Configuring Hardware Components

Most of your hardware components (like mouse, keyboard and display) are configured automatically. In case you need to change any settings, KDE provides a set of options and tools, some of which are integrated into the Personal Settings (like options for mouse and keyboard behavior or the display options). For adjusting your display configuration on the fly, use KRandRTray, the graphical front-end for the RandR (Resize and Rotate) extension of the X server.

Keyboard and Mouse Settings

In the Keyboard & Mouse category of the Personal Settings, you can define options like what happens if you press and hold down a key (keyboard repeat), or what to do with the NumLock toggle key. You can also change keyboard shortcuts as described in Procedure 3.10, “Modifying KDE Keyboard Shortcuts” or alter your mouse settings (for example, for left-handed or right-handed use as described in Procedure 3.11, “Adjusting the Mouse Settings”). Apart from that, you can adjust or add keyboard layouts in the Regional & Accessibility section of the Personal Settings.

Procedure 3.9. Adjusting and Adding Keyboard Layouts

  1. To adjust or add keyboard layouts, open the Personal Settings and select Regional & Accessibility+Keyboard Layout.

  2. Activate Enable keyboard layouts at the top.

  3. If you have a special Keyboard Model, select the appropriate model from the list, otherwise just keep the default.

  4. If you often need to enter texts in various languages, you may want to add different language layouts for your keyboard. To do so, select a layout in the list of Available layouts and click the right arrow button to transfer it to the list of Active layouts.

  5. If you added several layouts, you can change the sorting order with the help of the up and down arrow buttons.

  6. Use the Switching Options tab to adjust the options for switching between the keyboard layouts. For example, you can define keyboard shortcuts for switching.

  7. For more information, click Help.

  8. Confirm your changes with Apply.

If you added keyboard layout, you can change between different keyboard layouts by clicking the country flag in the panel or by using the relevant keyboard shortcut.

Procedure 3.10. Modifying KDE Keyboard Shortcuts

KDE comes with a set of predefined keyboard shortcuts. You can easily create more keyboard shortcuts or change existing shortcuts (for example, if they conflict with other application-specific shortcuts).

  1. Open the Personal Settings and select Keyboard & Mouse.

  2. Click either Standard Keyboard Shortcuts or Global Keyboard Shortcuts. In the Global Keyboard Shortcuts category, you can define shortcuts for a number of KDE components like Plasma or the window manager KWin.

    For example, to change the shortcuts for switching between the virtual desktops, select the KWin entry from the drop-down list. To change the shortcuts for locking the screen or logging out, select the Run Command Interface entry.

  3. Browse through the list of shortcuts for the selected entry. To filter for certain keywords, enter a search string in the search field above.

  4. To change or add a shortcut, select the relevant list entry and in the dialog that opens, select Custom.

  5. Click the wrench icon to switch to the input mode.

  6. Press the desired key or key combination. If this shortcut cannot be accepted or in case of conflict with another existing shortcut, a notification shows. If your input was successful, the new or modified shortcut appears in the list.

  7. If you want to switch back to the default keyboard shortcut for the selected action, just click the entry again and select Default.

  8. To save the modified settings, click Apply. To reset all shortcuts to the default values, click Defaults then Apply.

Procedure 3.11. Adjusting the Mouse Settings

  1. Open the Personal Settings and select Keyboard & Mouse.

  2. To switch between left-handed or right-handed use, select the corresponding options in the Button Order group.

  3. To switch to double-clicks to open files and folders, select the corresponding option in the Icons group.

  4. To change the mouse pointer appearance, switch to the Cursor Theme tab and select a different cursor theme.

  5. To change the default values of double-click intervals or the distance that the pointer moves over the screen on movement of the mouse, adjust the settings on the Advanced tab.

  6. Click Apply to apply the changes and close the configuration dialog.

Monitor Settings

Monitors attached to your machine are detected automatically during installation (or, if you plug them in after the installation, they are detected during the next start of the X server). Configure them with the tools your desktop environment (KDE or GNOME) provides. To trigger detection of new monitors during a running session, either use the Fn-Fx keys or the RandR desktop tools, KRandRTray or gnome-display-properties.

If you want to set up multiple monitors for dual-head graphics cards, you can choose between different modes.

Currently, the following modes are generally supported:

Clone Mode

In this mode, the same content is shown on two or more monitors. Clone mode is usually limited to the monitors connected to a single graphics card.

Span View

In this mode, the monitors connected to a graphics card form a single large monitor. You can use 3D acceleration and you can move application windows between the screens. Any application that is maximized stretches across the complete desktop, not only across one monitor. For this mode, a similar resolution of both monitors is recommended for ease of use.

Twin View

This mode is Nvidia-specific and is a hybrid of Span View and Xinerama: you can have 3D acceleration and one desktop stretching over both monitors, but you cannot rotate just one of them (only both or neither).

[Note]Available Modes

Which modes and options are available on your machine depend on your hardware (graphics cards and monitors) and the driver you use.

Procedure 3.12. Configuring One or Multiple Monitors

For configuring multiple monitors, you need a graphics card that is supported by a driver that implements the RandR extension in version 1.2 or higher. To find out if you are using a valid driver, run the xrandr command and check the output. If you only get a single output that contains the string default, your driver only supports RandR version 1.1. For illustration, see the examples below.

Example 3.1. Example Output for a Driver Supporting RandR 1.1

$xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 2048 x 768, current 3360 x 1050, maximum 3360 x 1050
default connected 3360x1050+0+0 0mm x 0mm
   3360x1050      50.0*
   2048x768       51.0
    

Example 3.2. Example Output for a Driver Supporting RandR 1.2

$xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 1024, maximum 3840 x 1200
DVI-I_1/digital disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DVI-I_1/analog connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 338mm x 270mm
   1024x768       60.0
   800x600        60.3
   640x480        59.9
DVI-D_2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)  1280x1024 (0x3e)  108.0MHz
   h: width  1280 start 1328 end 1440 total 1688 skew    0 clock   64.0KHz
   v: height 1024 start 1025 end 1028 total 1066           clock   60.0Hz
    

  1. Open the Personal Settings and select Display.

  2. Select Size & Orientation to configure parameters like dual-head modes, screen size, and refresh rate.

  3. Parameters like standby, suspend or power off for your monitor can be configured in the Power Control category.

  4. To calibrate your monitor, click the Gamma category. For more information, click Help.

  5. In the Multiple Monitors category, you can set some options for application windows (for example, if maximized windows need to be limited to just one monitor).

  6. Confirm your settings with Apply.

To adjust your display configuration on the fly, start KRandRTray from the main menu, or press Alt+F2 and enter krandrtray. After you have started the applet, the applet icon is usually added to your system tray. To change screen size or refresh rate, right-click the icon and select one of the entries. After selection, your screen resolution changes immediately and you are asked to confirm the new configuration or to revert to the old one. If you do not confirm the new configuration, the display switches back to the former resolution automatically after 15 seconds. If you left-click the icon, you are taken to the same configuration dialog you can also start from the Personal Settings.

Background Information

The following background information might help you in case your hardware components are not detected correctly by default and you need to adjust some settings manually.

Graphics Card and Display

The following processes are executed by the system to detect and configure your monitor: The X server is responsible for detecting the graphics card. The corresponding driver is selected according to a certain order defining the priorities, for example:

ATI: fglrx --> radeonhd --> radeon --> fbdev --> vesa
NVIDIA: nvidia --> nouveau --> nv --> fbdev --> vesa
VIA: chrome9 --> openchrome --> unichrome
Intel: intel --> fbdev --> vesa

If one of the drivers in the list does not exist or the hardware is not supported, the system tries the next driver. The driver then addresses the monitor in its native resolution. Dynamic changes can be made using desktop-specific tools like gnome-display-properties or KRandRTray.

Mouse, Keyboard and Touchpad

For mouse and keyboard, the evdev driver is used; for notebook touchpads the synaptic driver. The settings are defined systemwide by HAL (hardware abstraction layer) and are stored under /usr/share/hal/fdi/policy.

In case you need to adjust your (static) X Window System configuration for hardware components, this can be done with a graphical front-end (SaX2) or by editing the /etc/X11/xorg.conf configuration file manually (for experts only). To start SaX2, press Alt+F2 and enter sax2 (root password needed).

For experienced users, there are also command line tools available: you can set the keyboard with setxkbmap or test and configure XInput devices with xinput.