Using KDE with two monitors with NVDIA proprietary drivers?

273 · 03-21-2017, 01:23 PM

I've been using XFCE for a fair while now setting my monitors as seperate X screens with no Xinerama or anything like that. It means that applications are stuck on the monitor they open on (as it's the X11 display, 0.0 or 0.1) and lets me play a game full screen on one monitor whilst watching a video full screen on the other.
When I try KDE with my current setup I can only use one screen but can move my mouse to the second.
What are my options for using KDE with a dual monitor setup on NVIDIA card with binary blob drivers?

John VV · 03-21-2017, 02:02 PM

some of the monitor settings are in the eye candy effects in KDE
you can set it so that a window or virtual desktop can be slid from one to a different monitor

i like kde but there are a bit too many settings

kickoff / applications / settings / "configure desktop"

under "workspace" is "desktop behavior "

and under "hardware" is "display and monitor"

273 · 03-21-2017, 02:05 PM

Could I, for example, run two fullscreen games at the same time?
I'm more worried about baing able to set programs to run full screen without any interference with the other screen.

allend · 03-22-2017, 09:24 AM

This is an example xorg.conf file for a setup using an nVidia proprietary driver with a left monitor identified as DFP-0 and a right monitor identified as CRT-0.

Code:

Section "ServerFlags"
    Option "DefaultServerLayout"     "Layout3"
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout1"
    Screen      0  "Screen1" 0 0
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout2"
    Screen      0  "Screen3" 0 0
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout3"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    Screen      1  "Screen2" RightOf "Screen0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      <your board>
    BusID          <your BusID>
    Screen          0
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device1"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      <your board>
    BusID          <your BusID>
    Screen          1
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "TwinView" "Off"
    Option         "UseDisplayDevice" "DFP-0"
    Option         "metamodes" "DFP: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen1"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor1"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "TwinView" "Off"
    Option         "UseDisplayDevice" "CRT-0"
    Option         "metamodes" "CRT: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen2"
    Device         "Device1"
    Monitor        "Monitor1"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "TwinView" "Off"
    Option         "UseDisplayDevice" "CRT-0"
    Option         "metamodes" "CRT: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen3"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "TwinView" "On"
    Option         "UseDisplayDevice" "CRT-0, DFP-0"
    Option         "metamodes" "DFP: nvidia-auto-select +0+0, CRT: nvidia-auto-select +1280+0"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor1"
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
    Option         "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection

Using server "Layout0", only the left monitor is used.
Using server "Layout1", only the right monitor is used.
Using server "Layout2", the left and right monitors are used as a single screen.
Using server "Layout3" (the default), the left and right monitors are used as a separate screens.

273 · 03-22-2017, 01:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by allend

Using server "Layout3" (the default), the left and right monitors are used as a separate screens.

That looks a lot likle my xorg.conf -- how does one get KDE to use that?

allend · 03-22-2017, 04:53 PM

Unfortunately, KDE no longer respects layouts in xorg.conf.
When I want separate screens, I now run WindowMaker.

baldur_1 · 04-05-2017, 02:55 PM

well, i am running kde fc 24 with an nvidia card and two monitors and while i have no gamed on it, i can watch two full screen vids, one on each screen. when i plugged the second in it treated it like an extended desktop but when i go full screen on one it does not interfere with the other.

273 · 04-05-2017, 04:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by baldur_1

well, i am running kde fc 24 with an nvidia card and two monitors and while i have no gamed on it, i can watch two full screen vids, one on each screen. when i plugged the second in it treated it like an extended desktop but when i go full screen on one it does not interfere with the other.

Thanks. Are you able to have panels and task bar on both?

baldur_1 · 04-05-2017, 08:03 PM

i can do panels and i can have the task bar but only on the clone option. i am not sure if that can play two different things on the clone option or not because i usually don't use that.