#755809 xorg.conf.5 man page mentions an incorrect "Enable" option for Monitors

Package:
xorg-server
Source:
xorg-server
Submitter:
Tanguy Ortolo
Date:
2025-06-17 16:07:01 UTC
Severity:
minor
Tags:
#755809#5
Date:
2014-07-23 13:47:23 UTC
From:
To:
Hello,

The xorg.conf.5 man page mention an "Enable" Option for Monitors, which
does not work. The right option is in fact "Disable", as I indicated in
a blog post:
http://tanguy.ortolo.eu/blog/article128/ck-allow-suspend-xorg-disable-monitor

This small patch corrects it, please consider adding it.

Regards,

- --
 ,--.
: /` )   ن Tanguy Ortolo    <xmpp:tanguy@ortolo.eu>
| `-'    Debian Developer   <irc://irc.oftc.net/Tanguy>
 \_
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#755809#10
Date:
2014-07-23 14:10:35 UTC
From:
To:
I believe this patch is wrong.

Cheers,
Julien
#755809#15
Date:
2014-07-24 08:04:34 UTC
From:
To:
Julien Cristau, 2014-07-23 16:10+0200:

How so? I would be happy to provide an updated patch if you tell me what
you think is wrong in it.
#755809#20
Date:
2014-07-24 20:46:18 UTC
From:
To:
I don't know what you think is incorrect about the existing text.

Cheers,
Julien
#755809#25
Date:
2014-07-25 12:24:57 UTC
From:
To:
Julien Cristau, 2014-07-24 22:46+0200:

The existing texts is about an option named “Enable”, which may or may
not exist, but does nothing and is thus useless to mention. The
behaviour expected from that option (disabling a monitor at server
startup) is achieved by using the option “Disable” which is not
documented at all.

To be more specific, according to the man page:

The following configuration should disable the projector monitor at
startup:

But it does not work, and the projector is turned on at startup. On the
contrary, the following, which uses an undocumented option “Disable”
does disable the projector at startup:


My patch aims at correcting that by simply replacing the incorrect
option “Enable” by the correct one “Disable” in the man page. It also
does a small change in the explanation text since this option is used
the reverse way:

Librement,
#755809#30
Date:
2014-07-27 12:11:24 UTC
From:
To:
The "enable" option forces a monitor on.  The "disable" option forces it
off.

Cheers,
Julien
#755809#35
Date:
2014-07-28 14:35:06 UTC
From:
To:
Julien Cristau, 2014-07-27 14:11+0200:

Is that useful at all, considering that a monitor is on by default at
startup?

If needed, I can write a patch that documents both options, of course,
but I am not convinced that an option that does that same than the
default behaviour is useful.
#755809#40
Date:
2014-07-28 14:47:44 UTC
From:
To:
That's not the same as the default behaviour.

Cheers,
Julien
#755809#45
Date:
2014-07-28 15:58:26 UTC
From:
To:
Julien Cristau, 2014-07-28 16:47+0200:

Then what is the default behaviour? According to the manpage:

If this is not the case, then this last sentence should be corrected as
well, which I can do in the same patch, only I am not sure of what the
default behaviour is then.
#755809#50
Date:
2014-07-28 21:56:15 UTC
From:
To:
Note how the manpage says "enable all connected monitors", not "enable
all monitors".

Cheers,
Julien
#755809#55
Date:
2014-07-29 11:32:07 UTC
From:
To:
Julien Cristau, 2014-07-28 23:56+0200:

Right, that was subtle but useful indeed. Here is an updated patch then.
#755809#60
Date:
2018-01-10 20:07:22 UTC
From:
To:
Hi,

*ping* It would be very nice to have this patch applied. Trying to
disable a monitor by following the instructions in the current manpage
is frustrating.
Best,
-Nikolaus
#755809#65
Date:
2025-03-29 21:04:03 UTC
From:
To:
I've included the latest patch from this bug in the upstream merge request
https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xorg/xserver/-/merge_requests/1875
#755809#72
Date:
2025-06-17 15:30:17 UTC
From:
To:
This fix is included in the upstream 21.1.17 release that was issued today.