Dual Display - unable to enable 2nd monitor

[barryg]

Hi. I have an Nvidia 9800 GT (whatever+) card which worked ok with OpenSuse. I had to enable Dualhead in Sax2 to get the 2nd monitor enabled, but nothing else was required. Obviously Sax2 is missing from Kubuntu and whilst i can see the 2nd monitor in the Nvidia display properties and enable it, it will not stay enabled.

Is there a seperate (like Sax2), way of enabling DualHead display. Will i have to (god forbid), edit the Xorg file.

Regards

[heinkel_111]

Re: Dual Display - unable to enable 2nd monitor

I have the same video card as you do, dual display as you have, and it works every day except this morning (see my other thread below). I have a self-made xorg.conf file that I have kept through most updates with only minor edits.

My idea of why the second disrplay does not stay enabled is this: the configuration is read from the xorg.conf file, but to write to xorg.conf you need to be root (use sudo). As an ordinary user with the nvidia control panel you don't have this privilege, hence when you restart your computer it reads the same old configurations from the same old xorg.conf file where the same old only 1 display is enabled.

And you have to tweak it in the nvidia-settings again. This way, you don't have to edit the xorg.conf. Alternatively, if you fix it once in the xorg.conf file you can get it right at log in every time with no extra work required.

Linux is about choice and you can have this any which way you like. Please let us know what you consider the best for you. If you need help with the xorg.conf you can have mine as an example.

[barryg]

Re: Dual Display - unable to enable 2nd monitor

Hmm, I do recall being told i'm unable to backup the xorg.conf file when saving, but iirc there was no indication to my being required to be an admin to set the display settings. So is there no way to get Admin priviliges so the setting stick?

It's not like i'm trying to get the system to do anything other than what it's should be able to do.

Regards

[heinkel_111]

Re: Dual Display - unable to enable 2nd monitor

It is not that I don't agree with you and I may also be wrong on some of the technical issues. I am only a kubuntu user, not a developer, or a sales representative, so arguing with me about how the system should be is a waste of resources on your behalf.

but if you try this in konsole:

 myuser@mycomputer:~$ ls -ltrhp /etc/X11/xorg.conf

the computer will answer with

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.7K 2008-11-01 21:25 /etc/X11/xorg.conf

which tells me it is unlikely that the changes you apply to the X configuration (tweaking with the nvidia settings panel, for example) as a normal user is going to be stored for future re-use, because the file permissions tells that only the root user can write to the file.

I think you have two options
1) rewrite the xorg.conf so that the settings are right every time you boot the computer.
2) fix the setup with nvidia settings every time you boot the computer.

disclaimer> I may be wrong on some of this but I do have a setup that works nice for my workstation and it has roughly the same setup as your machine ( graphics card, dual display).

[barryg]

Re: Dual Display - unable to enable 2nd monitor

Hi. No arguements, just asking for conformation that Kubuntu will not allow me to become an admin to do a simple task After all if i don't ask, i don't find out so no waste of resources here

I'd like to take you up on your kind offer of the Xorg.conf file, how do you wish to proceed in the data transfer.

Regards

[heinkel_111]

Re: Dual Display - unable to enable 2nd monitor

I would be something like this...it is quite human readable and you should be able to make out which sections are related to the dual display setup. I omitted a lot of lines which had been commented out (starting with a #) that contained old settings that are no longer in use. I also noticed that in xorg.conf my graphics card is identified as nvidia 8600 something and that is not true, but I think you can call it "lucille" and still have a working xorg.conf if the device line that calls up your graphics card knows that the name is not nvidiasomething but "lucille".

I'll split it into a few parts with comments.
In the beginning there is just a lot of information, for humans, not for the machine. I think this can be left as it is.

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig: version 1.0 (buildmeister@builder26) Thu Feb 14 18:13:41 PST 2008

# xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
#  sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Here comes the important stuff, this is the general composition of the X server (the main parts, so to speak, except that there is now a long list of parts missing here so it is not so obvious what is going on. This is because things that were entered manually in older versions are now automatic and you don't have to deal with it anymore.

Previously this list would cover the input and output devices for the X server.

Section "ServerLayout"
  Identifier   "TwinView Configuration"
  Screen   0 "Default Screen" 0 0
  Option     "Xinerama" "Off"
EndSection

you need fonts in here, it is not very exciting but you need it..>

Section "Files"
	# path to defoma fonts
  FontPath    "/usr/share/X11/fonts/misc"
  FontPath    "/usr/share/X11/fonts/cyrillic"
  FontPath    "/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
  FontPath    "/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
  FontPath    "/usr/share/X11/fonts/Type1"
  FontPath    "/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi"
  FontPath    "/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi"
  FontPath    "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
EndSection

There used to be about 10 modules we needed to list for loading related to graphics, fonts and so on. Now there is just one.

Section "Module"
  Load      "glx"
EndSection

Finally, here is the crucial dual-display setup. First it defines monitors and graphic device names. Then comes the configuration of the "screen" with twinview (desktop stretched across both monitors) enabled. Notice that in the final section the identifiers for monitors and device are used... (this is where I think you need to be consequent, as in my "lucille" example. Notice I have two identical monitors, which simplifies the setup. You may want to search for an example with two different monitors if that is your situation.

Section "Monitor"
  Identifier   "SyncMaster"
  Option     "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
  Identifier   "nVidia Corporation G80 [GeForce 8600 GT]"
  Driver     "nvidia"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
  Identifier   "Default Screen"
  Device     "nVidia Corporation G80 [GeForce 8600 GT]"
  Monitor    "SyncMaster"
  DefaultDepth  24
  Option     "ConnectedMonitor" "dfp, dfp"
  Option     "NoPowerConnectorCheck"
  Option     "TwinView" "1"
  Option     "Metamodes" "1600x1200,1600x1200; 1600x1200,NULL; NULL,1600x1200"
  Option     "TwinViewOrientation" "RightOf"
  Option     "UseEdidFreqs" "True"
  SubSection   "Display"
    Viewport  0 0
    Depth    24
    Modes   "1600x1200"
  EndSubSection
EndSection

good luck

[barryg]

Re: Dual Display - unable to enable 2nd monitor

Thanks for the info but.....................

I open the xorg.conf file using the terminal in SU mode then Kate /etc/X11/xorg.conf, i get the file up but i can't either make a backup first or after the modifications, save the amended file as i do not have permission? I thought that was what being in SU mode was for

Oh well. I've saved your text and will attempt another time when i'm less wound up.

Thanks

Regards

[kyonides]

Re: Dual Display - unable to enable 2nd monitor

Try this on a normal terminal window (Konsole)...

sudo kate /etc/X11/xorg.conf

And edit or save (e.g. as a backup) the file.

[muzicman0]

Re: Dual Display - unable to enable 2nd monitor

wait...by 'it won't stay enabled', do you mean after reboot? If so, do this:

kdesudo nvidia-settings

set up the second monitor, then save to the x configuration file.

To get the settings to stick, you have to do it as root. kdesudo is similar to sudo, but safer for GUI programs.

mm0

[muzicman0]

Re: Dual Display - unable to enable 2nd monitor

oh yeah, I strongly recommend using twin view, instead of dual x sessions...much smoother.

[heinkel_111]

Re: Dual Display - unable to enable 2nd monitor

muzicman0's way of doing this is so much more elegant than my proposal (editing of xorg.conf by hand). I recommend you try his method first, since you are not particularily fond of text file editing.

[barryg]

Re: Dual Display - unable to enable 2nd monitor

I like elegant

It's not that i'm not fond of editing, it's just that i can't be bothered to (or shouldn't have to), use brute force

Thanks for all inputs guys. Today has been productive 8)

Regards