Few resolution options

By digging through the source, I have found the following array at line 54 of connect.c.
  gchar *size_items[] = {
    _("640 x 480 pixels"),
    _("800 x 600 pixels"),
    _("1024 x 768 pixels"),
    _("1152 x 864 pixels"),
    _("1280 x 960 pixels"),
    _("1400 x 1050 pixels"),
          NULL
  };
So it appears that the resolutions are hard-coded and static.

Moreover, I have looked through some of rdesktop's source code. It looks like it will be happy with any resolution given to it for window geometry (but I have not tested this in practice). I would suspect VNC is the same way.

That's great news! rdesktop does accept other resolutions when you run it manually from the console. It should be easy to change that portion on the source to read xorg.conf and fill the array with those values instead.

I'd say it doesn't make much sense to read xorg.conf. It's your active resolution that we're more interested in. Maybe xprop is appropriate?

ongardie@tablet:~$ xprop -root | grep ^_NET_DESKTOP_GEOMETRY

returns:

_NET_DESKTOP_GEOMETRY(CARDINAL) = 1024, 600

We could add some code to *try* xprop, and if we get some desktop geometry back from it, and that geometry is different from our defaults, we could add it to the dropdown.

Sebastien/Andrew: Can I have some feedback on this approach?

I disagree. There is a list of different resolutions in tsclient. The user will want to use other resolutions than the one he is currently using. He probably wouldn't want to use any other resolutions than the one listed in xorg.conf.

Let's refer to specific use cases.

In your original post, it sounded to me like you had a native resolution of 1280x1024 and wanted to use that in tsclient.

In my case on my primary laptop, I'm on a 1024x600 native resolution. I think it'd be useful if tsclient were to list 1024x600, but I would still by likely to use 800x600. In any case, my xorg.conf lists ONLY 1024x600, simply because I know it works and I don't need anything else to fall back to.

In my case on my secondary laptop, I'm on a 1400x1050 native resolution. My xorg.conf list 1400x1050, and it may or may not list a few other resolutions, like 1280x1024. However, I'd be likely to connect with tsclient at the already available 1280x960, that way there's some headroom for my top and bottom gnome-panels to (hopefully) fit in.

Then, consider a user that installs XGL or some other X server, or maybe just has an xorg.conf somewhere else for *some* reason. Then, it no longer makes any sense to read /etc/X11/xorg.conf, and the user would get no benefit from this change.

I see your point. It makes perfect sense to get the current resolution. I didn't mean it should read _only_ xorg.conf. I meant that all resolutions listed in xorg.conf would be resolutions suitable for the users system and therefore should be included in the list of resolutions provided by tsclient. The list should be as short as possible while at the same time offering interesting choices.

If you just want to reach your resolution, it's enough to choose 'full screen' option.

I wonder about possible solutions to this problem. One of them would be let the geometry field editable, which is not so good for most of people.

Another solution would be put in source code all possible screen resolutions (!). So, the combo box will get bigger.

Another ideas?

I might be way off since Krdc uses KDE libs, but look at the source for Krdc. Krdc can set custom resolutions, which are extremely useful. Especially in my field of work. (multiple remote connections on sometimes multiple screens)

My suggested solution, if some programmer looks at this and wants to start coding, would be to add another item on the 'Display tab' under the 'Remote Desktop Size'. I think you would want to add a fourth radio box with text like 'Manually specified screen size', and then two text boxes for the horizontal and vertical resolutions.

Speaking for myself I would like to be able to choose any resolution that rdesktop allows, specifically including the special word "workarea".

It seems the best way to do that would be as zoredache suggests, but only one text box not separate text boxes for horizontal and vertical.

Here's a patch for custom resolutions that I've used myself for a few years.
It adds a field under the "Use specified screen size" dropdown, with new entries for "Custom Resolution" and a few other common resolutions.

I have tryed this patch and I can confirm it works. I hereby attach build log, debdiff between versions.

build log

Seems nice. I will test it and likely integrate into tsclient. Thanks!

The patch has been sent upstream https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=2799711&group_id=192483&atid=941576 and to debian http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=531494

Realistically, it seems that none of the Ubuntu developers wants to take responsibility for this large patch as long as upstream doesn't respond to it, so I'm unsubscribing the sponsoring team for now.

On Tue, Sep 22, 2009 at 11:43:49AM -0000, Martin Pitt wrote:
> Realistically, it seems that none of the Ubuntu developers wants to take
> responsibility for this large patch as long as upstream doesn't respond
> to it, so I'm unsubscribing the sponsoring team for now.

Isn't it already applied? I though I did already apply it.

Will look into it.

Rui

A launcher with the command:
rdesktop -g 1272x724 -a 24 -T <window title> -u <user name> -d <domain> -p <password> <server>
will fit perfectly my notebook screen of 1280x800 with panels at top and bottom.

I prefer a "maximised window" instead of full-screen. This way I can have multiple rdp-sessions in the various workspaces!

Hope this will help others.

On 2009-09-22 Cyclops wrote
> Isn't it already applied? I though I did already apply it.
>
> Will look into it.

I am really surprised that this patch still wasn't applied to the tsclient on 10.04.

I have tried recompiling it on 10.04, but it applied and compiled cleanly on 9.04 and 9.10. Is there some problems with the patch that are preventing to from being accepted?

Setting bug to triaged as the bug has enough information.

Please add option to maximize window, not just go fullscreen (so it's possible to run on one full workspace, not only at all monitors.)
Please add custom resolutions.

The previous patch is great for custom resolutions, but doesn't add the workarea geometry option. See attached to be placed in debian/patches. I've patched against the version in Maverick without the previous patch applied, so these two patches won't work together, but it wouldn't take much doing to have both.

This is fairly untested, so ymmv

Thank you for reporting this bug. tsclient has been removed from the Ubuntu 11.10 archives. The software has not had a new release in years and was no longer being maintained. Unfortunately that means this bug won't be fixed.