arrow keys and check where the focus currently is. It doesn't let you click any control though and as soon as you press enter or click anything the window jumps back but it gives you chance to check the invisible area.

Kasuha - 21 09 09 - 19:59

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nine, there are apps in Windows that enable you to altdrag windows.
Check out my program, AltDrag: http://altdrag.googlecode.com/

recover - 21 09 09 - 20:08

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The display is indeed configured for overscan (exact scanlines, to be more precise), but it's not that much. What's annoying is that for some reason this setting doesn't seem to be taking effect at startup even though it's persisted in the config files and takes effect as soon as I run nvidia-settings... at which point I run into the aforementioned annoyance.

I tried changing the setting directly in the config files once, but couldn't find it. I'll have to try again some other time; proper health and safety procedures dictate that a person should only come into contact with Linux for brief periods of time and that adequate rest periods occur between each exposure.

Phaeron - 21 09 09 - 20:09

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Well, it's more a matter of coming in contact with the Nvidia drivers... Because Nvidia overrides both Xorg's automated detection and xorg.conf's saved settings. So, first:
- read the whole Nvidia configuration manual on how to disable the overrides that take you down (I know, it sucks; I had to do it once before because the Nvidia drivers would cause a bad detection of my panel's EDID settings, resulting in out of range errors)
- add these options to your xorg.conf files
- if Xorg's autodetection is wrong then (it happens much less and less), add manual settings to xorg.conf.

When using free/open drivers, I don't get these troubles. Ati's fglrx driver, although much less stable than Nvidia's, is still much less of a pain to work around settings-wise.

If you're attempting to use 2D only on this system, the Nouveau experimental driver may be easier, faster (accelerated EXA+RENDER, Composite support) and more stable (in 2D; still no 3D).

Mitch 74 (link) - 21 09 09 - 20:46

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I'm using alt-drag in Windows. @recover: Nice one, thanks dude!

Jander - 23 09 09 - 11:32

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"proper health and safety procedures dictate that a person should only come into contact with Linux for brief periods of time and that adequate rest periods occur between each exposure."

not true, it's all about habits. generally do not use UI in linux, it's buggy and crappily written. change everything by manually editing the config files. create shell scripts for otherwise complicated repeated tasks. 4 years on linux and never looked back >:)

xlfs - 26 01 10 - 12:33

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