Dynamically switch ServerLayout - is it possible ?

[Waldo Bastian]

On Tuesday 25 October 2005 09:13, Thomas Winischhofer wrote:
> Waldo Bastian wrote:
> >>>The problem that remains is that I would like to be able to switch
> >>>between these different layouts without restarting the X server. Now, I
> >>>do it by passing the -layout option when starting. Is there a way to
> >>>switch without restarting X ? That would allow me to
> >>>suspend/hibernate/dock/undock without having to restart X?
> >>
> >>Unforunately, this is not possible at the moment.
> >
> > So what would be required to make this possible?
> >
> > I assume:
> > * The driver would need to support switching layout dynamically. Will
> > this require a new driver hook, or can an existing one be reused for
> > that?
>
> Erm, a "server layout" is much more than a display layout...

Good point. In my defense, Joe's example was limited to changes to the display 
layout :-} It would be useful to support such limited configuration changes 
without a restart.

> > * The X server must expose an API that can be used to tell the driver to
> > switch... Should this API expose the driver specific options, or should
> > it offer an abstract API that is the same for all drivers (e.g. as an
> > extension to XRandR)?
>
> A "Server layout" is the "root" of the entire config. "Layout switching"
> involves eventual dual head configs and switching between them,
> different input devices, color depths, etc etc etc. Just for example,
> switching from single head to dual head is all but trivial, not even
> speaking about depth switching.

Cheers,
Waldo
-- 
Linux Client Architect - Channel Software Operation - Intel Corporation