GTK/GNOME X Server Configuration Applet?

southsider · Guru Joined: 05 Jul 2004 Posts: 358

Why is there still not one bundled with Gnome?

Do they not exist?

CorpseOfMystic · Apprentice Joined: 08 Sep 2005 Posts: 159

I hope to God they don't exist. Bringing details like X configuration to the surface is the exact opposite direction that desktops should be going. The X server should automatically configure itself and allow the desktop environment to abstract the details of the windowing system away entirely. That is the direction things are going, and X.org has gotten quite good at automatically generating config files. It's the job of the X software to make configuration painless. A frontend to configure X would be useless, since I shouldn't have to know what resolutions my monitor supports, what its hsync is, or what video card I have anyway.

southsider · Guru Joined: 05 Jul 2004 Posts: 358

You are right - BUT consider this exact situation I have next door on another computer:

Monitor has included in its capabilities 1280x960 @ 60 Hz, 1024x768 @ 85 Hz. Now X11 detects the first mode as the best available option and goes for it. However it makes the screen flicker, I'd prefer if the second mode was default so I don't have epileptic fits.

Yes, you can change it per-user, but GDM still boots up into 1280x960 @ 60 Hz. There needs to be some way to set preferable modes / minimum refresh rate without delving into config files, and that is personal preference which you can't automate. Some people will prefer one mode while others will prefer the other.