Re: Dual Monitor How To?

[Randy Kramer <rhkramer@gmail.com>]

On Monday 18 July 2011 02:37:40 pm Alan Chandler wrote:
> Life gets stranger.  A reboot this evening and this problem no longer
> occurs in dmesg
>
> I also eventually get the format of BusID options correct in my
> Xorg.conf file and now both screens are working again with the
> nouveau driver alongside the intel one EXCEPT as soon as I get both
> screens up (as opposed to just the intel one) the icons loose their
> transparency round the edge in Gnome Panel and Desktop/

Does that mean all is good?

I have sort of a piggyback question / subject to bring up.

I use two monitors on my system.  I tried it probably 5 years or so ago 
with two separate video cards and ran into a lot of little problem--it 
worked, but it was aggravating--things happened like when I dragged a 
window from one screen to the other, sometimes the window got stuck 
halfway, in any case it was often a very jerky movement.

After that, I got an nVidia card with what I think they call "TwinView".  
Basically, it has outputs for two monitors (sometimes two identical 
output connections, like the D15 connector, but some cards do the same 
thing with two different connectors).  

Anyway, at a certain level, to the computer, to a great extent, the two 
monitors seem like one--a drag from one screen to the other is just 
done internally on that one video card.  Less load on the CPU (or 
whatever--maybe some DMA?) and just a lot less hassle (for the computer 
and for me).

This even works:
   * for different size monitors (I run one 22" at 1124x768 and one 17" 
at 800x600--the two resolutions make the font size almost the same on 
the two monitors, and the views "abut" each other--the 800x600 screen 
is oriented so the top of it matches the top of the 1124x768 
screen--and I just don't (normally) put things at the missing bottom 
168 pixels of that screen.
   * things like Xinerama work, so, at some level, even if the CPU 
doesn't have to handle transfers between the two windows, the CPU knows 
there are two, and it is in the xorg.conf file (iirc) that I set things 
so that the small monitor is to the left of the large monitor and such.

I don't do gaming, but if I did, I would think this approach would be 
even better (unless I couldn't get the resolution I needed.  I could 
get higher resolution on these screens with the particular card I'm 
using, but the 1024x768 seems nice for me (e.g., the font size is what 
I've been used to for 10-12 years (or longer).

Randy Kramer