X.Org/Dual Monitors
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Based on my own experiences from using a dual-monitor setup in Gentoo for quite some time, I have decided to write a little HOWTO on how to do it, for using both Xinerama and separate screens. 3d acceleration has even been possible (if not at the best possible speeds) in both setups.
Does setting up a dualhead under linux really have to be so hard? It's so elementary!
Contents |
[edit] Setting up Two Graphics Cards
[edit] Prerequisites
If you are using two graphics cards it is quite quick and easy to make a new xorg.conf for your new cards.
First, of course, make sure you are using a recent version of X for best results. This article uses X.org 6.7.0.
Now backup your existing X configuration - things could go wrong, or you might need it for reference later.
Disable X from starting at boot by running:Then shut down your computer, insert both graphics cards, and boot the computer back up again. The screen that your bios information shows up on is your "primary" monitor. If this is the wrong one, and you are using an AGP and a PCI graphics card, there should be an option in your BIOS that lets you choose which one to use.
- In AWARD BIOS (v4.51PG), menu: Integrated Peripherals -> Init Display First -> [PCI Slot / AGP]
- In AMIBIOS (v 08.00.08), menu: PCIPnP -> PCI Bus Scan Order -> [Ascent/Descent]
- In other BIOSs it's called: Bios First Boot -> [AGP/PCI]
[edit] Configuring X
In most cases, it is simplest to let X do as much auto-configuring as possible. It can usually detect your graphics cards, at least.
As root run:This will make your screen blink a few times, before returning with a message saying that it has created a test X configuration file at /root/xorg.conf.new and giving the command line to test the X server using this config file.
With a bit of luck, this should be a working X configuration. You may have to edit the mouse, monitor, or resolution settings. This is done in the same way as with a single-monitor setup, but there will be two "Monitor" sections, two "Device" sections, and two "Screen" sections. The "Screen" sections connect a monitor to a graphics card.
It is probably a good idea to change the Identifiers of the device and monitor sections so you can tell them apart, e.g.
... Section "Monitor" Identifier "NECMonitor" ... Section "Monitor" Identifier "VSMonitor" ... Section "Device" Identifier "NvidiaCard" Driver "nvidia" ... Section "Device" Identifier "AtiCard" Driver "ati" ... Section "Screen" Identifier "LeftScreen" Device "NvidiaCard" Monitor "NecMonitor" DefaultDepth 24 ... Section "Screen" Identifier "RightScreen" Device "AtiCard" Monitor "VSMonitor" DefaultDepth 24
At the top of the file, there is a section called "ServerLayout". This section specifies the layout of your monitors. In the above configuration, the two monitors are beside each other ("RightScreen" is to the right of "LeftScreen").
The layout can be specified using keywords or absolute pixel positions (useful for odd layouts, or even overlapping layouts!?):
Section "ServerLayout" Identifier "XFree86 Configured" Screen 0 "LeftScreen" 0 0 Screen 1 "RightScreen" RightOf "LeftScreen"
"LeftScreen" is located at position 0,0 with "RightScreen" to its right.
The useable keywords are "RightOf <identifier>", "LeftOf <identifier>", "Above <identifier>", and "Below <identifier>". A special keyword is "Relative" - it is used to specify the position in pixels of a screen in relation to another screen. For instance:
Screen 0 "LeftScreen" 0 0 Screen 1 "RightScreen" Relative "LeftScreen" 1024 40
In most cases, the LeftOf and RightOf keywords are what you want.
So, try starting the X server using your test configuration file again. Verify that the mouse can move from screen-to-screen in a relatively intuitive manner, and that your resolution and refresh rate is right. You can then copy your configuration file overtop of your old xorg.conf.
[edit] Setting up a dual/multi-head graphics card
[edit] XRandR 1.2 Specification
This should work for any driver which uses XRandR version 1.2
[edit] The First Way
this will alway start your xserver with both monitors, this is good for desktop users in this example we'll use the new nouveau driver
1) first setup your xorg.conf file to use the desired driver and add sections for both of you monitors
Section "ServerLayout"
identifier "default"
screen 0 "screen0" 0 0
Endsection
Section "Monitor"
# HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "Acer AL1717"
HorizSync 30.0 - 83.0
VertRefresh 55.0 - 75.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
# HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
Identifier "Monitor1"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "Acer AL1717"
HorizSync 30.0 - 83.0
VertRefresh 55.0 - 75.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nouveau"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce 7600 GT"
BusID "PCI:7:0:0"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "screen0"
Device "Device0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024"
EndSubSection
EndSection
and (re)start your xserver
2) open a terminal emulator and type
to confirm that RandR 1.2 is enabled then enter
which should look something like this:
Code: Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 1024, maximum 1280 x 1024 DVI-I-0 connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 340mm x 270mm 1280x1024 60.0*+ 75.0 75.0 60.0 60.0* 1280x960 60.0 1152x864 75.0 1024x768 75.0 75.1 75.0 70.1 60.0 60.0 896x672 120.0 832x624 74.6 800x600 130.0 120.0 72.2 75.0 75.0 60.3 60.0 56.2 700x525 149.5 120.0 640x512 150.0 120.0 640x480 120.0 75.0 72.8 75.0 60.0 59.9 720x400 70.1 576x432 150.0 512x384 150.1 140.1 120.0 416x312 149.3 400x300 144.4 150.2 120.6 112.7 320x240 145.6 150.0 120.1 DVI-I-1 connected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 1280x1024 60.0 + 75.0 75.0 60.0 60.0 1280x960 60.0 1152x864 75.0 1024x768 75.0 75.1 75.0 70.1 60.0 60.0 896x672 120.0 832x624 74.6 800x600 130.0 120.0 72.2 75.0 75.0 60.3 60.0 56.2 700x525 149.5 120.0 640x512 150.0 120.0 640x480 120.0 75.0 72.8 75.0 60.0 59.9 720x400 70.1 576x432 150.0 512x384 150.1 140.1 120.0 416x312 149.3 400x300 144.4 150.2 120.6 112.7 320x240 145.6 150.0 120.1 |
|
{{{2}}} |
note the first line:
| Code: |
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 1024, maximum 1280 x 1024 |
the 'maximum' resolution must the resolution of both of the monitors combined in our case 2560x1024 also note the DVI-I-0 and DVI-I-1 these are the names of our outputs
3) now armed with the needed information edit xorg.config again
Section "ServerLayout"
identifier "default"
screen 0 "screen0" 0 0
Endsection
Section "Monitor"
# HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "Acer AL1717"
HorizSync 30.0 - 83.0
VertRefresh 55.0 - 75.0
Option "DPMS"
Option "Position" "0 0" #add this to your farthest right monitor
Option "PreferredMode" "1280x1024" # Preferred resolution for the monitor
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
# HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
Identifier "Monitor1"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "Acer AL1717"
HorizSync 30.0 - 83.0
VertRefresh 55.0 - 75.0
Option "DPMS"
Option "PreferredMode" "1280x1024" # Preferred resolution for the monitor
Option "RightOf" "Monitor0" #puts this monitor to the right of Monitor0
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nouveau"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce 7600 GT"
BusID "PCI:7:0:0"
Option "monitor-DVI-I-0" "Monitor0" #assigns the output DVI-I-0 to Monitor0
Option "monitor-DVI-I-1" "Monitor1" #assigns the output DVI-I-1 to Monitor1
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "screen0"
Device "Device0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024"
Virtual 2560 1024 #note the lack of quotes, this line sets the 'maximum' resolution
EndSubSection
EndSection
[edit] The Second Way
This way is faster but requires you to set the actual dual screen state some time during each session (useful for laptop users)
in this example we will use the radeon driver from upstream ( I don't know how long ago RandR 1.2 was put into the driver)
1) edit xorg.conf to use your driver and your primary monitor (the one hat is always attached) and add an extra large 'virtual' line
Section "ServerLayout"
identifier "default"
screen 0 "screen0" 0 0
# screen 1 "screen1" rightof "screen0"
Endsection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Display"
VendorName "HP"
HorizSync 30.0 - 83.0
VertRefresh 55.0 - 75.0
Option "DPMS"
Option "Position" "0 0"
Option "PreferredMode" "1280x800"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nouveau"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce 7600 GT"
BusID "PCI:7:0:0"
Option "monitor-DVI-I-0" "Monitor0"
Option "monitor-DVI-I-1" "Monitor1"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Displaycard"
Driver "ati"
BusID "PCI:01:05:00"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "screen 0"
Device "Displaycard"
Monitor "Display"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024"
Virtual 4096 4096 #some drivers have a low limit for this option, possibly due to hardware limits
EndSubSection
EndSection
and (re)start your xserver
2) now use an randr utility to manage your external display
gnome users: system -> Preferences -> Display
and kde4 users: K -> System -> Krandr
[edit] Nvidia
See X.Org/Dual Monitors/Nvidia
[edit] ATI
[edit] Matrox
See X.Org/Dual Monitors/Matrox
[edit] Jeronimo
To get your Jeronimo card to work, you need to use the glint driver like this:
... Section "Device" Identifier "Texas Instruments TVP4020 [Permedia 2] 1" Driver "glint" BusID "PCI:3:01:0" Option "XaaNoOffscreenPixmaps" EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "Texas Instruments TVP4020 [Permedia 2] 2" Driver "glint" BusID "PCI:3:05:0" Option "XaaNoOffscreenPixmaps" EndSection ... Section "Screen" Identifier "Screen 1" Device "Texas Instruments TVP4020 [Permedia 2] 1" Monitor "Monitor 1" DefaultDepth 16 Subsection "Display" Depth 16 Modes "1024x768" ViewPort 0 0 EndSubsection EndSection ...
if you have a 4port jeronimo, repeat the device section 4 times and enumerate the identifier properly and of course for every other section too, like described above. The old jeronimo hasn't much memory so you need to minimize Depth and Modes in your screen section. Depth 16 and Modes "1024x768" works for me.
[edit] SiS
Thomas Winischhofer web page has information on how to setup dual monitors. The best way is to use the Merged Framebuffer Mode. It is possible to control the screens with x11-misc/sisctrl.
[edit] SiS 771/671 PCIE
Xinerama and cloned monitors have been confirmed possible. These are the relevant sections of /etc/X11/xorg.conf:
Section "Device" Identifier "Device0" Driver "sis" VendorName "Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS]" BoardName "771/671 PCIE VGA Display Adapter" BusID "PCI:1:0:0" Option "EnableSiSCtrl" "yes" Option "DRI" "off" Option "MergedFB" "auto" Option "MetaModes" "1280x1024-1280x800 1280x1024+800x600" Option "MergedDPI" "100 100" EndSection
[edit] Using Multiple screens
With the way I have the X configuration set above, you are given two separate "screens". These "screens" are what the extra ".0" in your DISPLAY variable are for. To make an application run on a different screen than it would normally start on, run it as
where the 1 refers to the screen number that you want it to appear on.
The Gimp has a special feature with screens. Right-click on an image, choose "View->Move to Screen", and a dialog will pop up allowing you to move the image window to a different screen.
Using multiple screens in this way gives advantages mainly in terms of speed and hardware acceleration, and in allowing different colour depths on different screens.
The disadvantage is that you cannot move windows between two screens unless your program has a facility for doing this internally. As well, programs cannot overlap screens or stretch over all of them.
One advantage is that your window manager effectively runs independently on each screen, so you can have (say) eight workspaces on one, and eight on the other.
[edit] Moving focus between screens
It is no problem to move the mouse pointer between dual head screens, if you don't mind reaching for your mouse. After searching endlessly for something to allow me to move the pointer between non-xinerama dual head screens purely from the keyboard and finding nothing, I've written a program to accomplish this:
http://unlogical.net/files/scripts/switchscreen-0.4.tar.gz
Compile it up (see comment in source) and bind it to a key in Fluxbox.
# switch between groups Mod1 Tab :PrevWindow 5 Mod1 Shift Tab :NextWindow 5 # switch between workspaces Mod1 Up : Mod1 Down :NextWorkspace # switch between group members Mod1 Left :PrevTab Mod1 Right :NextTab # switch between screens Mod1 End :ExecCommand /usr/local/bin/switchscreen
It uses the XTEST extension to perform a 'fake' absolute mouse pointer move. It remembers the previous pointer location so you can effortlessly switch backwards and forwards between two screens. It could do with a little more work but it's perfectly functional right now. The XWarpPointer library function didn't seem to allow moving between screens so I use XTestFakeMotionEvent instead.
It can be used with any window manager since it uses pure X11 library calls. However combined with Fluxbox and keybindings to change virtual desktops, it allows you to easily change between sixteen virtual workspaces across two heads without using the mouse at all.
David Mohr adopted the above program to work with xorg 7.4 and added a small utility to wrap the mouse cursor between two separate X screens. See dualscreen-mouse-utils for more details and to download.
xbindkeys is another way to go for other window managers than Fluxbox.
[edit] Controlling your window manager
The program x11-misc/wmctrl can be used manually or within scripts to change workspaces and windows on either screen.
[edit] Disable KDE MultiHead
KDE Session Manager tries to manage all possible screens that are currently running. This default behaviour may be unwanted, e.g. using secondary screen for watching movies, therefore pure X screen is a much better solution.
To disable MultiHead in KDE, edit /usr/kde/.../share/config/kcmdisplayrc and add following:
[X11] disableMultihead=true
[edit] Independent Dual Head in KDE 4.2
As You know, in KDE 4.2 no longer supports independent desktops. But there is possible workaround, using secondary windows manager for secondary screen. First configure in /etc/X11/xorg.conf two separate screens. Then emerge your preffered light weight window manager (but be careful only few wm are working).
[ebuild R ] x11-wm/icewm-1.2.30 USE="esd imlib nls spell truetype xinerama -debug -minimal" 0 kB
Now when you boot into kde4.2 you must see on primary monitor normal kde desktop and on secondary monitor X server without wm (mouse cursor have X shape). After start you can type command which start secondary wm
If all is working and secondary wm is started on secondary monitor, then you can add this command after kde start into startup directory.
[edit] Using Xinerama
If you want/need the features that you don't get with multiple screens, you can have them by using Xinerama, but at the expense of speed and causing problems with some hardware accelerated apps.
To enable Xinerama, add the following new section to your X configuration file:
Section "ServerFlags" Option "Xinerama" "true" EndSection
And restart X.
The main reason that X might not start after this is problems relating to conflicting colour depths - both monitors must run at the same color depth. If one of your graphics cards is limited in memory, you can either lower the resolution on it, or lower the color depth on both monitors.
With Xinerama, both monitors are formed into one virtual screen. Apps can move over it, and windows can overlap. Some programs that use e.g. fullscreen may not work correctly unless they are recompiled with "xinerama" added to your USE flags.
Enabling xinerama support in an application allows it to know where monitor bounderies are. E.g. in metacity (the gnome window manager), it enables better placement of newly opened windows, and keeps windows on the screen better.
[edit] Troubleshooting
- /etc/init.d/xdm stop
- If Xdm won't start because it thinks it's already running, but you know it isn't, use the following command to reset its state: /etc/init.d/xdm zap
- control-alt-f7 switches to vt7 (virtual terminal), which is where X usually resides.
- control-alt-f1 (f1..f6) get to those virtual terminals
- control-alt-backspace will kill the current x session
- elinks if your x stops working, this web browser works pretty well
- You can specify a different config file to the default (/etc/X11/xorg.conf) using: startx -config <config_file>
- X can be a real pain about mice, it might not be starting because your mouse device isn't set correctly (usually /dev/input/mice)
- A second X sesssion can be started using the following command. Note that it will spawn on the next available vt (usually vt8): startx -- :1
If you have problems with windows spanning across your dual or triple monitors, or you seem to notice that your windows don't seem to "snap" to your screens, you probably haven't compiled your favorite window manager with the xinerama use flag. (if it supports it, that is). When you compile or recompile your window manager (eg. Gnome's Metacity) with the xinerama use flag, your windows will only maximize to one screen. This is a small, but important issue that people tend to overlook at first (including myself).
[edit] Mouse Jail: How to lock your mouse in the monitor
Playing games when using a dual monitor configuration can be a pain. The problem is that the mouse would move to the other monitor while playing the game, and you would lose control of the mouse for your game. To avoid this problem, there's a small program you can use, mostly based on David Antliff's switchscreen program. The idea is simply to lock your mouse in the monitor it currently is in. The tarball for this program is available at http://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/~sm244/Jail.tar.gz . You can then simply bind a shortcut key to the program from your window manager.
[edit] Switchscreen
You might like to use the second screen for certain tasks only (eg. TV). The Problem is the same as in "Mouse Jail" described above, which means you have to run jail at startup. There is an alternative solution: configure the second Screen "far away" from the first one:
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "double"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
Screen 1 "Screen1" 2000 0
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSectionX Configured like above, prevents you from moving your mouse to the second screen. When you want to move the mouse there, use a hotkey configured on your Window Manager, which runs Switchscreen (see link above) to move the mouse on the second screen. Now you are able to view TV on my second screen for example:
while still working on the first one.
Jail might not for you (in one case Warcraft III was lagging when Jail worked to keep the cursor in the right screen). So instead configure the screens "far away" like mentioned above in this section, and then use an adapted version of the Jail program to allow the crossing of the cursor: http://dsp.mcbf.net/releases/mouse-switchscreen-0.3b.tar.bz2 . It turns out that allowing the cursor to cross over is much easier for the computer than it is to jail the cursor. The included "mouse-switchscreen.sh" script makes it easy to toggle the feature with a keyboard shortcut. That way you can have it on by default, and turn it off quickly when starting a game.
If Screen 1 has a lower resolution than Screen 0 (e.g. TV), you can also stack screen 1 on top of screen 0:
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
Screen 1 "Screen1" 0 0
Then you can switch to Screen 0 with switchscreen and come back to Screen 1 by moving the mouse across the bottom or right border! The mouse will still be jailed in screen 0.
Also you can configure one monitor as the side of another.
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "double"
Screen 0 "Screen0"
Screen 1 "Screen1" LeftOf "Screen0"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSectionWhen you move the mouse to the left of the screen 0 appears in the screen 1.
