Comments on: Dual Monitors HOWTO

By: marc

marc — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 08:09:59 +0000

I have a question, I am using twinview…but I run into a couple of issues. For one, when I add a wallpaper…it is in the middle of the two screens…how do i set two different wallpapers for each screen, or at the very least, move it over to one of the screens? The other problem is that when I play a game in full screen, it plays in the middle of the two screens…is there anyway to make linux think there are two screens, instead of one big screen.

I have two LCD screens…the one on the right is hooked up via vga cable and i want it to be my secondary monitor…the one on the left is hooked up via dvi and i want this to be my primary monitor.

By: Zulus

Zulus — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 10:17:46 +0000

I dont know how-to setup different wallpapers to displays, but i think this is not possible with twinview. This can be possible with xinerama (IMHO).

Wallpaper/game placed on center of screen because resolution of wallpaper/game are not enough for your virtual display resolution. So there is two ways:
1) Find wallpaper with bigger resolution / Change resolution settings in game
2) Stretch wallpaper to desktop size. I dont know which window manager you use, but in KDE you can do that in desktop settings

To have DVI monitor primary you need add/change following option in your xorg.conf:
Option “TwinViewXineramaInfoOrder” “DFP, CRT”
Option “UseDisplayDevice” “DFP, CRT”
Option “TwinViewOrientation” “DFP LeftOf CRT”

By: Lobsang Rampa

Lobsang Rampa — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 17:25:15 +0000

Great HOWTO. Thanks.

Now, you need to go to the store and buy a bigger desk. :)

By: Zulus

Zulus — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 17:38:46 +0000

Yeah, i know. Will do that first thing tomorrow morning ;-)

By: Jacob

Jacob — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 17:44:21 +0000

Just thought you might like to know, with the latest beta nvidia drivers, it includes an x server config tool that is extremely useful.
Its called “nvidia-settings” and it lets you set-up your graphics card in a nice simple gui.
It can setup TwinView or Separate x servers, however I do have to admit I have never tried this and always done mine by hand.
It also includes most (if not all) the options you’ll need for your monitor(s).
And best of all, you can setup the global Anti-aliasing Settings & Digital Vibrance.
However to have the Anti-aliasing & Digital Vibrance settings activate when you login, you must add “nvidia-settings -l” to your session start up.
Or you could just simply run the program when you first login.
Hope this helps anyone else baffled with setting up dual monitors!. :)

By: Brandon Hopkins

Brandon Hopkins — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 17:45:34 +0000

Congrats on the Digg front page! I’ve always wanted a second monitor, but never had the money for them…I might buy a pair soon now though.

By: Haydn Huntley

Haydn Huntley — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 17:51:42 +0000

Did you gets this working with i386 or with X86_64 Ubuntu?

By: Fivestar

Fivestar — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 17:53:19 +0000

no, instead, write an article:

Dual Desks HOWTO » Zulus Tips

By: Zulus

Zulus — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 17:57:31 +0000

2Haydn: i386

By: Zulus

Zulus — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 17:59:31 +0000

Jacob, thanks for advice.

By: Bill G

Bill G — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 18:00:52 +0000

In XP, this would take 10 seconds, not 3 hours!

By: Zulus

Zulus — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 18:08:12 +0000

Bill G, I hope you are happy with XP on your desktop ;-)

By: Ludi

Ludi — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 18:15:32 +0000

On Fedora, it takes 5 seconds… (you should see the DualHead GUI)

By: Vlad

Vlad — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 18:21:36 +0000

Dual is nice but how about getting a single 22′ widescreen lcd working properly :-( Have 7.04 and a widescreen acer and it won’t do 1680×1050.
Any ideas?

By: Zulus

Zulus — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 18:27:17 +0000

Vlad, are you sure that your video card support 1680×1050? :-)
If yes, you can try following modeline in xorg.conf
ModeLine “1680×1050@75″ 146.25 1680 1784 1960 2240 1050 1053 1059 1089 +hsync -vsync

By: tech

tech — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 18:50:21 +0000

does dual monitors burn CPU usage ?

By: Zulus

Zulus — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 18:53:05 +0000

tech, no. There is no difference

By: hoser

hoser — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 19:15:18 +0000

I have a dual monitor set up on a SLI setup…and it crashes all the time….i wish it was completely stable….what am i doing wrong?

By: Anna

Anna — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 19:19:14 +0000

Just as a thought, if you can load nVidia drivers on Ubuntu (from the nVidia site), you can then run a command called nvidia-xconfig. If you run it as follows

nvidia-xconfig -a –twinview

It will set it up for you automatically without having to edit xorg.conf with both monitors at their full resolution. For me this saved a fair bit of time and also eliminated the problem of having to edit xorg.conf.

May this help someone.

By: Rodney

Rodney — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 19:28:47 +0000

Vlad, dual monitors are better than one widescreen for this reason:

With dual monitors, you can maximize a window on one screen, then maximize another window on the other screen.

On a single widescreen, hitting maximize would take up the entire screen.

Otherwise I would be in the market for a widescreen myself :)

By: Zulus

Zulus — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 19:30:31 +0000

Anna, thank you. I will try your recipe. Main problem of open source software is bad(not full) documentation. And usual there is a lot of ways to do same things

By: Hans

Hans — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 19:31:43 +0000

Just wanted to point out a very significant typo. The instructions say to add those lines to xorg.conf “Screen” section when in fact I am pretty sure(after looking at your full xorg.conf) that you mean the “Device” section.

By: Ola

Ola — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 19:33:33 +0000

The mere need for this kind of helper documents on technology that really should be straightforward and easy to use for _everyone_ is what makes the statement “Linux is ready for the desktop” fall flat on it’s face.

By: Zulus

Zulus — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 19:36:00 +0000

Hans, thanks. I’ve already fix that.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 19:40:17 +0000

This really shouldn’t take 3 hours. Things like this should “just work”.

By: IcanSearch

IcanSearch — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 19:42:55 +0000

yawn…
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=221174

By: Bojo

Bojo — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 19:43:48 +0000

Hmm…I don’t ever have to do any of this. I installed the nVidia drivers from the repository, and the nVidia control panel is really useful for this. As soon as I plug in an external monitor into my laptops VGA port, I just go into the nvidia-settings window and select TwinView, and voila, dual monitors. My only gripe is that all windows open up in the middle between both monitors.

By: Pedro

Pedro — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 19:45:06 +0000

w0w! Don’t you wnat to give me your ‘old’ monitor? :)

By: Zulus

Zulus — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 19:51:47 +0000

IcanSearch, so what? I’ve read few first pages and all as i see that how-to is not really works

By: ghost

ghost — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 20:01:46 +0000

1) The title should have nVidia in it! TwinView is an nVidia-only feature!

2) You should emphasize that the beta driver is required in order to be able to control the order of the screens (the TwinViewXineramaInfoOrder option).

1) To the person who says that in Windows XP it takes 10 seconds… In XP, I still can’t get the taskbar to appear on my LCD screen, even though I made it “primary.” I spent hours trying to fix that, and then just gave up. So, this is one (rare) case where the Linux driver (in beta, I admit!) works better.

By: majorw2

majorw2 — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 21:40:14 +0000

ghost, In XP just un-lock the taskbar (right click on it, uncheck lock-taskbar) and then drag it over to the other screen. Lock it again. Done.

By: Anna

Anna — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 21:49:42 +0000

I wish it was that simple, Anonymous.

I had no trouble installing drivers on my dual monitor machine and within less than an hour, was up and running Mandriva 2007 with dual monitors, TwinView, and all the niceties (?). My friend, however, using a machine not too unlike my own with a video card exactly like mine is still unable to get video and sound to work on his machine.

It all seems to depend on level of luck and hard ware compatibility. Some people will find their Linux install painless and TwinView (or Xinerama or ATI alternative) easy to set up while others will struggle for days.

Windows has those same issues, but because of popularity the solution is usually easier to find (though not always).

By: Morley

Morley — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 12:12:23 +0000

Don’t suppose anyone knows a decent guide for ATI? I’m using a (rather old) laptop with ATI Radeon 9700 Mobility. I’ve got a second monitor that I use when at home, and with XP, no problem. What I would love to have is the ability to turn on and off the second screen in Ubuntu, because when programming, a second screen is gold.

Now, this is the part where all the Linux Gurus say “Idiot, the guide is right HERE” and post a link. Right?

Right?

By: Zulus

Zulus — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 14:37:31 +0000

Morley, I haven’t any PC’s with ATI, so i will not help you.
You can try link posted above by IcanSearch. Keywords is: Xinerama, BigDesktop

By: Arch

Arch — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 16:40:00 +0000

I want to say thank you so much for providing this how to on dual head Linux. I’ve searching everywhere for help, but yours is the only one that works.

By: Amazing Iceman

Amazing Iceman — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 18:54:02 +0000

Thanks everyone for all your info. I has been a while since I tried Linux on my desktop (I have used Linux as my web/mail/firewall server for many years already).
This time I installed Ubuntu 7.04, and now I don’t miss Vista. I actually don’t like it anymore; all that wait for nothing.
There are tons of online HOW-TOs available, I got most of my peripherals to work, including 3 TV Tuners, G15 Gaming keyboard, GF6800; now I’m going to try two monitors, and I’m confident it’s going to work out great.
I have to say that I have learned alot in the past week, about 120 hours well spent.
There are some Windoze applications I still need to run, so I may have to dual-boot or use my laptop until I could get them to work under WINE, or replace them with Linux Apps.

As a side note, I never really liked ATI: they have always been lame supporting anything but Windows, and in more than one ocasion have dropped Windows drivers and support for some of their older product (like my ALL-IN-WONDER AGP card, which I ended up throwing away long time ago).

I just wish that with the Vista fiasco, the industry provides more support to Linux and MAC, as these two emerging Operating Systems are proving to give more functionality and power to our current computers instead of having to buy a new one every other year because an upgrade to the OS would make it obsolete.

By: alex

alex — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 23:50:08 +0000

hi nice site.

By: al

al — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 20:00:14 +0000

Morley - Try the rage 3d linux forum, these guys helped me plenty back in the day.
http://www.rage3d.com/board/forumdisplay.php?f=61
good luck

By: al

al — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 20:35:17 +0000

Is it possible to run different setups for each screen in twinview ?
ie: crt - 1024×768 @ 75hz, lcdtv - 1280×720 @ 50hz in twinview (not clone)

By: Zulus

Zulus — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 14:54:44 +0000

2al: yes, this is possible
In my case i have two different resolutions. Just use correct Modeline for every screen

By: Senkrad

Senkrad — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 21:54:10 +0000

Ok my setup has worked. I have two screens one running 1600×1200 and one 1024×768. They run independantly.

But I am having a hard time using them efficiently. I open email in one with a couple other programs and I open firefox in the other with a couple other programs.

If I click on a link in my email it tries to launch firefox but says it is already running. Is there anyway to direct it to use the first display when doing such things? And as result of course use the firefox session that is running?

By: Motorcycle Guy

Motorcycle Guy — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 13:05:28 +0000

This is one of the main reasons I don’t use linux as a primary box. It’s just too hard to setup stuff like dual monitors and printers and scanners and dvd burners. I guess its just me but all that stuff…. I like for it to just work.

By: backlink

backlink — Fri, 11 May 2007 08:36:14 +0000

Dual is nice but how about getting a single 22′ widescreen lcd working properly…

thanks

By: Rictoo

Rictoo — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 05:22:33 +0000

Thanks! This worked perfectly!

By: Rounin

Rounin — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 03:55:52 +0000

NVIDIA-SETTINGS

This app rules on the Ubuntu 7.04 just run it and voila. You wont need to edit the xorg.conf file. I have 2 1280×1024 lcd panels and running on a single Nvidia 5200 video card with vga and a dvi out. The setup was so simple, and I though I was using my windows machine. So if you have a nvidia card this is the way to go.

I dont use the dual single use setup, setup mine to do the 2560×1024 layout, awesome for the editor in one screen and browser in the other.

By: Rounin

Rounin — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 04:45:22 +0000

Ok so the dual monitor mode sorta works :). I can use the TwinView and of course anything that is not on the primary acts up or should I say takes up the whole screen, but on the primary acts like it is the only monitor that exists.

So at this point still testing and will come back when I have better tests ….

By: Rounin

Rounin — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 00:30:58 +0000

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=53966

The link above, will help if you have 2 video cards and 2 monitors. Hope this helps. The Nvidia-Settings proggy does work, but it has its own ills, if it doesnt see the additional monitor it will not allow you to configure it, unless it is used as a twin view. But anyway the above worked for me and that is saying something.

By: Rounin

Rounin — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 00:31:46 +0000

Here is the working xorg.conf on my system.

Ubuntu 7.04 and 2 NVidia cards, 2 Tyris 19″ lcd displays.

# /etc/X11/xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf(5) manual page.
# (Type “man xorg.conf” at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
# sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section “Files”
Fontpath “/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc”
Fontpath “/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic”
Fontpath “/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled”
Fontpath “/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/:unscaled”
Fontpath “/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1″
Fontpath “/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi”
Fontpath “/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi”
# path to defoma fonts
Fontpath “/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType”
EndSection

Section “Module”
Load “i2c”
Load “bitmap”
Load “ddc”
Load “extmod”
Load “freetype”
Load “glx”
Load “int10″
Load “vbe”
EndSection

Section “InputDevice”
Identifier “Generic Keyboard”
Driver “kbd”
Option “CoreKeyboard”
Option “XkbRules” “xorg”
Option “XkbModel” “pc105″
Option “XkbLayout” “us”
EndSection

Section “InputDevice”
Identifier “Configured Mouse”
Driver “mouse”
Option “CorePointer”
Option “Device” “/dev/input/mice”
Option “Protocol” “ImPS/2″
Option “ZAxisMapping” “4 5″
Option “Emulate3Buttons” “true”
EndSection

Section “InputDevice”
Driver “wacom”
Identifier “stylus”
Option “Device” “/dev/input/wacom”
Option “Type” “stylus”
Option “ForceDevice” “ISDV4″# Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section “InputDevice”
Driver “wacom”
Identifier “eraser”
Option “Device” “/dev/input/wacom”
Option “Type” “eraser”
Option “ForceDevice” “ISDV4″# Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section “InputDevice”
Driver “wacom”
Identifier “cursor”
Option “Device” “/dev/input/wacom”
Option “Type” “cursor”
Option “ForceDevice” “ISDV4″# Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section “Device”
Identifier “nVidia Corporation NV34 [GeForce FX 5200]”
Driver “nv”
Busid “PCI:3:0:0″
Option “AddARGBVisuals” “True”
Option “AddARGBGLXVisuals” “True”
Option “NoLogo” “True”
EndSection

Section “Monitor”
Identifier “T701DB”
Option “DPMS”
EndSection

Section “Screen”
Identifier “Right Screen”
Device “nVidia Corporation NV34 [GeForce FX 5200]”
Monitor “T701DB”
Defaultdepth 24
SubSection “Display”
Depth 1
Option “RenderAccel” “true”
Modes “1280×1024″ “1152×864″ “1024×768″ “832×624″ “800×600″ “720×450″ “720×400″ “640×480″ “640×400″
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 4
Modes “1280×1024″ “1152×864″ “1024×768″ “832×624″ “800×600″ “720×450″ “720×400″ “640×480″ “640×400″
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 8
Modes “1280×1024″ “1152×864″ “1024×768″ “832×624″ “800×600″ “720×450″ “720×400″ “640×480″ “640×400″
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 15
Modes “1280×1024″ “1152×864″ “1024×768″ “832×624″ “800×600″ “720×450″ “720×400″ “640×480″ “640×400″
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 16
Modes “1280×1024″ “1152×864″ “1024×768″ “832×624″ “800×600″ “720×450″ “720×400″ “640×480″ “640×400″
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 24
Modes “1280×1024″ “1152×864″ “1024×768″ “832×624″ “800×600″ “720×450″ “720×400″ “640×480″ “640×400″
EndSubSection
EndSection

# Nvidia MX 4000

Section “Device”
Identifier “nVidia Corporation NV18 [GeForce4 MX 4000]”
Driver “nv”
Busid “PCI:1:7:0″
Option “AddARGBVisuals” “True”
Option “AddARGBGLXVisuals” “True”
Option “NoLogo” “True”
EndSection

Section “Monitor”
Identifier “T701DB2″
Option “DPMS”
EndSection

Section “Screen”
Identifier “Left Screen”
Device “nVidia Corporation NV18 [GeForce4 MX 4000]”
Monitor “T701DB2″
Defaultdepth 24
SubSection “Display”
Depth 1
Modes “1280×1024″ “1152×864″ “1024×768″ “832×624″ “800×600″ “720×450″ “720×400″ “640×480″ “640×400″
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 4
Modes “1280×1024″ “1152×864″ “1024×768″ “832×624″ “800×600″ “720×450″ “720×400″ “640×480″ “640×400″
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 8
Modes “1280×1024″ “1152×864″ “1024×768″ “832×624″ “800×600″ “720×450″ “720×400″ “640×480″ “640×400″
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 15
Modes “1280×1024″ “1152×864″ “1024×768″ “832×624″ “800×600″ “720×450″ “720×400″ “640×480″ “640×400″
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 16
Modes “1280×1024″ “1152×864″ “1024×768″ “832×624″ “800×600″ “720×450″ “720×400″ “640×480″ “640×400″
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 24
Modes “1280×1024″ “1152×864″ “1024×768″ “832×624″ “800×600″ “720×450″ “720×400″ “640×480″ “640×400″
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section “ServerLayout”
Identifier “Dual Layout”
Screen 0 “Right Screen” 0 0
Screen 1 “Left Screen” LeftOf “Right Screen”
Inputdevice “Generic Keyboard”
Inputdevice “Configured Mouse”
Inputdevice “stylus” “SendCoreEvents”
Inputdevice “cursor” “SendCoreEvents”
Inputdevice “eraser” “SendCoreEvents”
EndSection

Section “DRI”
Mode 0666
EndSection

Section “ServerFlags”
Option “Xinerama” “true”
EndSection