Friday, March 9, 2012

Better Remote Desktop Resolutions on Linux

Did you know you can remote desktop into a linux machine and have the remote desktop resolution be much larger than the physical screen attached to the actual linux machine? I have a linux machine with an old 14" LCD that could only go up to 1024x768. My main development machine has 1600x1200 monitors. I found it was possible to have the remote desktop session be at the full 1600x1200 even though the monitor connected to the linux machine could only go up to 1024x768.

Simply use the following command:

xrandr --output VGA-0 --panning 1600x1200
Now your remote desktop session will be displayed as if it were on a 1600x1200 monitor. Development bliss...

If you primary monitor is not "VGA-0", replace "VGA-0" with your monitor. To find out the names of your monitors, just run xrandr without any parameters
xrandr