bug#57068: closed (Resizing mcron job in vm-image.tmpl interferes with settings)

[GNU bug Tracking System]

Your message dated Sat, 30 Dec 2023 00:35:13 -0500
with message-id <87o7e8qmlq.fsf@gmail.com>
and subject line Re: bug#57068: Resizing mcron job in vm-image.tmpl interferes 
with settings
has caused the debbugs.gnu.org bug report #57068,
regarding Resizing mcron job in vm-image.tmpl interferes with settings
to be marked as done.

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57068: https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=57068
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> --- Begin Message ---
>
>
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> Subject: 
>
> Resizing mcron job in vm-image.tmpl interferes with settings
>
>
>
>
> Date: 
>
> Tue, 09 Aug 2022 11:30:33 +0200
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>
>
>
> User-agent: 
>
> Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/28.1 (gnu/linux)
>
>
>
>
> Hello!
>
> Commit 945ad48cd8029fa77a643e00c7fd350e98cacca0 added an mcron job to
> ‘vm-image.tmpl’ that resets screen size every second.  I’m don’t fully
> understand the problem this was addressing, but it has two drawbacks:
>
>   1. Kicking in every second is inefficient.
>
>   2. Resetting the screen size prevents users from changing it.  For
>      example, if I run:
>
>        $(guix system vm gnu/system/examples/vm-image.tmpl) -m 1024
>
>     then go to the Xfce menu, Settings -> Display, and change the screen
>     size, I have it immediately reset back to the default value.
>
> Should we remove this workaround, possibly finding another one?
>
> Thanks,
> Ludo’.
>
>
>
> --- End Message ---
> --- Begin Message ---
>
>
>
> Subject: 
>
> Re: bug#57068: Resizing mcron job in vm-image.tmpl interferes with settings
>
>
>
>
> Date: 
>
> Sat, 30 Dec 2023 00:35:13 -0500
>
>
>
>
> User-agent: 
>
> Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13)
>
>
>
>
> Hi Ludovic,
>
> Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org> writes:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > Mathieu Othacehe <othacehe@gnu.org> skribis:
> >
> >>> Oh, I wasn’t aware of that, that should certainly be fixed.  (I fixed a
> >>> similar issue in GNOME some years ago, and I’m confident it’ll be easier
> >>> to fix in Xfce because it doesn’t have all those layers and daemons and
> >>> JavaScript and DBus interfaces.  :-))
> >>
> >> Fixing this behaviour in Xfce seems like the right thing to do to
> >> conserve SPICE support and fix the QEMU resizing issue.
> >>
> >> This also looks like a large development, so I propose to unblock the
> >> release with this ticket.
> >
> > I agree, but it would be nice to find another workaround: invoking
> > xrandr every second is undesirable.  It interferes with user settings
> > and degrades performance, whether or not one uses SPICE.
> >
> > Can the guest determine whether SPICE is being used?  That would allow
> > us to make the hack conditional.
>
> I've discovered we could use udev to invoke xrandr only on resizing
> events, crafted a custom Guile script, and used it to fix this with
> commit 1d4db94bebba ("gnu: vm-image.tmpl: Improve SPICE dynamic
> resizing.").
>
> I've tested the automatic resizing works with virt-manager and GNOME
> Boxes, and that nothing happens when using QEMU (the script still runs,
> consuming 14 MiB of RSS about, but that's it).
>
> -- 
> Thanks,
> Maxim
>
>
> --- End Message ---