multiple monitors

rokr424 · 2010-01-31 22:04:59

I have 2 monitors im trying to get working right. both of them are working at 1280x1024 and i can change the resolution of only one, but they are exact clones of eachother. i've tried searching google for how to make them different so i can drag windows between, but i havent found much. i saw a few examples of doing it with xorg.conf, however i dont think i have an xorg.conf file. i have my mouse configured with hal fdi's so i imagin there is a similar way for monitors.

im also hoping to make it auto-detect if there is a second screen because arch is installed on a flash drive that i switch between my netbook and my desktop, so there isn't always a second.

Both computers have ATi video cards that work with the xf86-video-ati driver,

tavianator · 2010-02-01 00:00:44

Not sure how to make it persistent without an xorg.conf, but your can use the "xrandr" utility to mess with multiple monitor settings. Putting the appropriate command in ~/.xinitrc may do the trick. "man xrandr" for details.

rokr424 · 2010-02-01 03:38:52

xrandr seems to be the right idea, but i havent been able to find a way to set the virtual desktop size without having a full xorg.conf

[user@Host ~]$ xrandr --auto --output DVI-0 --mode 1280x1024 --right-of DVI-1
xrandr: screen cannot be larger than 1280x1280 (desired size 2560x1024)

i tried making an xorg.conf with the following, but then it failed to create a display.

SubSection "Display"
Depth 32
Virtual 2560 1024
EndSubSection

tavianator · 2010-02-01 03:51:35

My xorg.conf:

Section "Device"
        Identifier "n"
        Driver "nouveau"
EndSection

Change nouveau to ati I suppose. And if the default virtual size is too low, I think adding

Section "Screen"
        Identifier "s"
        Device     "n"
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth     32
                Virtual 2560 1024
        EndSubSection
EndSection

should do the trick. You may need a Monitor section too.

rokr424 · 2010-02-01 04:26:34

i made an xorg.conf with just that and changed it to ati and gave it a shot.

kdm came up cloned on both screens. i logged in, then it just reloaded kdm instead of continuing into kde. so i moved the xorg.conf into another folder so it wouldnt be read, and its still doing it.

i did a console login as root and had to killall kdm and X to get x and kde to start.. no idea why it's doing this

Last edited by rokr424 (2010-02-01 04:31:28)

dmz · 2010-02-01 05:23:33

I had the same trouble with my two monitors running on an Nvidia 8800GTX. Both monitors are identical with the difference that one of them is connected with an dvi=>vga-adapter. After lots of googling I finally found why I never got my native resolution on that one; the EDID didn't come through the adapter. What I did was dumping the EDID from the monitor that's connected via DVI and added this to my xorg.conf for the other monitor:

Option         "CustomEDID" "CRT-0:/home/scp1/bin/customedid.bin"

Then I just restarted X and I could choose the native resolution. Good luck.

surfed · 2010-02-01 06:58:01

I never got it to work on my ati card only cloned until yesterday when i installed the latest git kernel, and git video stuff for ati discribed here:
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=79509&p=1
now i can select my monitor config in kde control panel and everything works great.

jdarnold · 2010-02-01 14:45:32

@rokr - What video card and driver are you using? If nvidia, then use nvidia-settings to set up the multiple monitors. Be sure to run it as root, and select the "TwinView" configuration.

surfed · 2010-02-01 18:16:52

jdarnold wrote:

@rokr - What video card and driver are you using? If nvidia, then use nvidia-settings to set up the multiple monitors. Be sure to run it as root, and select the "TwinView" configuration.

In his first post he says he uses ATI.

Arch Linux

#1 2010-01-31 22:04:59

multiple monitors

#2 2010-02-01 00:00:44

Re: multiple monitors

#3 2010-02-01 03:38:52

Re: multiple monitors

#4 2010-02-01 03:51:35

Re: multiple monitors

#5 2010-02-01 04:26:34

Re: multiple monitors

#6 2010-02-01 05:23:33

Re: multiple monitors

#7 2010-02-01 06:58:01

Re: multiple monitors

#8 2010-02-01 14:45:32

Re: multiple monitors

#9 2010-02-01 18:16:52

Re: multiple monitors

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