• Registered: 2009-01-01
  • Posts: 4

Topic: eee sideways orentation

Ok, so I've been doing some playing around with xorg and I found xrandr -o command. (xrandr -o 1 for sideways, xrandr -o 0 for normal) It lets you turn the screen from cmd. I read allot of pdfs and ebooks that really benefit from a sideways orientation. Sofar I've tested it with Comix (ebook reader) and it works great. In fullscreen mode you only have to hit space to advance to the next page. So for that program it is 100% usable. The only major thing keeping this from working for other things is the touchpad being inverted when sideways. I know where is a way of editing the xorg script to fix this but I'm not sure if it's posable on the fly.

I would love to see this as a program but I have no coding experience. If someone would like to take this on I'd be greatful. I think it would add allot of functionality to the eee or any small laptop. I was thinking that if a bash hotkey executer existed this might be done with a script.

Basic outline for the program:
Use xrandr to change screen orientation.
Invert x/y axis of the touchpad as to be usable with sideways orientation.
Bind to a hotkey combo.

-Mat

  • Registered: 2008-12-13
  • Posts: 361

Re: eee sideways orentation

Interesting idea!

Me, being a python nut, would love to get this sort of program into development, and i'll probably have a crack at it after my current program (openbox-logout script).

Anyway, you can rotate the pad, heres a guide, strangely enough the guy is doing a similar thing with his EeePC. He has a quick guide that'll allow you acheive what your trying to do smile

Nik_Doof's Website

  • Registered: 2009-01-16
  • Posts: 15

Re: eee sideways orentation

What would make this really cool is adding an accelerometer. I've found a few different USB offerings:

http://www.phidgets.com/products.php?product_id=1053 (2-axis)
http://www.optimal-microsystems.com/sto … cts_id=154 (3-axis)

The second one is very low-level when it comes to programming for the device, while the phidgets product offers a much more robust API, with support for C, Java, Python, etc. I imagine it'd be a lot easier to deal with. I am quite tempted to pick up one of the phidgets modules to try using with my Dell Mini 9. Hmmm...

  • Registered: 2008-12-13
  • Posts: 361

Re: eee sideways orentation

IIRC, the phidgets one is supported via the USB Gadgets driver already in the kernel. Might wanna check before splashing cash smile

Nik_Doof's Website

  • Registered: 2009-01-01
  • Posts: 4

Re: eee sideways orentation

Nik_Doof: Thank you vary much for working on this. I've tryed following the guide to setting this up but the english is a bit confusing and I'm not proficient enough in bash to really know what I'm doing. So far I'm stuck at the "do patching" bit.

1esproc: I like that idea, being able to tilt the screen would be really neat.

-Mat