Hello there,

is there a simple way to add a border to the whole screen of KDE?
Some Touchscreens have problems recognizing touch events right at the edges (aside from the fact that users don't want to break their fingers trying to touch buttons right at the edge of the monitor frame).
It would be nice to limit the "virtual" size but keep the physical one - e.g. have a 1920x1080 monitor resolution but only 1820x980 virtual pixels with a border of 50px per side.

It is easy to size the virtual desktop larger than the physical resolution ("panning"), but I didn't find information on how to get the reversed thingy to work.
I got some poor results with xrandr but most times the Auto Adjustment of the monitor messes it up again (resizes to fullscreen) and I didn't manage to center the screen.

Thanks!

xrandr will get you "integer parameter out of range for operation" when you try to do what you would do to do this
That's probaly what you perceive as "auto adjustment".

If you're using a recent nvidia blob, the "advanced" section in "display configuration" will allow you to do that.
Set "ViewPortIn" to 1820x980 and "ViewPortOut" to 1820x980+50+50

Thanks for the reply!

That might be working pretty well. I didn't try it yet but I need a solution for non-nvidia-cards.
I have an Intel based chipset which uses the standard Intel driver (intel_drv.so) and fbdev.

Any other ideas?

If you can figure out the appropriate modeset lines, then you might be able to set your system to output at 1820x980 - which as some systems always render at the native resolution might give you the necessary effect.

please post the output of "xrandr --props" then (for pot. options. there's eg. "underscan" support on some systems)

Hi and thanks for the hint.

Code: Select all

Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1680 x 1050, maximum 32767 x 32767
VGA1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI1 connected 1680x1050+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 473mm x 291mm
        EDID:
                00ffffffffffff004c2d79093836565a
                2d160103802f1d782ad985a4554d9a26
                105054bfef80714f81c0810081809500
                a9c00101010121399030621a274068b0
                3600d9231100001c000000fd00384b1e
                510f000a202020202020000000fc0053
                3232423432300a2020202020000000ff
                00484d41434230313233390a20200158
                02010400011d007251d01e206e285500
                d9231100001e011d00bc52d01e20b828
                5540d9231100001e8c0ad09020403120
                0c405500d923110000188c0ad08a20e0
                2d10103e9600d9231100001800000000
                00000000000000000000000000000000
                00000000000000000000000000000000
                00000000000000000000000000000077
        Broadcast RGB:  Full
                supported: Full         Limited 16:2
        audio:  auto
                supported: force-dvi    off          auto         on         
   1680x1050      60.0*+
   1600x900       60.0 
   1280x1024      75.0     60.0 
   1440x900       59.9 
   1280x800       59.9 
   1152x864       75.0 
   1280x720       50.0     60.0 
   1024x768       75.1     70.1     60.0 
   832x624        74.6 
   800x600        72.2     75.0     60.3     56.2 
   720x576        50.0 
   720x480        59.9 
   640x480        72.8     75.0     66.7     60.0 
   720x400        70.1 
DP1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
        Broadcast RGB:  Full
                supported: Full         Limited 16:2
        audio:  auto
                supported: force-dvi    off          auto         on         
HDMI2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
        Broadcast RGB:  Full
                supported: Full         Limited 16:2
        audio:  auto
                supported: force-dvi    off          auto         on         
DP2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
        Broadcast RGB:  Full
                supported: Full         Limited 16:2
        audio:  auto
                supported: force-dvi    off          auto         on


As you can see I'm currently using a 22'' Monitor.

The xrandr "underscan" option didn't work for the Intel adapter. It seems to be for AMD cards only.
Couldn't find a similar option for Intel cards.

It seems like there is a way for any damn manufacturer except of Intel.

Not for now it seems
http://www.arachnoid.com/modelines/
Generate yourself there a modeline, add the mode and pray the chip/display does not blow up resolutions.

Thanks again for your patience and help.

I knew you would mention modelines sooner or later. I hate them but gave it a try.
The problem, again, is the auto-mode of the monitor. It seems like the black borders are added shortly, but after a few milliseconds the screen is stretched to full size again.

Sometimes the Monitor even tells me via OSD that this is not the recommended resolution... Well, i know that. Damn new world. Wish I had my CRTs back.

Conclusion for me:
Works well with NVIDIA (nvidia-settings option ViewPortIn and ViewPortOut) and ATI (xrandr option "underscan") cards but gets too tricky with Intel Hardware.