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    de72c4b7
    edid: set default resolution to 1280x800 (WXGA) · de72c4b7
    Daniel P. Berrangé authored
    
    Currently QEMU defaults to a resolution of 1024x768 when exposing EDID
    info to the guest OS. The EDID default info is important as this will
    influence what resolution many guest OS will configure the screen with
    on boot. It can also potentially influence what resolution the firmware
    will configure the screen with, though until very recently EDK2 would
    not handle EDID info.
    
    One important thing to bear in mind is that the default graphics card
    driver provided by Windows will leave the display set to whatever
    resolution was enabled by the firmware on boot. Even if sufficient
    VRAM is available, the resolution can't be changed without installing
    new drivers. IOW, the default resolution choice is quite important
    for usability of Windows.
    
    Modern real world monitor hardware for desktop/laptop has supported
    resolutions higher than 1024x768 for a long time now, perhaps as long
    as 15+ years. There are quite a wide variety of native resolutions in
    use today, however, and in wide screen form factors the height may not
    be all that tall.
    
    None the less, it is considered that there is scope for making the
    QEMU default resolution slightly larger.
    
    In considering what possible new default could be suitable, choices
    considered were 1280x720 (720p), 1280x800 (WXGA) and 1280x1024 (SXGA).
    
    In many ways, vertical space is the most important, and so 720p was
    discarded due to loosing vertical space, despite being 25% wider.
    
    The SXGA resolution would be good, but when taking into account
    window titlebars/toolbars and window manager desktop UI, this might
    be a little too tall for some users to fit the guest on their physical
    montior.
    
    This patch thus suggests a modest change to 1280x800 (WXGA). This
    only consumes 1 MB per colour channel, allowing double buffered
    framebuffer in 8 MB of VRAM. Width wise this is 25% larger than
    QEMU's current default, but height wise this only adds 5%, so the
    difference isn't massive on the QEMU side.
    
    Overall there doesn't appear to be a compelling reason to stick
    with 1024x768 resolution.
    
    Signed-off-by: default avatarDaniel P. Berrangé <berrange@redhat.com>
    Reviewed-by: default avatarGerd Hoffmann <kraxel@redhat.com>
    Message-Id: <20211129140508.1745130-1-berrange@redhat.com>
    Signed-off-by: default avatarGerd Hoffmann <kraxel@redhat.com>
    de72c4b7
    History
    edid: set default resolution to 1280x800 (WXGA)
    Daniel P. Berrangé authored
    
    Currently QEMU defaults to a resolution of 1024x768 when exposing EDID
    info to the guest OS. The EDID default info is important as this will
    influence what resolution many guest OS will configure the screen with
    on boot. It can also potentially influence what resolution the firmware
    will configure the screen with, though until very recently EDK2 would
    not handle EDID info.
    
    One important thing to bear in mind is that the default graphics card
    driver provided by Windows will leave the display set to whatever
    resolution was enabled by the firmware on boot. Even if sufficient
    VRAM is available, the resolution can't be changed without installing
    new drivers. IOW, the default resolution choice is quite important
    for usability of Windows.
    
    Modern real world monitor hardware for desktop/laptop has supported
    resolutions higher than 1024x768 for a long time now, perhaps as long
    as 15+ years. There are quite a wide variety of native resolutions in
    use today, however, and in wide screen form factors the height may not
    be all that tall.
    
    None the less, it is considered that there is scope for making the
    QEMU default resolution slightly larger.
    
    In considering what possible new default could be suitable, choices
    considered were 1280x720 (720p), 1280x800 (WXGA) and 1280x1024 (SXGA).
    
    In many ways, vertical space is the most important, and so 720p was
    discarded due to loosing vertical space, despite being 25% wider.
    
    The SXGA resolution would be good, but when taking into account
    window titlebars/toolbars and window manager desktop UI, this might
    be a little too tall for some users to fit the guest on their physical
    montior.
    
    This patch thus suggests a modest change to 1280x800 (WXGA). This
    only consumes 1 MB per colour channel, allowing double buffered
    framebuffer in 8 MB of VRAM. Width wise this is 25% larger than
    QEMU's current default, but height wise this only adds 5%, so the
    difference isn't massive on the QEMU side.
    
    Overall there doesn't appear to be a compelling reason to stick
    with 1024x768 resolution.
    
    Signed-off-by: default avatarDaniel P. Berrangé <berrange@redhat.com>
    Reviewed-by: default avatarGerd Hoffmann <kraxel@redhat.com>
    Message-Id: <20211129140508.1745130-1-berrange@redhat.com>
    Signed-off-by: default avatarGerd Hoffmann <kraxel@redhat.com>