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 1KpClQ-0008Jz-LK for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Mon, 13 Oct 2008 02:02:28 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 66F38E035D; Mon, 13 Oct 2008 02:02:27 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail.netspace.net.au (mail-out3.netspace.net.au [203.10.110.76]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1F32CE035D for ; Mon, 13 Oct 2008 02:02:27 +0000 (UTC) Received: from [172.16.0.52] (ppp246-231.static.internode.on.net [203.122.246.231]) by mail.netspace.net.au (Postfix) with ESMTP id 05999D056D for ; Mon, 13 Oct 2008 13:02:24 +1100 (EST) Message-ID: <48F2AC2B.10006@netspace.net.au> Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2008 11:32:19 +0930 From: Iain Buchanan User-Agent: Thunderbird/3.0a2 (X11; 2008072418) 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 To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Xinerama vs TwinView for dual monitor setup References: <200810112334.10957.alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <200810112334.10957.alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Archives-Salt: f4cb27d8-90ed-4af6-8b50-82dfd087a371 X-Archives-Hash: 5e6c705dfce300f26dd70c1d220e45b6 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 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 Chuck Norris once ate a whole cake before his friends could tell him there was a stripper in it.