From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([69.77.167.62] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1Kom6R-0007oh-8W for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Sat, 11 Oct 2008 21:34:24 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 0D723E03B7; Sat, 11 Oct 2008 21:34:22 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail-gx0-f19.google.com (mail-gx0-f19.google.com [209.85.217.19]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DB081E03B7 for ; Sat, 11 Oct 2008 21:34:21 +0000 (UTC) Received: by gxk12 with SMTP id 12so2150176gxk.10 for ; Sat, 11 Oct 2008 14:34:20 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:from:to:subject:date :user-agent:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding :content-disposition:message-id; bh=Ifz00RNOgxvAsiKS+PAuvGb9jgZ1ZG0dY80uHQmqP6U=; b=vQWo1t3eFA8XSTvl4wzFgufefDfS86gTcnCuD1qBpLBK4lO6XpSZIkYfudcpKFP8Dk Kme3lshZ9WGVi61xWDMbW644BMPmSqeL37ieiUFaHnpTyWPbRAioCJoSoaHP2POWlsfE DpgdeoCci3g5D9ZKM6Q16TdRvLYR+vWcQeZQo= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=from:to:subject:date:user-agent:mime-version:content-type :content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:message-id; b=qJT2lS4VOY4MHNUrRBZeROGLotIpXt74CQF/x270tEkEnfn0q/2LBDyuT0jKz0KNvL J6yyQms5DbuW4jRnI9ImNJ7Kf8TM1bATRl6TuSjgt9koZsd0aatBQo5ecjcsnlwr4hoe t0beswOGxslkL2qDpQ38Wr/EpP2KoS4wOCx84= Received: by 10.151.41.14 with SMTP id t14mr4989478ybj.11.1223760860738; Sat, 11 Oct 2008 14:34:20 -0700 (PDT) Received: from ?10.0.0.6? (dsl-243-231-180.telkomadsl.co.za [41.243.231.180]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id 33sm4255225yxr.3.2008.10.11.14.34.18 (version=SSLv3 cipher=RC4-MD5); Sat, 11 Oct 2008 14:34:19 -0700 (PDT) From: Alan McKinnon To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Subject: [gentoo-user] Xinerama vs TwinView for dual monitor setup Date: Sat, 11 Oct 2008 23:34:10 +0200 User-Agent: KMail/1.9.10 Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200810112334.10957.alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> X-Archives-Salt: 99351538-cb6a-4d3b-8163-0a86bc526a65 X-Archives-Hash: b981f3e596b9ba39631fc04be2a9b8b0 Hi, My notebook has this graphics hardware. alan@nazgul ~ $ sudo lspci | grep VGA 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 8600M GT (rev a1) alan@nazgul ~ $ sudo xdpyinfo | grep -A4 'screen #0' screen #0: print screen: no dimensions: 1920x1200 pixels (332x210 millimeters) resolution: 147x145 dots per inch depths (7): 24, 1, 4, 8, 15, 16, 32 I also have a second LCD monitor at work, a 1280x1024 that is physically slightly larger than the notebook screen, with a corresponding lower dpi. I've configured it with TwinView to have the second monitor on the right, and how I usually use it is to put a user's support mail on that where I can read it and fix their issues using the tools on the main monitor. So it's a very unsophisticated setup, I have no need for massive 3D accel for eg games, or even for placing windows across two monitors. Windows are always on one screen or the other (because of the huge dpi difference). There are two smallish issues: The viewports are aligned along the top edge and the panel/kicker/plasma/whatever on every desktop environment insists on trying to stretch across both monitors, into dead space on the right hand one. I'm getting use to right-click on panel, configure, set width to 57% at work, 100% at home. If I align the viewports on the bottom edges, windows managers tend to want to position new windows with their title bars in the dead space at the top. kdm and entrance want to stretch over both monitors. I definitely do not want this. Murphy dictates that all useful DM menus will end up in the dead space regardless of the theme I use My research into nvidia's docs leads me to believe that TwinView is designed to make the presence of two physical monitors invisible and present one giant X screen, with a funky API for dead spaces (which may or may not work). I'm thinking Xinerama is the better option, despite the fact that it's old, clunky, hopeless at dealing with XRandR and can't be changed on the fly. I'm happy to set up two ServerLayouts to deal with this. I'd appreciate some pros and cons feedback from the list before I embark on a huge emerge -e world to include Xinerama support. -- alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com