Re: [gentoo-user] Xinerama vs TwinView for dual monitor setup

[Iain Buchanan <iaindb@netspace.net.au>]

Alan McKinnon wrote:
> 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)

I have a Quadro FX 1600M, using nvidia-drivers...

> 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 have an LCD at 1920x1200, but it's much larger than my laptop 
display, so the dpi is different.  So far I have no working way of 
setting different DPI's on the different monitors.

[snip]

> I've configured it with TwinView

as in:
      Option         "TwinView" "True"
?

> The viewports are aligned along the top edge

you mean move the mouse up and it appears on the next screen?  Don't you 
want them aligned left / right of each other?

>  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.

Sounds like you haven't compiled stuff with the xinerama USE flag.  I 
put it in make.conf, and then did a emerge --newuse.

> 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.

definitely sounds like you haven't recompiled with xinerama.

> 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<grrrr>

xinerama should make your wm open screens on one window only.  Also your 
log-in screen should be on one screen only, and panels should be on one 
screen only.

> 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.

Why would you do -e world?  How about `emerge -uN world` The N being 
--newuse.  or `emerge -vauDN world`.

It's not that huge, but you need it regardless of whether you use 
twinview or xinerama anyway.

$ equery hasuse xinerama | wc -l
16

check out my blog for how I did it:

http://nthrbldyblg.blogspot.com/2008/08/nvidia-xinerama-on-dell-m6300.html

HTH,
-- 
Iain Buchanan <iaindb at netspace dot net dot au>

Chuck Norris once ate a whole cake before his friends could tell him 
there was a stripper in it.