Dual monitors in console mode
 

I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction on this question.
I have a dual monitor system setup in X. What I would like to do though, is to have some way of getting monitor 2 into a console screen so I can work on the cli while an Xsession running on monitor 1. That way I can edit files while looking at a web page, man page, or README file without having to switch between consoles.
I have two monitors. Monitor 1 is a ViewSonic VP201s connected via DVD-D cable to a PNY GeForce 6800GT. Monitor 2 is a Proview PL716s connected via vga cable to a PNY MX4000.

I really like having both monitors when I have X running, but I would also like to have the ability to use both monitors in console mode.
Thanx.

What about a maximized xterm on the second screen?

--Shade

I've not tried it, but I hear rumours of being able to use a program called "screen" with some kind of xinerama trick to get, effectively, 2 different consoles (one per monitor). Theoretically, then, each would be a separate entity, and running "startx" on one would only kick X up onto VT7 of that monitor. In practice, I've not looked into doing this at all ... if you don't need a proper terminal, then as mentioned, a maximised xterm (called with proper --geometry settings, perhaps?) will give you that effect.

I was reading the manpage for screen when I first started trying to figure this out. Screen might work, if I can understand the manpage. I'll probably end up doing the xterm thing on monitor 2. I like the console better though, the fonts are bigger than in xterm.
Thanks for your help guys.

you can enlarge the font that xterm uses.
edit: err....but the " -fs " option doesn't seem to work...

egag

You can change the xterm font size with either a line like this in your .Xdefaults:

xterm*Font: 9x15

or ctrl-right click and select the font size you want.

piete or anyone else for that matter,

I'm "giddy as a schoolgirl" about the proposition of using my dual heads, 1 in X and 1 at the CLI.
I'm familiar with the program screen & xinerama... but combine the 2 to achieve something new?
That would be cool.

I tried searching, but every result seemed to be about xinerama in X only or MAC hardware.

Any one have a link? Or piete, do you remember what site you saw it on?
-tw

p.s. - I'll reread " man screen " in the mean time.

I've googled using different phrases, I've looked the the HOW-TO's, various README documents, read the man pages for init, console, tty, agetty, getty, vt, screen, and several others I can't remember now. Nothing explains how. Or even touches on the subject.
The only thing I can think of that might work is to remove this line in /etc/inittab:
c6:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty6 linux
And then create a script in /etc/rc.d/rc.local that would set tty6 on monitor 2.
Think I'll try googling some more, this time using 'UNIX' instead of 'linux' or 'slackware'. Since Slackware is the most 'UNIX' like distro, I might find something I missed.

Update: The Framebuffer-HOW-TO has info on how to set this up. Ufortunately it's written for the 2.1.x kernel. So may have to make adjustments.

I've done all of the above, in addition to fishing through my history & favourites. I hope I wasn't making it up, but it's entirely possible I thought I read something and didn't - since I've never felt the desire to get this particular mode of operation up & running, I never looked too closely =/

Looking through the nvidia readme, leads me to believe several things, including the idea of running a raw xterm or similar straight on top of an X server. Not quite the separation you were discussing, but the result.

See appendix P for possibilities on that.

ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Li...664/README.txt

Anyway, please forgive an old man for getting it wrong! Perhaps someone more kernel-savvy will have the forsight to show us how it's done using kernel 2.6!

Sleep easy,
- Piete.