Gentoo above all other distros handles my dual monitor setup better than
any other distro.
I currently have two monitors one crt and one lcd both running at
1280x1024 on each monitor and am running modular X on the GENTOO machine.
i update nvidia drivers using #emerge nvidia-drivers.
The reason for this post is to find out how to get nvidia and X to
work this well on my machine running slackware
as gentoo seems to be doing something completely different than slackware.
When i startx on my gentoo box i get a WHITE nvidia
logo spread across both monitors at a combined resolution of 2560x1024
just prior to the kde splash screen displaying on the second monitor.I
have over time compiled LOTS of kernels for gentoo and had virtually no
problems with my dual monitors, running emerge nvidia-drivers or
modprobe nvidia to load the driver.
However on slackware 12.0 after installing X i then download the
driver from nvidia and compile the kernel module using the same version
of gcc that i compiled the kernel with ( failing to do this would not
allow the kernel module to be compiled ).

Then using my trustworthy xorg.conf file that
i use for gentoo i then startx on my slackware box.
What happens next is the display then goes to one monitor and displays
the nvidia logo however this logo is GREY with a really nice GREEN
nvidia logo.
All is well within the Xorg.0.log ( on slackware ) except a line that
reads
Virtual screen size determined to be 1280 x 1024

however on the gentoo machine the same line reads
Virtual screen size determined to be 2560x1024

Just to iterate, these logs generated from X are using the same
xorg.conf file one on gentoo and the other on slackware 12.0.
I can after using nvidia-settings ( that really mangles my xorg.conf
file ) get dual monitors to work, however, only with the LCD using a
resolution of 1024x768 <-- this being the main problem, i want it at 1280x1024.
So it would seem that gentoo's nvidia driver or X version having a different logo
and setting the the LCD monitor to 1280x1024 ( both of these are
square monitors not wide screen ) is doint things right. i thought at first it has to be the nvidia driver but then i looked at each version of x and to my supprise gentoo is using X version 7.2
and slackware is using 1.3? is this possible are there just different naming schemes ( slackware surley cant be using X this old on version 12 ???
here is the output of Xorg -version on both machines
(GENTOO MACHINE )
Xorg -version

X Window System Version 7.2.0 <---- GENTOO using latest version
Release Date: 22 January 2007 <-- earlier release date
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0, Release 7.2
Build Operating System: Linux 2.6.20-gentoo-r8 i686
Current Operating System: Linux 2.6.21.5 #1 SMP Tue Jul 31 23:00:30 EST 2 007 i686
Build Date: 21 July 2007
Before reporting problems, check [
to make sure that you have the latest version.
Module Loader present

(SLACKWARE BOX )
genix$:/usr/bin$ /usr/bin/Xorg -version

X Window System Version 1.3.0 <--- woa this is way off 7.2
Release Date: 19 April 2007 <--- release date is only a few months ago
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0, Release 1.3
Build Operating System: Slackware 12.0 Slackware Linux Project
Current Operating System: Linux buddha 2.6.21.5 #1 SMP Tue Jul 31 23:00:30 EST 2 007 i686
Build Date: 09 May 2007
Before reporting problems, check
to make sure that you have the latest version.
Module Loader present

So i am thinking that the reason i am having all these problems is that slackware is using an ancient X window system??

Any help with this from a slackware user would be greatly appreciated.

1.3.0 on my slackware12 box too,lost of display problem show up either.why slackware use this old one?no reason to do that ,must be something wrong!but who can explain this?

Quote: "but then i looked at each version of x and to my supprise gentoo is using X version 7.2
and slackware is using 1.3? is this possible are there just different naming schemes"

The xorg version 1.3 is short for 7.1.3.

But that is all I can help with.

Glenn.

Ok so it is just a naming difference version 7.1.3 is now known as ( 1.3 ).
My gentoo box is using version 7.2
Now i must mention that i have used the same xorg.conf file for previous versions of X and it worked using the gentoo nvidia driver setup.
Ill post a query in the gentoo forums to try find out why there version of X and the nvidia driver is working and post back here.