LinuxQuestions.org - [SOLVED] Cannot drag windows between physical monitors

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Cannot drag windows between physical monitors

I'm running Slackware64 14.2 and KDE.

I have two GeForce GT 730 video cards using the NVIDIA chipset. I have 4 monitors connected, two to each card. The monitors are arranged 2x2, that is 2 monitor positioned above 2 others. On one card I have an old DELL connected to the VGA port and an AOC connected to the HDMI port. The DELL is positioned to the left of the AOC. The AOC is the 'primary' monitor. Above the DELL is a VIZIO connected to the VGA port of the 2nd card and above the AOC is an Acer connected to the DVI port of the 2nd card.

I have installed the latest NVIDIA driver and run the nvidia-settings GUI program to configure the above geometry. It actually went fairly smoothly using the nvidia-settings program. I had it install the generated xorg.conf file, rebooted and I now do have 4 screens with the mouse able to navigate up/down, left/right among the monitors as I describe above. Mission #1 accomplished!

Here's the problem: while I can move my mouse all over, I cannot drag a window (e.g. browser) from one monitor to another. This is a pretty big issue. I can move the mouse to another monitor, right-click, and launch a program there, but that's not what I want.

I've tried using the nvidia-settings program to put all monitors on the same "X screen", but it seems that I can only put the two monitors attached to the same video card on the same X-screen. I'm not expert enough with the xorg.conf settings to know how to do this manually, if it's even possible.

I'm hoping this is an X-windows config issue and that some X-pert on LQ can help me tweak.

I've attached a screen-shot of my nvidia-settings window.

Thanks in advance.

my xorg.conf:

Code:

# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings

# nvidia-settings:  version 375.66  (buildmeister@swio-display-x86-rhel47-06)  Mon May  1 15:44:21 PDT 2017



# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig

# nvidia-xconfig:  version 375.66  (buildmeister@swio-display-x86-rhel47-06)  Mon May  1 15:45:32 PDT 2017



Section "ServerLayout"

    Identifier    "Layout0"

    Screen      0  "Screen0" 1360 1024

    Screen      1  "Screen1" 0 256

    Screen      2  "Screen2" Above "Screen0"

    Screen      3  "Screen3" LeftOf "Screen0"

    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"

    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"

    Option        "Xinerama" "0"

EndSection



Section "Files"

    FontPath        "/usr/lib64/X11/fonts/misc/:unscaled"

    FontPath        "/usr/lib64/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"

    FontPath        "/usr/lib64/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"

    FontPath        "/usr/lib64/X11/fonts/misc/"

    FontPath        "/usr/lib64/X11/fonts/Type1/"

    FontPath        "/usr/lib64/X11/fonts/Speedo/"

    FontPath        "/usr/lib64/X11/fonts/100dpi/"

    FontPath        "/usr/lib64/X11/fonts/75dpi/"

    FontPath        "/usr/lib64/X11/fonts/cyrillic/"

    FontPath        "/usr/lib64/X11/fonts/TTF/"

EndSection



Section "InputDevice"



    # generated from default

    Identifier    "Mouse0"

    Driver        "mouse"

    Option        "Protocol" "auto"

    Option        "Device" "/dev/psaux"

    Option        "Emulate3Buttons" "no"

    Option        "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"

EndSection



Section "InputDevice"



    # generated from default

    Identifier    "Keyboard0"

    Driver        "kbd"

EndSection



Section "Monitor"

    Identifier    "Monitor0"

    VendorName    "Unknown"

    ModelName      "AOC 2060W"

    HorizSync      30.0 - 83.0

    VertRefresh    50.0 - 76.0

    Option        "DPMS"

EndSection



Section "Monitor"

    Identifier    "Monitor1"

    VendorName    "Unknown"

    ModelName      "VIZ VA19L HDTV10T"

    HorizSync      30.0 - 56.0

    VertRefresh    56.0 - 62.0

EndSection



Section "Monitor"

    Identifier    "Monitor2"

    VendorName    "Unknown"

    ModelName      "Acer AL1702"

    HorizSync      30.0 - 82.0

    VertRefresh    56.0 - 76.0

EndSection



Section "Monitor"

    Identifier    "Monitor3"

    VendorName    "Unknown"

    ModelName      "DELL E153FP"

    HorizSync      30.0 - 63.0

    VertRefresh    56.0 - 76.0

EndSection



Section "Device"

    Identifier    "Device0"

    Driver        "nvidia"

    VendorName    "NVIDIA Corporation"

    BoardName      "GeForce GT 730"

    BusID          "PCI:1:0:0"

    Screen          0

EndSection



Section "Device"

    Identifier    "Device1"

    Driver        "nvidia"

    VendorName    "NVIDIA Corporation"

    BoardName      "GeForce GT 730"

    BusID          "PCI:2:0:0"

    Screen          0

EndSection



Section "Device"

    Identifier    "Device2"

    Driver        "nvidia"

    VendorName    "NVIDIA Corporation"

    BoardName      "GeForce GT 730"

    BusID          "PCI:2:0:0"

    Screen          1

EndSection



Section "Device"

    Identifier    "Device3"

    Driver        "nvidia"

    VendorName    "NVIDIA Corporation"

    BoardName      "GeForce GT 730"

    BusID          "PCI:1:0:0"

    Screen          1

EndSection



Section "Screen"



# Removed Option "metamodes" "HDMI-0: nvidia-auto-select +1024+0, VGA-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+132"

    Identifier    "Screen0"

    Device        "Device0"

    Monitor        "Monitor0"

    DefaultDepth    24

    Option        "Stereo" "0"

    Option        "nvidiaXineramaInfoOrder" "DFP-1"

    Option        "metamodes" "HDMI-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"

    Option        "SLI" "Off"

    Option        "MultiGPU" "Off"

    Option        "BaseMosaic" "off"

    SubSection    "Display"

        Depth      24

    EndSubSection

EndSection



Section "Screen"



# Removed Option "metamodes" "DVI-I-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+0, VGA-0: nvidia-auto-select +1280+0"

    Identifier    "Screen1"

    Device        "Device1"

    Monitor        "Monitor1"

    DefaultDepth    24

    Option        "Stereo" "0"

    Option        "metamodes" "VGA-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"

    Option        "SLI" "Off"

    Option        "MultiGPU" "Off"

    Option        "BaseMosaic" "off"

    SubSection    "Display"

        Depth      24

    EndSubSection

EndSection



Section "Screen"

    Identifier    "Screen2"

    Device        "Device2"

    Monitor        "Monitor2"

    DefaultDepth    24

    Option        "Stereo" "0"

    Option        "metamodes" "DVI-I-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"

    Option        "SLI" "Off"

    Option        "MultiGPU" "Off"

    Option        "BaseMosaic" "off"

    SubSection    "Display"

        Depth      24

    EndSubSection

EndSection



Section "Screen"

    Identifier    "Screen3"

    Device        "Device3"

    Monitor        "Monitor3"

    DefaultDepth    24

    Option        "Stereo" "0"

    Option        "metamodes" "VGA-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"

    Option        "SLI" "Off"

    Option        "MultiGPU" "Off"

    Option        "BaseMosaic" "off"

    SubSection    "Display"

        Depth      24

    EndSubSection

EndSection

Code:

Option "Xinerama" "0"

Try enabling Xinerama. The checkbox is below the screens in your screen-shot.

Here is mine with two monitors:

Code:

Section "ServerLayout"

    Identifier    "X.org Configured"

    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0

    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"

    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"

    Option        "Xinerama" "0"

EndSection



Section "Files"

    ModulePath      "/usr/lib64/xorg/modules"

    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/local"

    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/TTF"

    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/OTF"

    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/Type1"

    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/misc"

    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/CID"

    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"

    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"

    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi"

    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi"

    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/cyrillic"

EndSection



Section "Module"

    Load          "glx"

#    Load          "vnc"

EndSection



Section "InputDevice"

    Identifier    "Keyboard0"

    Driver        "kbd"

EndSection



Section "InputDevice"

    Identifier    "Mouse0"

    Driver        "mouse"

    Option        "Protocol" "auto"

    Option        "Device" "/dev/input/mice"

    Option        "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"

EndSection



Section "Monitor"

    Identifier    "Monitor0"

    VendorName    "Unknown"

    ModelName      "DELL U2412M"

    HorizSync      30.0 - 83.0

    VertRefresh    50.0 - 61.0

EndSection



Section "Device"

    Identifier    "Card0"

    Driver        "nvidia"

    BusID          "PCI:1:0:0"

EndSection



Section "Device"

    Identifier    "Device0"

    Driver        "nvidia"

    VendorName    "NVIDIA Corporation"

    BoardName      "GeForce GTX 1070"

EndSection



Section "Screen"

    Identifier    "Screen0"

    Device        "Device0"

    Monitor        "Monitor0"

    DefaultDepth    24

    Option        "Stereo" "0"

    Option        "nvidiaXineramaInfoOrder" "DFP-0"

    Option        "metamodes" "DVI-D-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+0 {ForceCompositionPipeline=On}, HDMI-0: nvidia-auto-select +1920+0 {ForceCompositionPipeline=On}"

    Option        "SLI" "Off"

    Option        "MultiGPU" "Off"

    Option        "BaseMosaic" "off"

    SubSection    "Display"

        Depth      24

    EndSubSection

EndSection

Quote:

Originally Posted by allend (Post 5732298)

Code:

Option "Xinerama" "0"

Try enabling Xinerama. The checkbox is below the screens in your screen-shot.

Wow! Yes! It was that simple. For some reason I thought the Xinerama option gave me litterally one big screen in that if I maximized a window it would take all 4 screen. But no. Maximizing a window just fills the physical screen, as expected. That was all conjecture on my part. I never tried it.

I'm going to play around with things a bit more before I consider this solved -- seems too easy.

It should maximize to all Physicals screen. Did you try other another Window-manager?

I used 3 monitors on my GTX 970 and it did display to all displays. (eg running mplayer in and pressing f would output to all monitors through xinerama)

Might be different story when using 2 cards.. but shouldn't really,

Best Regards
slacktroll
edit: typo...

Quote:

Originally Posted by slacktroll (Post 5733075)

It should maximize to all Physicals screen. Did you try other another Window-manager?

Well, I don't want it to maximize to all screen! I'm glad it doesn't. I'd need to find a way to fix that. Hopefully, it doesn't "correct" its behavior in the future.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mfoley (Post 5733277)

Well, I don't want it to maximize to all screen! I'm glad it doesn't. I'd need to find a way to fix that. Hopefully, it doesn't "correct" its behavior in the future.

Fortunately, through successive reboots, my Xinerama settings DOES NOT expand windows to all 4 screens when maximized. Whew!

I have run into a couple of issues though:

1) The cursor is HUGE! Probably because it was set to "resolution dependent" in 'Workspace Appearance'. This was an easy fix. I just changed it to '24' and that made it a normal size.

2) I cannot copy/paste between X-screen! This one is MUCH more problematic. Does anyone know how to fix that? I need this!

Quote:

Originally Posted by mfoley (Post 5733844)

2) I cannot copy/paste between X-screen! This one is MUCH more problematic. Does anyone know how to fix that? I need this!

I must have been mistaken on this one. I can copy between windows just fine.