two monitors set up in X?

hi all..

i have a laptop..
i recently bough an external monitor..
which i like a lot..
however i'm using same resolution with this monitor even though i know my graphic card can generate higher resolution(i can get the higher resolution in windows)..

has anyone tried to set up two monitors?

i'd like to use 1024*868 on laptop
and 1200*1000 on external monitor..

if i just change resolution in XF86Config-4 to higher one..
my laptop display can't support it so that both monitor shows only black screen..

thank you

Do you have two video cards? AFAIK you need two video cards... Then you configure each monitor seperately and merge both XF86Config files into one. Then there is a command to start x on a specific monitor. (man XF86Config and man startx are probably helpful). Then you can start one X session on one monitor with a resolution you specify and another X session on the other monitor with the resolution you want. Basically it works like having two computers but u cant work on both of them at the same time (you have to switch to the right virtual terminal).
Anywayz hope this helps..

-nskl

First I'm going to say something a lot of people aren't going to be happy about. If you want a simple efficient method of multiple monitors? use Windows, if you have XP though you may need the pro version for I think the home version only allows for one monitor unlike W98 which allows 9.


On the Linux front: working from memory here, its not worth your effort unless it has improved in the last 6 months. In general you have two choices one is as NSKL mentioned which I assume is using virtual OS's. The other is much like Windows in which you can use multiple monitors as one big desktop.

Unfortunately I can't remember the name of the scripts and instructions needed for both and I only wasted one week on trying to get the extended desktop to work Do a search, you may find the instructions although be aware that you may find that one of the restrictions is that you will have to change windows managers and the result is not that good as also you may have to run the same resolution for both monitors. I think the last bit is why I finally gave up, I needed different resolutions eventhough I already knew I wasn't going to get them...as I also could not find anyone that had made it work at the time.

From memory do a search in this forum, I think there are a couple of posts on multiple monitors but don't expect miracles if you get it to work.

GOOD LUCK! I mean that, and if you do get it to work, post your thoughts on how it went and the results.

Actually, I doubt you can get the external monitor to display at a higher resolution than the normal display from the laptop. Usually the external port is less capable than the built in one. Even though the monitor might support higher resolutions, that doesn't mean the computer's video port can.

hi

thx for helping me..

actually i have win me dual booting..
and i tried it, it worked fine..( i could get higher resolution)

i can't have both monitors display at the same time..
i don't need them to do..

when i connect my laptop to external monitor, i want X to figure out it's connected and display higher resolution..
and if not, laptop displays the normal resolution..

.......

i've seen some posting on the usenet, that some people did this, but it was only with X-3, not X-4
because i have to use X-4(without 3d accerelation option in X-4, i get lower resolution), i am stuck.....

thanks all though..

i think i'm gonna just wait till X comes with the option for intenal, external displays..(in X-3 i can just put Option intern_disp,Option extern_disp..not quite exact, but similar)

thank you!

If thats what you want which is run one monitor you may be able to simplify it for your self.

First: note its been a while since I played with the files but here is my suggestion, which somebody may be able to help you create the simple script.

It's not concrete it's just an idea!

[list=1][*]Create two Xfree (don't remember the actual name) config files one for one monitor and the other for the other monitor. One kept in the default directory and the other with the same name in a subdirectory and another subdirectory containing the default one. So that any one time you will have two copies of the monitor currently running.[*]create a bash script one that will ask for imput choice or two bash scripts that will copy and overwrite the default one loading the XFree file for your choice of monitor. I suppose you could also instruct it to atomatically startX after it copies the chosen monitor file over. Call one Lapmon and the other Extmon. Also so its handy it may pay to keep it in the root directory for quick access as also you may have to change permissions so as to access from a users prompt.[*] Set up Linux to boot to a command prompt, not X.[*]Now when ever you boot you login through the prompt and execute the bash script that corresponds to the monitor you want. Lapmon or Extmon and if possible it will launch X for you as well.

Once your used to it, it should take you all of 3 seconds to boot to the monitor and resolution of choice.[/list=1]

It sounds logical to me and it shouldn't be hard to do it.

If you do try it post how you did it blah blah.

Good Luck.

I've heaps of links on googleabout this issue.

Just type te following in the search box:
"Multiple Monitors" +Linux +XFree86
and start studying.

All you have to do is create a monitor section in XF86Config-4 for each of your monitors. For instance:

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "laptopMonitor"
etc...
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "bigMonitor"
etc....
EndSection

Then you have a Screen Section for each monitor:

Section "Screen"
Identifier "laptopScreen"
Device "videocard"
Monitor "laptopMonitor"
Also set bpp and resolution here
EndSection

Do a similar section for your big monitor.

And finally you need a server layout section for each monitor, using the correct Screen

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "laptopLayout"
Screen "laptopScreen"
etc....
EndSection

And have a similar one using the other screen for the other layout...

Then, you startx, you say

startx -- -layout laptopLayout

I think that should do what you want for the laptop screen, and you would use the other layout name to start the other monitor.

Now that I think about it, another thing you could do is make it so that the resolution that you want the laptop screen to display and the resolution you want the desktop monitor to display are the only two resolutions in the Screen section. Have the laptop resolution be the default, and then when you plug in the desktop monitor, just push CTRL ALT + and it will switch resolutions. Would that work?

i really can't see how the monitor setup oin XF86Config could help. there is no ability to actually identify the monitors specifcally. it's easy to do with having two video cards, as that have PCI bus identifiers and such, but no such handle is available for monitors, and eitherway, i can't see how that could help. one video card provides two video outputs.... I can always be wrong tho, hey i usually am...

The point of the two different monitor sections is so you can specify hsync and vsync rates and modelines specific to each one.

This information then gets propogated to the screen and serverlayout sections that you set up to use the different monitors. You let X now which monitor you are using by the serverlayout argument you use in

startx -- -layout xyz

so the setting up of different monitors does have a point.

The more I think about it though, it would be easiest to use my second suggestion of using CTRL ALT + to switch between the resolutions of the two monitors, depending on which one you are using at the time.

yes, i'm aware of that, i use a dual head system, and have a heap of different serverlayout's defined, but how DO you apply things to monitors individually... the modelines will define what format of output the graphics unit provides, and presumably this output will ALWAYS go to both the internal and external screens... you've got an external monitor setup, but how does that go to stop the changes affect one monitor and not the other?

maybe you just want different modelines, get some from http://koala.ilog.fr/cgi-bin/nph-colas-modelines

Most laptops I've seen have a magic button that switches your video from internal to external. /shrug

thx all..

i'll try
JHuizingh's solution..


Sixpax.. u r right..
sadly, my laptop(vaio) comes with key(fn-f5)... however it's software based..
(so the key doesn't work on linux)

JHuizingh..
setting only two resolution and change resolution with ctrl-alt-+ doesn't work..
so i probably need to use your long solution..

thanks all again..

Hmm, if that's the case, I'm not exactly sure my solution would work either. Can you get anything to display on the external monitor ever? I'm no expert on laptops, so I can't be too sure that my solution would work....

I just searched a liitle bit on google and found this:
http://www.gaugusch.at/vaio/
read the part about Power Management. He seems to describe your problem exactly. Do you have ACPI running??