how to get one desktop across two monitors in fc5?
 

trying to get dual monitors set up in fc5. looked at system--->
administration--->display settings and was able to set screen
resolution but tried both 'individual desktops' and 'spanning'
and in neither instance do i get one continuous desktop across
both monitors. here's the xorg.conf file as generated by display
settings console choices (i've taken out the irrelevant bits):

# Xorg configuration created by system-config-display

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Multihead layout"
Screen 0 "Screen0" LeftOf "Screen1"
Screen 1 "Screen1" 0 0
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
Option "Xinerama" "on"
Option "Clone" "off"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "dbe"
Load "extmod"
Load "fbdevhw"
Load "glx"
Load "record"
Load "freetype"
Load "type1"
Load "dri"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "Microsoft"
Option "Device" "/dev/ttyS0"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "yes"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
### Comment all HorizSync and VertSync values to use DDC:
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "Samsung SyncMaster 905DF(X)/955DF(X)/CD195A"
DisplaySize 360 270
### Comment all HorizSync and VertSync values to use DDC:
HorizSync 30.0 - 85.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 160.0
Option "dpms"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
### Comment all HorizSync and VertSync values to use DDC:
Identifier "Monitor1"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "HP A4033A 21-inch Display"
### Comment all HorizSync and VertSync values to use DDC:
HorizSync 30.0 - 80.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 120.0
Option "dpms"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "radeon"
VendorName "Videocard vendor"
BoardName "ATI Technologies Inc Radeon RV100 QY [Radeon 7000/VE]"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard1"
Driver "radeon"
VendorName "Videocard Vendor"
BoardName "ATI Technologies Inc Radeon RV100 QY [Radeon 7000/VE]"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
Screen 1
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 16
Modes "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen1"
Device "Videocard1"
Monitor "Monitor1"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Group 0
Mode 0666
EndSection

Does the following help?

https://www.redhat.com/magazine/014d...res/multihead/

Regards
Chris

With the Radeon drivers,

disable xinerama and get rid of Sreen 1 in the serverlayout section and use the device section below.

thanks glussier. any chance i could see the whole
xorg.conf file? tried what you suggested but ran
into problems with screen1 being undefined or something
in other parts of the file. would be very helpful to
see how the other sections of your xorg.conf work in
relation to the device section you posted. also the
whole serverlayout section would be helpful for me to
understand your instruction to 'get rid of screen1' in
that section. commented out 'screen1' line in
serverlayout but screen1 is also referenced in the
'screen0' line as well as later in the file. confused
as to how to deal with that and ran into problems.

and thanks snecklifter for the link. already tried all
that with no luck. why do they even have a graphical
manager for the dual head display if you have to do
all this editing of the file?

thanks again,
BabaG

Here it is:

Note that the radeon driver only support 3D acceleration on the first 2048 pixel, so if the total width of both of your screens is more than that your won't get 3D acceleration on the remainder of the pixels.

thanks again glussier. that worked. i still have a couple of
questions, though, if you're up for it. it looks like your
approach here is to declare a single screen with double the
width and xinerama off. that seems to work fine, however, when
i tried using the display manager control thing in fc5 it
created two screens which could be addressed with their own
settings. my file is below as it stands now and you can see
the remnants of the manager's settings in that there are two
sections for monitors, each with their own settings. my
question: how would one take advantage of having the individual
monitor settings and integrate them into the file? or should i
just let sleeping dogs lie? thanks again. great to get this
working.

I think that you should let sleeping dogs lie. :) If you want to use your screen sections, you will have to revert to using xinerame, in which case, you will lose the possibility of 3Dgl hardware acceleration + the possibility of having an extended desktop that could work with 2 screens at different resolutions.

If there are settings you feel you are missing with the way I do it, tell me which settings you would like to have, and I'll show you how the proper way to do it.

The way I do it, I declare a large virtual screen to which we have 2 monitors to look at.

thanks glussier. think i'll take the coward's way out for now and
say thanks and let things work as they are. i may need to revisit
this as a work environment develops but for now i think i'll just
say thanks and let the dogs rest. this is intended to develop into
an ardour workstation at some point. it's a machine i'm using for
testing. once ardour gets in and going i may find that the screen
needs something different, but for now, i think i've reached a
point of diminishing returns and don't want to pointlessly take
advantage of your time and generosity. it took a while to get a
response to my post so i very much apreciate the help.

thanks again,
BabaG