[gentoo-user] Setting up two monitors

[gentoo-user] Setting up two monitors

[Mick]

Hi All,

I am trying to set up two monitors, but have next to no experience on
the subject.  Last time I set up two monitors on a machine was years
ago and I recall using xinerama and xorg.conf.  Now I do not use
xorg.conf and I'm still running x11-base/xorg-server-1.7.7-r1

Upon booting up this machine showed both monitors with the same
resolution and cloning each other.

$ xrandr -q
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 1024, maximum 1920 x 1920
VGA-0 connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y
axis) 359mm x 287mm
   1280x1024      75.0*+   60.0
   1152x864       75.0
   1024x768       85.0     75.0     70.1     60.0
   832x624        74.6
   800x600        85.1     72.2     75.0     60.3     56.2
   640x480        85.0     75.0     72.8     66.7     59.9
   720x400        70.1
DVI-0 connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y
axis) 509mm x 286mm
   1920x1080      60.0 +
   1280x1024      75.0     60.0*
   1152x864       75.0
   1024x768       75.0     60.0
   800x600        75.0     60.3
   640x480        75.0     59.9
   720x400        70.1

To change the new larger monitor connected on the DVI port, I ran:

$ xrandr --output DVI-0 --auto

and that gave me:

$ xrandr -q
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1920 x 1080, maximum 1920 x 1920
VGA-0 connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y
axis) 359mm x 287mm
   1280x1024      75.0*+   60.0
   1152x864       75.0
   1024x768       85.0     75.0     70.1     60.0
   832x624        74.6
   800x600        85.1     72.2     75.0     60.3     56.2
   640x480        85.0     75.0     72.8     66.7     59.9
   720x400        70.1
DVI-0 connected 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y
axis) 509mm x 286mm
   1920x1080      60.0*+
   1280x1024      75.0     60.0
   1152x864       75.0
   1024x768       75.0     60.0
   800x600        75.0     60.3
   640x480        75.0     59.9
   720x400        70.1

Is there some invocation to allow me to set this up like <aheam!>
MSWindows does?  I mean, in WinXP all desktop icons and toolbar stays
at the bottom of the DVI monitor.  The VGA monitor on the left just
shows the desktop background, but has no toolbar or desktop icons.
The user can however drag application windows from the DVI monitor to
the VGA monitor, seamlessly between the two.  On this machine I can't
- they are just clones of each other ...
-- 
Regards,
Mick

Re: [gentoo-user] Setting up two monitors

[Alan McKinnon]

Apparently, though unproven, at 22:51 on Wednesday 03 November 2010, Mick did 
opine thusly:

> Hi All,
> 
> I am trying to set up two monitors, but have next to no experience on
> the subject.  Last time I set up two monitors on a machine was years
> ago and I recall using xinerama and xorg.conf.  Now I do not use
> xorg.conf and I'm still running x11-base/xorg-server-1.7.7-r1
> 
> Upon booting up this machine showed both monitors with the same
> resolution and cloning each other.

What video driver?




> 
> $ xrandr -q
> Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 1024, maximum 1920 x 1920
> VGA-0 connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y
> axis) 359mm x 287mm
>    1280x1024      75.0*+   60.0
>    1152x864       75.0
>    1024x768       85.0     75.0     70.1     60.0
>    832x624        74.6
>    800x600        85.1     72.2     75.0     60.3     56.2
>    640x480        85.0     75.0     72.8     66.7     59.9
>    720x400        70.1
> DVI-0 connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y
> axis) 509mm x 286mm
>    1920x1080      60.0 +
>    1280x1024      75.0     60.0*
>    1152x864       75.0
>    1024x768       75.0     60.0
>    800x600        75.0     60.3
>    640x480        75.0     59.9
>    720x400        70.1
> 
> To change the new larger monitor connected on the DVI port, I ran:
> 
> $ xrandr --output DVI-0 --auto
> 
> and that gave me:
> 
> $ xrandr -q
> Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1920 x 1080, maximum 1920 x 1920
> VGA-0 connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y
> axis) 359mm x 287mm
>    1280x1024      75.0*+   60.0
>    1152x864       75.0
>    1024x768       85.0     75.0     70.1     60.0
>    832x624        74.6
>    800x600        85.1     72.2     75.0     60.3     56.2
>    640x480        85.0     75.0     72.8     66.7     59.9
>    720x400        70.1
> DVI-0 connected 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y
> axis) 509mm x 286mm
>    1920x1080      60.0*+
>    1280x1024      75.0     60.0
>    1152x864       75.0
>    1024x768       75.0     60.0
>    800x600        75.0     60.3
>    640x480        75.0     59.9
>    720x400        70.1
> 
> Is there some invocation to allow me to set this up like <aheam!>
> MSWindows does?  I mean, in WinXP all desktop icons and toolbar stays
> at the bottom of the DVI monitor.  The VGA monitor on the left just
> shows the desktop background, but has no toolbar or desktop icons.
> The user can however drag application windows from the DVI monitor to
> the VGA monitor, seamlessly between the two.  On this machine I can't
> - they are just clones of each other ...

-- 
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com

Re: [gentoo-user] Setting up two monitors

[Mick]

Oops! This didn't make it to the list.  Answer to Alan half way down
and more info on card at the bottom.

On 3 November 2010 22:20, Mick <michaelkintzios@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wednesday 03 November 2010 20:55:01 you wrote:
>> Apparently, though unproven, at 22:51 on Wednesday 03 November 2010, Mick
>> did
>>
>> opine thusly:
>> > Hi All,
>> >
>> > I am trying to set up two monitors, but have next to no experience on
>> > the subject.  Last time I set up two monitors on a machine was years
>> > ago and I recall using xinerama and xorg.conf.  Now I do not use
>> > xorg.conf and I'm still running x11-base/xorg-server-1.7.7-r1
>> >
>> > Upon booting up this machine showed both monitors with the same
>> > resolution and cloning each other.
>>
>> What video driver?
>
> x11-drivers/xf86-video-ati
>
>
>> > $ xrandr -q
>> > Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 1024, maximum 1920 x 1920
>> > VGA-0 connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y
>> > axis) 359mm x 287mm
>> >
>> >    1280x1024      75.0*+   60.0
>> >    1152x864       75.0
>> >    1024x768       85.0     75.0     70.1     60.0
>> >    832x624        74.6
>> >    800x600        85.1     72.2     75.0     60.3     56.2
>> >    640x480        85.0     75.0     72.8     66.7     59.9
>> >    720x400        70.1
>> >
>> > DVI-0 connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y
>> > axis) 509mm x 286mm
>> >
>> >    1920x1080      60.0 +
>> >    1280x1024      75.0     60.0*
>> >    1152x864       75.0
>> >    1024x768       75.0     60.0
>> >    800x600        75.0     60.3
>> >    640x480        75.0     59.9
>> >    720x400        70.1
>> >
>> > To change the new larger monitor connected on the DVI port, I ran:
>> >
>> > $ xrandr --output DVI-0 --auto
>> >
>> > and that gave me:
>> >
>> > $ xrandr -q
>> > Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1920 x 1080, maximum 1920 x 1920
>> > VGA-0 connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y
>> > axis) 359mm x 287mm
>> >
>> >    1280x1024      75.0*+   60.0
>> >    1152x864       75.0
>> >    1024x768       85.0     75.0     70.1     60.0
>> >    832x624        74.6
>> >    800x600        85.1     72.2     75.0     60.3     56.2
>> >    640x480        85.0     75.0     72.8     66.7     59.9
>> >    720x400        70.1
>> >
>> > DVI-0 connected 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y
>> > axis) 509mm x 286mm
>> >
>> >    1920x1080      60.0*+
>> >    1280x1024      75.0     60.0
>> >    1152x864       75.0
>> >    1024x768       75.0     60.0
>> >    800x600        75.0     60.3
>> >    640x480        75.0     59.9
>> >    720x400        70.1
>> >
>> > Is there some invocation to allow me to set this up like <aheam!>
>> > MSWindows does?  I mean, in WinXP all desktop icons and toolbar stays
>> > at the bottom of the DVI monitor.  The VGA monitor on the left just
>> > shows the desktop background, but has no toolbar or desktop icons.
>> > The user can however drag application windows from the DVI monitor to
>> > the VGA monitor, seamlessly between the two.  On this machine I can't
>> > - they are just clones of each other ...

From lshw:

           *-display:0 UNCLAIMED
                description: VGA compatible controller
                product: RV380 0x3e50 [Radeon X600]
                vendor: ATI Technologies Inc
                physical id: 0
                bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
                version: 00
                width: 32 bits
                clock: 33MHz
                capabilities: pm pciexpress vga_controller bus_master cap_list
                configuration: latency=0
                resources: memory:d0000000-dfffffff
ioport:b000(size=256) memory:cfee0000-cfeeffff
memory:cfec0000-cfedffff
           *-display:1 UNCLAIMED
                description: Display controller
                product: RV380 [Radeon X600] (Secondary)
                vendor: ATI Technologies Inc
                physical id: 0.1
                bus info: pci@0000:01:00.1
                version: 00
                width: 32 bits
                clock: 33MHz
                capabilities: pm pciexpress bus_master cap_list
                configuration: latency=0
                resources: memory:cfef0000-cfefffff

From lspci -v

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV380 0x3e50
[Radeon X600] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
        Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 0328
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
        Memory at d0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
        I/O ports at b000 [size=256]
        Memory at cfee0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
        Expansion ROM at cfec0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
        Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
        Capabilities: [58] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
        Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting

01:00.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV380 [Radeon X600] (Secondary)
        Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 0329
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
        Memory at cfef0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
        Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
        Capabilities: [58] Express Endpoint, MSI 00

Please ask if you need more.

PS.  Another thing I noticed with the WinXP setup is that the
application windows seem to be screen aware.  On the left monitor they
will maximise only to cover fully the left hand screen not the right
hand. The same happens when maximising an application window on the
right.  I don't remember seeing this in Linux - applications I think
maximised across both screens.
-- 
Regards,
Mick

Re: [gentoo-user] Setting up two monitors

[Florian Philipp]

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Am 04.11.2010 08:38, schrieb Mick:
> 
> PS.  Another thing I noticed with the WinXP setup is that the
> application windows seem to be screen aware.  On the left monitor they
> will maximise only to cover fully the left hand screen not the right
> hand. The same happens when maximising an application window on the
> right.  I don't remember seeing this in Linux - applications I think
> maximised across both screens.

Again, I don't know what desktop environment you are using but that
works flawlessly on KDE.


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Re: [gentoo-user] Setting up two monitors

[YoYo Siska]

On Thu, Nov 04, 2010 at 08:43:25AM +0100, Florian Philipp wrote:
> Am 04.11.2010 08:38, schrieb Mick:
> > 
> > PS.  Another thing I noticed with the WinXP setup is that the
> > application windows seem to be screen aware.  On the left monitor they
> > will maximise only to cover fully the left hand screen not the right
> > hand. The same happens when maximising an application window on the
> > right.  I don't remember seeing this in Linux - applications I think
> > maximised across both screens.
> 
> Again, I don't know what desktop environment you are using but that
> works flawlessly on KDE.
> 

Just to make it a bit more clear:
xrandr is used to setup the resolution and position of the monitors
(you can make them clone each other, overlap, be alongside / above /
below the other...)

How the windows / panels behave depends on your windows manager/desktop
environment (or on the panels themselves). X server provides them with
enough information about the layout of the monitors, and they have to
use it. So it depends on which DE or window manager you use...

In kde3,  there was a configuration option for kwin, whether windows
should be maximized across all screens  or on single screen...
I can't find it in kde4 settings right now, but I have only single head
card here and I guess it would be under "Multiple Monitors" option in
settings, which just says "You don't appear to have this configuration"
for me ;)

Plasma in kde4 manages things per monitor, so panels should be only
on one monitor (and you can't get them across multiple monitors, you
have to have a separate panel on each)...

Recent versions of fluxbox allow you to have the toolbar on a certain
monitor (head) or across all heads... Don't know how it is when maximizing
windows (some time ago I used to patch it to make it an option, didn't
play with it lately...)

I can't say anything for gnome or other DEs/WMs...

yoyo

Re: [gentoo-user] Setting up two monitors

[Mick]

On 4 November 2010 09:24, YoYo Siska <yoyo@gl.ksp.sk> wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 04, 2010 at 08:43:25AM +0100, Florian Philipp wrote:
>> Am 04.11.2010 08:38, schrieb Mick:
>> >
>> > PS.  Another thing I noticed with the WinXP setup is that the
>> > application windows seem to be screen aware.  On the left monitor they
>> > will maximise only to cover fully the left hand screen not the right
>> > hand. The same happens when maximising an application window on the
>> > right.  I don't remember seeing this in Linux - applications I think
>> > maximised across both screens.
>>
>> Again, I don't know what desktop environment you are using but that
>> works flawlessly on KDE.
>>
>
> Just to make it a bit more clear:
> xrandr is used to setup the resolution and position of the monitors
> (you can make them clone each other, overlap, be alongside / above /
> below the other...)
>
> How the windows / panels behave depends on your windows manager/desktop
> environment (or on the panels themselves). X server provides them with
> enough information about the layout of the monitors, and they have to
> use it. So it depends on which DE or window manager you use...
>
> In kde3,  there was a configuration option for kwin, whether windows
> should be maximized across all screens  or on single screen...
> I can't find it in kde4 settings right now, but I have only single head
> card here and I guess it would be under "Multiple Monitors" option in
> settings, which just says "You don't appear to have this configuration"
> for me ;)
>
> Plasma in kde4 manages things per monitor, so panels should be only
> on one monitor (and you can't get them across multiple monitors, you
> have to have a separate panel on each)...
>
> Recent versions of fluxbox allow you to have the toolbar on a certain
> monitor (head) or across all heads... Don't know how it is when maximizing
> windows (some time ago I used to patch it to make it an option, didn't
> play with it lately...)
>
> I can't say anything for gnome or other DEs/WMs...

Thank you all for your responses!

The box in question is running KDE.

The first thing I tried was to go into Systemsettings and play with
Display settings in there.  Nothing I tried would take.  Only xranrd
on the CLI brought some results.  Even so, rebooting means that I have
to rerun the stanza to make the new large monitor on the DVI port
auto-adjust.  It seems that the card sees the VGA as the primary
monitor and the DVI as the secondary monitor, when I really want them
the other way around.

Any way, I'll have another go at the Display settings in the KDE
Systemsettings and see if I am missing something in there.
-- 
Regards,
Mick

Re: [gentoo-user] Setting up two monitors

[Mick]

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On Thursday 04 November 2010 15:36:37 you wrote:
> On 4 November 2010 09:24, YoYo Siska <yoyo@gl.ksp.sk> wrote:

> > Just to make it a bit more clear:
> > xrandr is used to setup the resolution and position of the monitors
> > (you can make them clone each other, overlap, be alongside / above /
> > below the other...)
> > 
> > How the windows / panels behave depends on your windows manager/desktop
> > environment (or on the panels themselves). X server provides them with
> > enough information about the layout of the monitors, and they have to
> > use it. So it depends on which DE or window manager you use...
> > 
> > In kde3,  there was a configuration option for kwin, whether windows
> > should be maximized across all screens  or on single screen...
> > I can't find it in kde4 settings right now, but I have only single head
> > card here and I guess it would be under "Multiple Monitors" option in
> > settings, which just says "You don't appear to have this configuration"
> > for me ;)
> > 
> > Plasma in kde4 manages things per monitor, so panels should be only
> > on one monitor (and you can't get them across multiple monitors, you
> > have to have a separate panel on each)...
> > 
> > Recent versions of fluxbox allow you to have the toolbar on a certain
> > monitor (head) or across all heads... Don't know how it is when
> > maximizing windows (some time ago I used to patch it to make it an
> > option, didn't play with it lately...)
> > 
> > I can't say anything for gnome or other DEs/WMs...
> 
> Thank you all for your responses!
> 
> The box in question is running KDE.
> 
> The first thing I tried was to go into Systemsettings and play with
> Display settings in there.  Nothing I tried would take.  Only xranrd
> on the CLI brought some results.  Even so, rebooting means that I have
> to rerun the stanza to make the new large monitor on the DVI port
> auto-adjust.  It seems that the card sees the VGA as the primary
> monitor and the DVI as the secondary monitor, when I really want them
> the other way around.
> 
> Any way, I'll have another go at the Display settings in the KDE
> Systemsettings and see if I am missing something in there.

OK, I had some more time to look at this.  As I said above, systemsettings 
changes won't take.  Having set the DVI at 1920x1080(auto) and to be on the 
right of VGA-0, I click on Apply and the DVI on the right of VGA reverts to 
'Clone of' and the size stays the same as the VGA (1280x1024).

Then I ran xrandr again as Florian suggested and this is what it shows:

$ xrandr --output DVI-0 --auto  <--this gives 1920x1080
$ xrandr --output DVI-0 --right-of-VGA-0 --verbose
xrandr: screen cannot be larger than 1920x1920 (desired size 3200x1080)

As a result it does not place the DVI on the right of the VGA driven monitor.  
Can you please explain this error to me - why does it complain?
-- 
Regards,
Mick

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Re: [gentoo-user] Setting up two monitors

[Florian Philipp]

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Am 04.11.2010 21:17, schrieb Mick:
[...]
> 
> Then I ran xrandr again as Florian suggested and this is what it shows:
> 
> $ xrandr --output DVI-0 --auto  <--this gives 1920x1080
> $ xrandr --output DVI-0 --right-of-VGA-0 --verbose
> xrandr: screen cannot be larger than 1920x1920 (desired size 3200x1080)
> 
> As a result it does not place the DVI on the right of the VGA driven monitor.  
> Can you please explain this error to me - why does it complain?

Hmm, do you still have an xorg.conf file or changed settings in
/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d? If you have, can you post it please?

I think it is related to the
'SubSection "Device"
	Virtual xdim ydim'
setting but I'm not sure. In any case, if I were you, I'd try running
without any xorg.conf and see whether auto-configuration can handle it.
Oh, and if you are still on x11-base/xorg-server-1.7.*, please try
x11-base/xorg-server-1.8.2 with USE="udev -hal"

Hope this helps,
Florian Philipp


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Re: [gentoo-user] Setting up two monitors

[Mick]

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On Thursday 04 November 2010 21:36:46 Florian Philipp wrote:
> Am 04.11.2010 21:17, schrieb Mick:
> [...]
> 
> > Then I ran xrandr again as Florian suggested and this is what it shows:
> > 
> > $ xrandr --output DVI-0 --auto  <--this gives 1920x1080
> > $ xrandr --output DVI-0 --right-of-VGA-0 --verbose
> > xrandr: screen cannot be larger than 1920x1920 (desired size 3200x1080)
> > 
> > As a result it does not place the DVI on the right of the VGA driven
> > monitor. Can you please explain this error to me - why does it complain?
> 
> Hmm, do you still have an xorg.conf file or changed settings in
> /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d? If you have, can you post it please?
> 
> I think it is related to the
> 'SubSection "Device"
> 	Virtual xdim ydim'
> setting but I'm not sure. In any case, if I were you, I'd try running
> without any xorg.conf and see whether auto-configuration can handle it.
> Oh, and if you are still on x11-base/xorg-server-1.7.*, please try
> x11-base/xorg-server-1.8.2 with USE="udev -hal"

Thanks again Florian,

I do not have an xorg.conf.  I am running x11-base/xorg-server-1.7.7-r1.  I 
have been waiting on 1.8.2 to go stable.

Googling around I suspect I know what the error is:

$ xrandr -q
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 1024, maximum 1920 x 1920

is telling me that my ATI X600 can only do a max of 1920 x 1920.  Above that I 
will need to set up a virtual screen (and it won't be able to do dri).

Without an xorg.conf file it is failing because it is not given a virtual 
screen to expand its physical capability beyond 1920x1920.  Any idea if I can 
set up a virtual screen using the .fdi files?

Otherwise it is time for me to upgrade to 1.8.2 or perhaps 1.9.2?
-- 
Regards,
Mick

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Re: [gentoo-user] Setting up two monitors

[YoYo Siska]

On Thu, Nov 04, 2010 at 11:08:23PM +0000, Mick wrote:
> On Thursday 04 November 2010 21:36:46 Florian Philipp wrote:
> > Am 04.11.2010 21:17, schrieb Mick:
> > [...]
> > 
> > > Then I ran xrandr again as Florian suggested and this is what it shows:
> > > 
> > > $ xrandr --output DVI-0 --auto  <--this gives 1920x1080
> > > $ xrandr --output DVI-0 --right-of-VGA-0 --verbose
> > > xrandr: screen cannot be larger than 1920x1920 (desired size 3200x1080)
> > > 
> > > As a result it does not place the DVI on the right of the VGA driven
> > > monitor. Can you please explain this error to me - why does it complain?
> > 
> > Hmm, do you still have an xorg.conf file or changed settings in
> > /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d? If you have, can you post it please?
> > 
> > I think it is related to the
> > 'SubSection "Device"
> > 	Virtual xdim ydim'
> > setting but I'm not sure. In any case, if I were you, I'd try running
> > without any xorg.conf and see whether auto-configuration can handle it.
> > Oh, and if you are still on x11-base/xorg-server-1.7.*, please try
> > x11-base/xorg-server-1.8.2 with USE="udev -hal"
> 
> Thanks again Florian,
> 
> I do not have an xorg.conf.  I am running x11-base/xorg-server-1.7.7-r1.  I 
> have been waiting on 1.8.2 to go stable.
> 
> Googling around I suspect I know what the error is:
> 
> $ xrandr -q
> Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 1024, maximum 1920 x 1920
> 
> is telling me that my ATI X600 can only do a max of 1920 x 1920.  Above that I 
> will need to set up a virtual screen (and it won't be able to do dri).
> 
> Without an xorg.conf file it is failing because it is not given a virtual 
> screen to expand its physical capability beyond 1920x1920.  Any idea if I can 
> set up a virtual screen using the .fdi files?

Intel drivers (for my thinkpad notebook) had a similar problem. If you
didn't use an xorg.conf, they would set up the max screen size to the
maximum possible resolution on one of the monitors... I haven't found a
way to change that without an xorg.conf... (didn't have much motivation
as I just always used an xorg.conf, event with hal... and I'm on ~arch,
so its not much of an issue now...)

yoyo


PS right now, the current intel driver I have seems to have a hard maximum of
2048x2048 on my card, though I remember going above that in the
past... ;((

yoyo

Re: [gentoo-user] Setting up two monitors

[Mick]

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On Friday 05 November 2010 11:11:04 YoYo Siska wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 04, 2010 at 11:08:23PM +0000, Mick wrote:
> > On Thursday 04 November 2010 21:36:46 Florian Philipp wrote:
> > > Am 04.11.2010 21:17, schrieb Mick:
> > > [...]
> > > 
> > > > Then I ran xrandr again as Florian suggested and this is what it
> > > > shows:
> > > > 
> > > > $ xrandr --output DVI-0 --auto  <--this gives 1920x1080
> > > > $ xrandr --output DVI-0 --right-of-VGA-0 --verbose
> > > > xrandr: screen cannot be larger than 1920x1920 (desired size
> > > > 3200x1080)
> > > > 
> > > > As a result it does not place the DVI on the right of the VGA driven
> > > > monitor. Can you please explain this error to me - why does it
> > > > complain?
> > > 
> > > Hmm, do you still have an xorg.conf file or changed settings in
> > > /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d? If you have, can you post it please?
> > > 
> > > I think it is related to the
> > > 'SubSection "Device"
> > > 
> > > 	Virtual xdim ydim'
> > > 
> > > setting but I'm not sure. In any case, if I were you, I'd try running
> > > without any xorg.conf and see whether auto-configuration can handle it.
> > > Oh, and if you are still on x11-base/xorg-server-1.7.*, please try
> > > x11-base/xorg-server-1.8.2 with USE="udev -hal"
> > 
> > Thanks again Florian,
> > 
> > I do not have an xorg.conf.  I am running x11-base/xorg-server-1.7.7-r1. 
> > I have been waiting on 1.8.2 to go stable.
> > 
> > Googling around I suspect I know what the error is:
> > 
> > $ xrandr -q
> > Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 1024, maximum 1920 x 1920
> > 
> > is telling me that my ATI X600 can only do a max of 1920 x 1920.  Above
> > that I will need to set up a virtual screen (and it won't be able to do
> > dri).
> > 
> > Without an xorg.conf file it is failing because it is not given a virtual
> > screen to expand its physical capability beyond 1920x1920.  Any idea if I
> > can set up a virtual screen using the .fdi files?
> 
> Intel drivers (for my thinkpad notebook) had a similar problem. If you
> didn't use an xorg.conf, they would set up the max screen size to the
> maximum possible resolution on one of the monitors... I haven't found a
> way to change that without an xorg.conf... (didn't have much motivation
> as I just always used an xorg.conf, event with hal... and I'm on ~arch,
> so its not much of an issue now...)
> 
> yoyo
> 
> 
> PS right now, the current intel driver I have seems to have a hard maximum
> of 2048x2048 on my card, though I remember going above that in the
> past... ;((

(I was wondering how come MSWindows works fine - not sure if it uses virtual 
screens ...)

Are you saying that the maximum mode of the video card is determined by the 
driver?  Two different ati cards here, both show 1920x1920 as the maximum.  
The card I am having this problem with has 256M memory.  The other has 1G 
memory (in MSWindows) while Gentoo only shows:

	Memory at d0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
	I/O ports at 2000 [size=256]
	Memory at cfef0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
	[virtual] Expansion ROM at cfe00000 [disabled] [size=128K]

If the maximum mode available changes with the driver version, does this mean 
that one day I need to set up a virtual screen size and next day the driver is 
updated and virtual screen is no longer required?
-- 
Regards,
Mick

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Re: [gentoo-user] Setting up two monitors

[YoYo Siska]

On Fri, Nov 05, 2010 at 09:38:07PM +0000, Mick wrote:
> On Friday 05 November 2010 11:11:04 YoYo Siska wrote:
> > On Thu, Nov 04, 2010 at 11:08:23PM +0000, Mick wrote:
> > > On Thursday 04 November 2010 21:36:46 Florian Philipp wrote:
> > > > Am 04.11.2010 21:17, schrieb Mick:
> > > > [...]
> > > > 
> > > > > Then I ran xrandr again as Florian suggested and this is what it
> > > > > shows:
> > > > > 
> > > > > $ xrandr --output DVI-0 --auto  <--this gives 1920x1080
> > > > > $ xrandr --output DVI-0 --right-of-VGA-0 --verbose
> > > > > xrandr: screen cannot be larger than 1920x1920 (desired size
> > > > > 3200x1080)
> > > > > 
> > > > > As a result it does not place the DVI on the right of the VGA driven
> > > > > monitor. Can you please explain this error to me - why does it
> > > > > complain?
> > > > 
> > > > Hmm, do you still have an xorg.conf file or changed settings in
> > > > /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d? If you have, can you post it please?
> > > > 
> > > > I think it is related to the
> > > > 'SubSection "Device"
> > > > 
> > > > 	Virtual xdim ydim'
> > > > 
> > > > setting but I'm not sure. In any case, if I were you, I'd try running
> > > > without any xorg.conf and see whether auto-configuration can handle it.
> > > > Oh, and if you are still on x11-base/xorg-server-1.7.*, please try
> > > > x11-base/xorg-server-1.8.2 with USE="udev -hal"
> > > 
> > > Thanks again Florian,
> > > 
> > > I do not have an xorg.conf.  I am running x11-base/xorg-server-1.7.7-r1. 
> > > I have been waiting on 1.8.2 to go stable.
> > > 
> > > Googling around I suspect I know what the error is:
> > > 
> > > $ xrandr -q
> > > Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 1024, maximum 1920 x 1920
> > > 
> > > is telling me that my ATI X600 can only do a max of 1920 x 1920.  Above
> > > that I will need to set up a virtual screen (and it won't be able to do
> > > dri).
> > > 
> > > Without an xorg.conf file it is failing because it is not given a virtual
> > > screen to expand its physical capability beyond 1920x1920.  Any idea if I
> > > can set up a virtual screen using the .fdi files?
> > 
> > Intel drivers (for my thinkpad notebook) had a similar problem. If you
> > didn't use an xorg.conf, they would set up the max screen size to the
> > maximum possible resolution on one of the monitors... I haven't found a
> > way to change that without an xorg.conf... (didn't have much motivation
> > as I just always used an xorg.conf, event with hal... and I'm on ~arch,
> > so its not much of an issue now...)
> > 
> > yoyo
> > 
> > 
> > PS right now, the current intel driver I have seems to have a hard maximum
> > of 2048x2048 on my card, though I remember going above that in the
> > past... ;((
> 
> (I was wondering how come MSWindows works fine - not sure if it uses virtual 
> screens ...)
> 
> Are you saying that the maximum mode of the video card is determined by the 
> driver?  Two different ati cards here, both show 1920x1920 as the maximum.  
> The card I am having this problem with has 256M memory.  The other has 1G 
> memory (in MSWindows) while Gentoo only shows:
> 
> 	Memory at d0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
> 	I/O ports at 2000 [size=256]
> 	Memory at cfef0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
> 	[virtual] Expansion ROM at cfe00000 [disabled] [size=128K]
> 
> If the maximum mode available changes with the driver version, does this mean 
> that one day I need to set up a virtual screen size and next day the driver is 
> updated and virtual screen is no longer required?

From what I know (but I may be completely wrong ;) its this way:
the maximum size xrandr reports is what X thinks is the maximum possible
framebuffer size... Its reported by the graphics card driver, which (I
think) should be the maximum resolution the graphics card supports.
This depends on the card, the amount of memory it has (which gets a bit
complicated with cards with shared memory, that can dynamically allocate
how much they actually need) etc...

AFAIK this value is "constant" for X (it can't change without restart),
and X will never allow you to have a large 'virtual screen' (i.e.
the space in which all outputs have to fit)

But I've seen drivers that don't report the maximum they support, but
the maximum resolution of the actually connected display:
The driver should report to X, what display devices are connected to
the card and which resolutions they support -- the things you see in
xrandr output. It seems that that some drivers report the maximum of
these resolutions (ati and older intel, though newer  intel drivers seem to
report 2048x2048 or 4096x4096, I can't say for newer ati, as I don't
have an ati card...)

I guess that this is mostly a 'historical' issue from the times when
Xserver/drivers did not support 'dynamic' monitor configuration (ie
adding/removing monitors) without restarting the Xserver...

You can override this value with the Virtual option (It used to be in
the screen section of xorg.conf, now the correct place seems to be in
the Device section).
 
IIRC, the driver will still change it to the maximum it supports, if you
made it bigger, but not to the maximum resolution of the connected
displays ;) Also, some drivers may have other limitations (e.g. hardware 3D
acceleration might not work with size greater tha 2048x2048)

All this is about the "new" Xrandr 1.2 interface (as opposed to old
xinerama and multiple screens, that were used to setup multiple monitors
before xrandr 1.2 and required restart of the Xserver to change
things..) Its still relatively new, and the drivers still have problems
implementing it correctly, the support really changes from version
to version... (there was a lot of other changes in xserver from 1.6,
1.7, to 1.8 and also in the kernel (KMS,DRI) so the drivers had/have a
lot to catch up...)

You can read more about xrandr at http://www.x.org/wiki/Projects/XRandR

For your last question: right now, yes. The drivers are changing... But
hopefully, they will get to a state, when they will report everything
corectly and you should not need to set anything... ;))

BTW, nvidia drivers ignore the xrandr way, they have their own
extension to manage multihead displays, and they just report through
xrandr the final 'metamodes' (which are basically the sizes of the
virtual screen for each configuration) and they alway report the maximu
size as the size of the maximum metamode ;)

yoyo

Re: [gentoo-user] Setting up two monitors

[Mick]

Thank you all for your pointers!  It works (almost) with
xorg-server-1.9.2.  More questions below ...

On 6 November 2010 09:57, YoYo Siska <yoyo@gl.ksp.sk> wrote:

> You can read more about xrandr at http://www.x.org/wiki/Projects/XRandR
>
> For your last question: right now, yes. The drivers are changing... But
> hopefully, they will get to a state, when they will report everything
> corectly and you should not need to set anything... ;))

With the xorg-server-1.9.2 and a different kernel driver it now
recognises much more real estate:

$ xrandr -q
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 3200 x 1080, maximum 4096 x 4096
VGA-0 connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y
axis) 359mm x 287mm
   1280x1024      75.0*+   60.0
   1152x864       75.0
   1024x768       85.0     75.1     70.1     60.0
   832x624        74.6
   800x600        85.1     72.2     75.0     60.3     56.2
   640x480        85.0     72.8     75.0     66.7     60.0
   720x400        70.1
DVI-0 connected 1920x1080+1280+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y
axis) 509mm x 286mm
   1920x1080      60.0*+
   1280x1024      75.0     60.0
   1152x864       75.0
   1024x768       75.1     60.0
   800x600        75.0     60.3
   640x480        75.0     60.0
   720x400        70.1
S-video disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

As you can see the maximum size has now grown to 4906 x 4096 which
allows me to have the two monitors set up as intended with space to
spare!  :-)

No need to define virtual screen size in the xorg.conf, which I
generated using the vanilla X -configure output.  I have not added a
second screen or anything else.  The -configure script seems to have
only included my small monitor on the left and it does not mention at
all the new DVI.  So, I suspect that all the hard work is performed by
the kernel hardware driver ...

Which brings me to the changes I had to perform on the kernel.  The
only combination that would allow the above to work involved
rebuilding the kernel with CONFIG_DRM_RADEON_KMS=y

This caused its own problems - I could not get a framebuffer working
during boot and afterwards I could not get a kdm Display Manager
showing up.  It dropped me back to console.  Ctrl+Alt+F7 was not
advisable as it locked the machine up, as did restarting xdm.  The
solution was to remove uvesa framebuffer from my kernel and also
remove the following lines from my grub.conf:

#video=uvesafb:mtrr,ywrap,1024x768-32@64
splash=silent,fadein,theme:emergence quiet CONSOLE=/dev/tty1

Now I get a framebuffer with all my boot messages, but do not get a
pretty framebuffer splash or whatever you call it these days.

The second problem is that although the screen settings can be applied
and take without any problem, they are not retained if I log
out/reboot.

So, two questions remain:

1.  Is there a way of setting up a framebuffer splash with a progress
bar and a background image in non-verbose mode when using the new KMS
kernel option?

2.  How can I save the screen settings so that they persist between
boots?  I found a script mentioning setting up a configuration file in
/etc/X11/Xsession.d/45custom_xrandr-settings:

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Xorg_RandR_1.2#Now_automate_it_on_login

but I am not sure if this is a Gentoo compatible way (have not tried it yet).
-- 
Regards,
Mick

Re: [gentoo-user] Setting up two monitors

[Mick]

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On Saturday 06 November 2010 13:32:53 you wrote:

> So, two questions remain:
> 
> 1.  Is there a way of setting up a framebuffer splash with a progress
> bar and a background image in non-verbose mode when using the new KMS
> kernel option?

The solution to this problem was to uninstall the uvesa module, and change the 
stanza in grub.conf from this:

kernel /kernel-2.6.34-gentoo-r12 root=/dev/sda3 
video=uvesafb:mtrr,ywrap,1280x1024-32@64 splash=silent,fadein,theme:emergence 
quiet CONSOLE=/dev/tty1

to this:

kernel /kernel-2.6.34-gentoo-r12 root=/dev/sda3 
video=uvesafb:mode_option=1280x1024-24,mtrr=3,scroll=ywrap,splash=silent,fadein,theme:emergence 
quiet CONSOLE=/dev/tty1

Strangely enough it works without crashing now and it doesn't seem to mind the 
video=uvesafb: entry although uvesa is no longer in my kernel.  The splash 
screen only covers part of the wide screen monitor on the right (i.e. it does 
not stretch across it's whole width).  The smaller left hand side monitor 
shows the splash full size.  The only glitch seems to be that it drops me back 
to the console, after I enter the passwd in kdm.  I had this problem in the 
past (for years) and after some update it just went away.  With this set up it 
seems to be back ...

> 2.  How can I save the screen settings so that they persist between
> boots?  I found a script mentioning setting up a configuration file in
> /etc/X11/Xsession.d/45custom_xrandr-settings:
> 
> http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Xorg_RandR_1.2#Now_automate_it_on_login
> 
> but I am not sure if this is a Gentoo compatible way (have not tried it
> yet).

No need to use any other configuration file, now that I am using an xorg.conf.  
All I did was to define the second monitor, after I had a quick look for its 
values as probed from EDID in Xorg.0.log:
============================================
Section "Monitor"
        #DisplaySize      360   290     # mm
        Identifier   "Monitor0"
        VendorName   "NEC"
        ModelName    "NEC LCD1860NX"
        HorizSync    31.0 - 82.0
        VertRefresh  55.0 - 85.0
        Option       "PreferredMode"  "1280x1024"
        Option       "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        #DisplaySize      510   290     # mm
        Identifier   "Monitor1"
        VendorName   "DEL"
        ModelName    "DELL ST2320L"
        HorizSync    56.0 - 76.0
        VertRefresh  30.0 - 83.0
        Option       "PreferredMode"  "1920x1080"
        Option       "RightOf" "Monitor0"
        Option       "DPMS"
EndSection
============================================


Then under Section "Device" I added the two monitors as follows:
============================================
Section "Device"
        Identifier  "Card0"
        Driver      "radeon"
        BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
        Option  "monitor-VGA-0" "Monitor0"
        Option  "monitor-DVI-0" "Monitor1"
EndSection
============================================

Hope this helps someone.  :-)
-- 
Regards,
Mick

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Re: [gentoo-user] Setting up two monitors

[Sebastian Beßler]

Am 07.11.2010 21:19, schrieb Mick:

> The splash screen only covers part of the wide screen monitor on the
> right (i.e. it does not stretch across it's whole width).  The
> smaller left hand side monitor shows the splash full size.

That is a quirk(?) in kernel mode setting (kms) because it can only set
the output to clone-mode when used with two or more monitors. Because of
that it has to find the lowest common denominator for the resolution to
use on all of them.

Greetings

Sebastian Beßler

Re: [gentoo-user] Setting up two monitors

[Mick]

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On Monday 08 November 2010 11:43:00 Sebastian Beßler wrote:
> Am 07.11.2010 21:19, schrieb Mick:
> > The splash screen only covers part of the wide screen monitor on the
> > right (i.e. it does not stretch across it's whole width).  The
> > smaller left hand side monitor shows the splash full size.
> 
> That is a quirk(?) in kernel mode setting (kms) because it can only set
> the output to clone-mode when used with two or more monitors. Because of
> that it has to find the lowest common denominator for the resolution to
> use on all of them.

Ah! That explains it.  With two monitors of the same size then, it would be 
full size on both.

After all this the user asked me to take off the splash screen!  :-@

It seems that after xdm/kdm has launched the kdm login is interrupted and the 
user is dumped into a console.  This seems to happen at the time the init 
scripts obtain an IP address (or when vixie cron is launched). Nothing in the 
logs to show anything being amiss.

If I do not use a splash screen the user is not returned to the console.  Not 
sure if there's a fix for this.

-- 
Regards,
Mick

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Re: [gentoo-user] Setting up two monitors

[Alan McKinnon]

Apparently, though unproven, at 09:38 on Thursday 04 November 2010, Mick did 
opine thusly:

> PS.  Another thing I noticed with the WinXP setup is that the
> application windows seem to be screen aware.  On the left monitor they
> will maximise only to cover fully the left hand screen not the right
> hand. The same happens when maximising an application window on the
> right.  I don't remember seeing this in Linux - applications I think
> maximised across both screens.


nvidia-drivers does this by default with Twinview.

Those drivers rip out vast sections of the OpenGL libs and who knows what 
else, replacing it with an NVidia version. Lots of their code is in the core, 
intended to be used cross-platform, which probably explains the default 
behaviour being the same as on windows.



-- 
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com

Re: [gentoo-user] Setting up two monitors

[Florian Philipp]

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Am 03.11.2010 21:51, schrieb Mick:

> Is there some invocation to allow me to set this up like <aheam!>
> MSWindows does?  I mean, in WinXP all desktop icons and toolbar stays
> at the bottom of the DVI monitor.  The VGA monitor on the left just
> shows the desktop background, but has no toolbar or desktop icons.
> The user can however drag application windows from the DVI monitor to
> the VGA monitor, seamlessly between the two.  On this machine I can't
> - they are just clones of each other ...

Don't you have one of the major desktop environments like Gnome or KDE
running? There are graphical XRandr-Wrapper for most of them:
x11-misc/arandr, x11-apps/grandr, rox-extra/resolution,
lxde-base/lxrandr and kde-base/kephal, just to name a few. That would
spare us from testing and providing command line options for you.

Anyway, try something like:
xrandr --output DVI-0 --right-of VGA-0

Hope this helps,
Florian Philipp


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