GSoC : Multiscreen management

[Will Stephenson]

On Thursday 01 April 2010 16:35:59 Detlev Casanova wrote:
> I'd like to work with you this summer (and even longer after that :-) ).
> So, there's something in KDE that I find not really nice, It's the
> multiscreen management.
> For instance, I have an extra monitor for my laptop which I use every day
> but I also unplug it every day. The problem is that the screen
> configuration is never kept and sometimes, the screen is deactivated and
> KRandr says the screen is configured in 1980x1200...
> 
> So, my point is : there are problems.
> So far, what's the link with plasma you might ask. Well, I'd like the
> device notifier to react when a monitor is plugged in, showing the screen.
> 2 actions should be possible : Auto configure and manual configuration.
>  -> Auto configure would try to find the best configuration depending on
> the screen capabilities (read resolutions).
>  -> Manual configuration would open KRandr.
> 
> In KRandr, there should be a possibility to keep configurations depending
> on the plugged device :
> 	I'd like the university projector to be on the right of my laptop screen.
> 	I'd like my 26" screen to be a clone of my laptop screen.
> 
> If a configuration exists for a monitor when it's plugged in, the
> configuration should directly be applied with the monitor entry still in
> the device notifier (so that it can be modified).
> 
> KRandr could also be more handy : the view could be used to move screens to
> place them at the wanted position (like a widget is moved on the desktop).
> 
> What do you think ?

All great features, but you should look at  
http://techbase.kde.org/Projects/Plasma/ScreenManagement
http://aike.me/site/blog/20090407/multihead_in_kde_422
http://websvn.kde.org/trunk/KDE/kdebase/workspace/libs/kephal/
http://websvn.kde.org/trunk/playground/base/plasma/screenmanagement/

This was already the subject of a GSoC project in 2008, which was successful 
but stopped short of applying policies to restore previous configuration, 
doing KNotifications or events or providing UI to edit configurations.

KRandR is a separate codebase which Lubos Lunak updated for 4.4 with some SUSE 
patches to launch an improved version of the KRandR KCM, and does not use 
Kephal.

I feel the same itch as you do and have spent the last couple of days getting 
into the Kephal code - it's been hardly touched since 2008 and could do with a 
clean up, so I'll see how far I get with it over the weekend.  

Aaron, do you think there's another GSoC project in completing Kephal?

> I already posted the idea on #plasma but had to leave before you could
> answer so, it might feel familiar.
> 
> I know though that there are problems with xrandr and some drivers, like
> the NVidia driver. I'm not sure how big are the problems but interfacing
> with the NVidia tools is maybe possible.

I know the disper tool tries to abstract both systems, but haven't used it.

Will