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Re: Dual head: no xinerama



Hi,

* Cameron Hutchison <camh+dl@xdna.net> [041110 19:15]:
> Once upon a time Nick Hastings said...
> > Hi,
> > 
> > * Cameron Hutchison <camh+dl@xdna.net> [041110 17:11]:
> > > Once upon a time Nick Hastings said...
> > > > 
> > > > I think you missed my point: I don't use xinerama nor do I want to.
> > > > I'm using a dual head setup with a *single* matrox card.
> > > > 
> > > > What I want is to somehow have my window manager or desktop
> > > > environment to behave as described in chapter 9 of the xinermama howto.
> > > 
> > > I dont think you're being very clear.
> > > 
> > > You seem to be saying you want the features of xinerama, but not use
> > > xinerama.
> > > 
> > > If you want to move windows between heads, then you want xinerama.
> > 
> > I already do this: as I said I have a have an X display of 2560x1024
> > running over two monitors. I am _not_ using xinerama, I am using mtx
> > driver from matrox.
> 
> Now I understand your setup. It was not clear you were using the mtx
> driver and that it had the capability within it to join the heads.

I have two identical digital LCD displays. I think that having identical
displays is the only way the mtx driver can handle dual head without
using xinerama (but I'm happy to be corrected).

> I dont know much about how xinerama works, and just how an application
> becomes xinerama-aware, but unless mtx emulates xinerama from an API
> perspective, I dont see that current xinerama-aware applications would
> know that you had two screens and behave accordingly.

Sure. 

<snip>

> > > Why do you say you do not want xinerama?
> > 
> > Because as I understand it xinerama, controls the X system of the two
> > heads: I'm happy letting the mtx driver do that. I only want control over
> > the window manager.
> 
> If you have no particular attachment to having the mtx driver joining
> the screens into a single screen, I would think that xinerama would be a
> better option, only because more software will be aware of xinerama that
> the mtx driver's method of joining screens.

You are probably right.

> > > If you already have a working XF86Config-4 setup with two heads as
> > > separate screens (:0.0 and :0.1), you should simply be able to add
> > > Option "Xinerama" "true"
> > > to you ServerLayout section.
> > 
> > I have a single screen section. I guess this is the point.
> 
> I would try adding a second device section to drive the two heads
> independently, add a second monitor section referencing the new device
> and then reference them both from the serverlayout section.

<snip XF86config-4 sample>

Thanks, I actually tried pretty much this setup, based on the
example config that came with the driver. Unfortunately, at best I
could only get it to give me two identical screens.

The funny thing was that the mouse pointer seemed to know about the
two displays... really hard to explain: it would kind of wrap around
the screens once before hitting the edge. 

> > I guess I'll try running with two screen sections and using xinerama. I
> > guess it will work, but it just feels like an ugly way to control window
> > management.
> 
> I dont think there's any other way than running xinerama for 
> xinerama-aware apps to work. Whether the heads are joined in the x
> server or the display driver makes little difference to me from a
> technically asthetic perspective, but from a practical perspective a
> working setup is better than a non-working one :-) (for various
> definitions of working).

It seems that the only working option I have right now is without
xinerama. I may give it another try later.

Cheers,

Nick.

-- 
Debian 3.1
Linux twofish 2.6.9-looxt93c2 i686 GNU/Linux

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