Scroll Desktop

[jfware]

Using XFCE on an eeepc. Some windows are too tall for my screen so the bottom of the windows go down well below the bottom of the screen. Is there some way (built in or addon) that I can get the desktop window to scroll so I can access the rest of these large windows?

Thanks!

[Rubberman]

You might be able to have a bigger virtual display than physical one, but since I don't use xfce I cannot tell you how to do that. I was just looking at KDE 3.5.4 that I use and I haven't figured out how to do it there either. It may be an xorg.conf thing that I need to do manually. I'll let you know if I figure it out sometime soon.

[darkrose0510]

In /etc/xorg.conf you should have a screen section that looks something like this:

Section "Screen"
        Identifier "Default Screen"
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth 24
                Modes "1024x600"
        EndSubSection
EndSection

Change it to look something like this:

Section "Screen"
        Identifier "Default Screen"
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth 24
                Modes "1024x600"
                Virtual 1024 768
        EndSubSection
EndSection

And you should now be able to scroll the desktop after restarting X (log out and back in) by moving the mouse to the edge of the screen.
Be sure to backup your existing xorg.conf before making any changes.

[jfware]

Thanks, I did as you suggest and it didn't seem to have any effect at all on my system. I then removed the "Depth 24" line in the hopes that I could get it to apply to all color depths (in case mine was other than 24) but again it had no effect. Here is what I have:

Section "Screen"
	Identifier	"Default Screen"
	Monitor		"Configured Monitor"
	Device		"Configured Video Device"
        SubSection "Display"
                Modes "1024x600"
                Virtual 1024 768
        EndSubSection
EndSection

Perhaps it does work but I'm not using the mouse correctly? I move the mouse to the bottom of my screen and it just stops right at the edge. I tried to use the mousepad and an external mouse but nothing. I thought the scroll wheel would work but nothing there either.

Is there anything else I can do?

Thanks for the help!

[Rubberman]

Well, upon reading the documentation for xorg.conf, it mentions that the Virtual settings have to be supported by the video hardware, and not all cards do so. You might be SOL for this.

[jfware]

Thanks. You are correct I'm sure. I just realized that when I go to set the screen resolution it doesn't show anything above 600 for the screen height.

It would be nice if the Window Manager would recognize when the window is too large for the screen and automatically add a scrollbar to the window. Perhaps that will be more likely in the future with the new profileration of Netbooks.

Thanks both for your help!

[darkrose0510]

At the least, you should be able to hold down alt then click on the window. This will allow you to move it so you can see the bottom.

[jfware]

Excellent! That does in fact do what I was trying to do and I had no idea you could do that. Thanks a bunch!

[i92guboj]

Thanks. You are correct I'm sure. I just realized that when I go to set the screen resolution it doesn't show anything above 600 for the screen height.

It would be nice if the Window Manager would recognize when the window is too large for the screen and automatically add a scrollbar to the window. Perhaps that will be more likely in the future with the new profileration of Netbooks.

Thanks both for your help!

Just a note in case you are still interested in alternatives. Fvwm (an in--famous wm that's been around for a long time) has a module called FvwmScroll which can do just that. This way you can scroll the window to navigate its contents without having to move the window itself.

Fvwm is a very configurable wm, which might be a good or a bad thing depending on your tastes and the amount of time/effort you are willing to invest learning to use it.