virtualized fc4 on fc15 host

[sunglee2]

Hello, I have an issue running fc4 as a virtual machine on a fc15 host. I know it's very outdated, but because of the software that we have to run (proprietary that was never updated to run on more current versions), we're stuck. We have fc4 up and running, but my issue (albeit a minor one) is that the monitor resolution does not match what it should. Meaning, it's a 22" Dell monitor with a native resolution of 1680x1050. The fc15 displays this resolution nicely, but in fc4 even though that resolution is a choice in the displays menu and it claims to be running at that resolution, it still takes up more that the screen real-estate, resulting in scroll bars on the side and bottom. The machine has a NVidia Quadro 600, and running with VMWare Player. VMWare tools is installed. I don't understand why it would think that 1680x1050 is larger than the screen, whereas if we choose 1400x1050 there is no vertical scroll bar. My only guess is when I choose 1680x1050, it's not REALLY choosing that resolution, but I don't have the know-how to go about confirming or fixing this. Any help is appreciated!

[jpollard]

You can do a "xwininfo -root" to identify the size of the virtual window in the VM window while running fc4.

I suspect vmware is making a "virtual root" window of the chosen size, while the physical window (provided by vmware) is something smaller.

You do have an alternative though.

Connect to the fc4 virtual machine through ssh and have the X windows forwarded to your real display.

The only penalty (which would, I think, be negligible) over the VMware console is the network latency which should be minimal for this configuration.

[sunglee2]

Thanks, that command was really helpful! It shows the screen resolution set at 1680x1200. However, in the Display option I chose 1680x1050. Do you know why/how to fix this? I'm a bit of a fc4 noob, I think there's a file called x11conf, but not sure what to do with it really. I don't see how to edit it to change the current resolution.

[jpollard]

The problem with FC4 is that the X server is limited by the emulation capability that it can detect from VMWare. The newer X server can identify much more than the old - and it uses the preset values for the clock/horizontal and vertical refresh rates. And that makes it tricky to reconfigure to something else.

Have you tried running the application over ssh yet? That might solve your problem.