Arch Linux

bodhi.zazen

Member

Registered: 2006-07-09

Posts: 16

Dual Monitors

What is the best window manager for Dual Monitors? I am interested in (nvidia) twinview with separate work spaces and wallpaper for each monitor. I do not typically run much "eye candy" or icons, but I do like to change scenery (wallpaper) every now and again.

I have used Fluxbox in the past, but I understand fluxbox needs to be recompiled. Has anyone here recompiled Fluxbox for dual monitors?

So far XFCE and gnome seem best. I have not tried KDE.

What I am looking for is a light weight WM, *box, FWM, IceWM, etc that performs well with dual monitors.

Any thoughts?

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If is not broken ... tweak it

geheaz

Member

From: Sweden

Registered: 2006-02-17

Posts: 10

Re: Dual Monitors

XFCE works really great, you can set a wallpaper for each monitor.

I run FVWM so I have to GIMP together a wallpaper that spans across both monitors which could be a pain if you change wallpaper often

Chman

Member

Registered: 2006-01-31

Posts: 169

Website

Re: Dual Monitors

Well, Openbox performs greatly with dual monitors here. As I don't really know how to put a wallpaper on each screen, I simply open gimp and make a big wallpaper using two wallpapers...

xterminus

Member

From: Tacoma, WA, USA, Earth, Sol, M

Registered: 2005-10-30

Posts: 93

Re: Dual Monitors

Well, Openbox performs greatly with dual monitors here. As I don't really know how to put a wallpaper on each screen, I simply open gimp and make a big wallpaper using two wallpapers...

It took me a little bit to get openbox to working right on dualhead.  It doesn't seem to be dualhead aware on its own, so you need to start up a seperate openbox session for each monitor in your .xinitrc.  The other thing to remember is that  when you make a config or menu change on one session, you need to manually reload the config on the 2nd and 3rd monitor for changes to go into effect.

fluxbox, windowmaker, e16/e17, ratpoison, etc all seem to be multihead aware on their own and only require one line in the init script to startup.

And also ... I refuse to use xinerama - it think its crap.

bodhi.zazen

Member

Registered: 2006-07-09

Posts: 16

Re: Dual Monitors

xterminus

Would you be so kind to post your .xinitrc for openbox?

and your one line in the init script to startup fluxbox, windowmaker, e16/e17, ratpoison, etc?

Or perhaps a link to a web page or how-to? I have been searching Google and can not seem to find any reference to dual monitors (tried nvidia site, Arch, Ubuntu, Debian, Slackware), or at least no one-liners.

Thank you in advance.

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If is not broken ... tweak it

Chman

Member

Registered: 2006-01-31

Posts: 169

Website

Re: Dual Monitors

It took me a little bit to get openbox to working right on dualhead.  It doesn't seem to be dualhead aware on its own, so you need to start up a seperate openbox session for each monitor in your .xinitrc.  The other thing to remember is that  when you make a config or menu change on one session, you need to manually reload the config on the 2nd and 3rd monitor for changes to go into effect.

Hmmm works like a charm here by launching only one Openbox instance like I would do in a single head configuration (I'm running in "Big desktop" mode - 2560*1024, maybe "Dual-Head" means something else). I don't use Xinerama, and Openbox can handle the two screens on its own (maximizing a windows only take one screen for example, there's a "virtual" separation between the two monitors but it's the same desktop).

ducttapeBigSexy

Member

Registered: 2006-07-01

Posts: 31

Website

Re: Dual Monitors

I've run two monitors in KDE (on SuSE 10.0, I believe) on a BFGTech nVidia 6800 OC - didn't have any major issues, but, then again, I cheated and used a graphical tool to configure it.

...I can't remember what program it was, though.  If you're feeling lazy, I found this program (http://www.cyskat.de/dee/progxorg.htm) that may be of some help... but, only if you don't want to get your hands dirty in your xorg file

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