Make ubuntu avoid Part of the screen due to crack in screen

[oneindelijk]

Hi,

I've recently dropped my backpack a little too hard with my laptop in it and now I have a white border about 1 inch thick at the left side of the screen.
The laptop is too old to have the screen replaced, but I was wondering if I can tell ubuntu a custom screen size so that the edge is not being used.

thx

[solar george]

a quick way around that would be to add an empty gnome-panel to the left edge of the screen covering the broken area.

[Jose Catre-Vandis]

In Xubuntu (xfce) you can set margins to prevent anything entering that part of the screen. Don't know how this carries over to Ubuntu?

[hxcobd]

The gnome-panel idea is pretty brilliant and super quick to do.

[oneindelijk]

I've added a gnome panel and that solves the majority of my problem.
Only the Gnome Menu button still hides in the damaged area.
Is there a way to give this panel on the left priority so that the gnome menu button appears ?
It's only a small inconvenience though. I consider this problem mostly as solved... thx

[solar george]

I don't believe so, you could unlock the menu (right click on it and uncheck the "Lock to panel option") and the firefox and help icons then move them so that they appear on the working part of your screen.
Or you could uncheck the "Expand" option in the panel properties which will make it take the minimum of space in the middle of the top of the screen.