[gentoo-user] Re: External monitor is stretched 4:3

On 2012-12-01, Grant wrote:

>> >    I've connected my laptop to a lot of HDTV's and whenever I switch
>> >    the output to display on both screens, black bars appear on the
>> >    left and right of my laptop screen so it displays at 4:3, and the
>> >    HDTV output is 16:9 but looks horizontally stretched.  Does
>> >    anyone know how to keep the output at 16:9 on both screens?
>> >
>> >    - Grant
>>
>> You don't give a lot of information here. Are you using mirrored
>> screen or an extended desktop? Also what is the desktop environment or
>> window manager you use?
>>
>> On thing that might help is to provide the output of xrandr.
>
> I'm using xfce4, but I'm not sure if I'm using a mirrored screen or an
> extended desktop.  All I do is plug the laptop into the HDTV with an HDMI
> cable and hit the keyboard shortcut to switch screens which brings up a
> little dialog.

There is nothing too complex here, if the TV and laptop are showing the
same thing, one screen is *mirroring* the other, otherwise, if you see
different things in different screens, you're using an extended desktop.

> I was able to change the resolution from 1024x768 to 1366x768 with xfce4's
> Display settings, but when I disconnect and reconnect to the HDTV it
> displays at 1024x768 again.  Do you know how to select the output
> resolution for an external screen permanently?  Is this done in
> xorg.conf?

This is, I'd guess, a "preferred" video mode announced through EDID,
where the TV, even if it supports 1366x768, will anounce 1024x768 as
preferred. You could do the change with a small xrandr one-liner, and
there must be some way to do it through xorg.conf, although I don't know
how.

In the end, having the output of xrandr (both before and after you
change the video modes) would help *a lot*, as it answers most of our
questions...

-- 
Nuno Silva (aka njsg)
http://njsg.sdf-eu.org/