Slackware 13.37 - Dual monitor, different resolutions
 

Hi All,

I'm running Slackware 13.37 and have dual monitors. My laptop is at resolution 1280x800, and my external monitor (connected by VGA1) should run at 1600x900, but I can't seem to do it; it stays at the laptop resolution.

Through searching, I've tried using xrandr. I needed it to get the monitor to work first, but after that noticing the resolution, everytime I try to change it with:

it gives me the error Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong. I just want to have both monitors working at the same time, but with different resolutions.

Thanks.

You need to run it while logged into X, as the user logged into X, just like any other X application.

Adam

Thanks for the reply, but that is what I am doing. I am using XFCE and have tried running it in the terminal as my own user, and the superuser. Both had the same outcome (the above message).

Any other possible solutions?

Can you show us the output of 'xdpyinfo' ?

Adam

xdpyinfo output:Near as I can tell, instead of seeing 2 monitors, it's seeing 1 very wide monitor (res 2560x800). Still don't know what to do about it :)

Well the RANDR extension is listed there, as it should be. I have no idea why xrandr isn't working for you.

Adam

Helpful... lol

Could it be that I have to run another program to initialize stuff? I am new to Slackware so I really don't know the ins and outs.

Maybe this will help. When I first plugged in my external monitor, it didn't start up immediately. After reboot it was working, but was mirroring my main display. I had to run and then it worked. This command did run successfully, but I cannot run the commands to try and adjust the resolution without getting that error message.

If you just run 'xrandr' (with the external monitor plugged in), what do you get?

Adam

I just ran it, and I get the message

Now I also just rebooted again, and my monitors have gone back into mirrored mode. I ran xrandr again and this was my output Not sure why a reboot "fixed" that issue, but I am going to try xrandr again and see what happens when I specify the resolution.

Ok, so after the reboot, I successfully went through this article http://www.ubuntugeek.com/how-change...ng-xrandr.html to set the resolution of my external monitor and it worked. I also was able to use to turn off the mirroring.

I don't know why it was failing with that error and another reboot fixed it, but it looks good at the moment. I have the proper resolution and it's not being mirrored so it's all good. I just now have to figure out how to set it to always start that way.

Before I mark it as solved though, does anyone know what might have been causing that? Is it possible some drivers or programs just weren't properly loaded and I needed the reboot? I'm not use to having to reboot a linux OS to resolve issues (although its usually my goto on windows PC's).

Were you, perhaps, running the xrandr command from a screen session?

Adam

I really don't know what that means :s

I don't boot to a command line and run X from there, XFCE starts immediately with the system (run level 4 I think instead of 3). And in there, I was running all of my commands through a regular terminal window. I tried from both my regular user and the super user with the same result.

What do you mean "Screen Session"?

Actually I have noticed 1 issue that is still happening. On my main monitor (the laptop screen, LVDS1), on the bottom, if I move my mouse down there, it will go below the edge of the screen, as if I have another 30-40 pixels of desktop down there. My resolution is still set to 1280x800 on that display according to xrandr, and it was working before I "fixed" the resolution on my external monitor.

Anyone have any ideas on this one? I can't be a coincidence that I fix one monitor and the other screws up...

Thanks.

The way i did to start automaticly, both monitor is to create bash script named .startxrandr



You might want to adjust xrandar options in way to work for you.


and then in .xinitrc file put the

Maybe there is a simple way, but i did it like this.


Cheers

Thanks for the info and how to get it to start automatically. I'll try it out and see what happens. Don't suppose you have any idea about the dead space on my primary monitor? The 30-40 pixels of extra space below the taskbar that the mouse can travel into?

Try to specify resolution, maybe that is the problem.

Good idea. I'll have to give that a shot. I'll reboot my laptop so it wipes the settings and I'll specify the resolution of both screens. Maybe it will be the difference.

Try doing something like Using the auto switch should make it use the default resolution of the monitor. I have done this with my laptop and 22" monitor being 1280x800 and 1680x1050 respectively.

I tried the command and it did work to set my proper resolutions, but I am still having the issue of the dead space below the edge of my main display (laptop screen). Any other ideas?

Hi all,

I'm really hoping to mark this ticket as solved, but I'm still hoping for a solution to the extra space below my main screen (although I'm probably going to give up on that for now), and I have stumbled on a new issue. I tried what VARNICA suggested to add my xrandr commands to my xinitrc file, but it didn't work.

I am new to Slackware and Linux for these types of changes. Is there something I have to enable or do to have it look at the xinitrc file? I put it in my home directory and had to create it since it didn't exist. But I thought it automatically searched for it. Can someone direct me to what I have to do to make my xrandr commands launch at startup?

Thanks.

Hello

you have .xinitrc file in your home directory, but it is hidden. Try ls -la command and you should see it .xinitrc
Files with dot in front are hidden. Or open terminal and in your home directory type

Cheers

When I did that (I use VI though), it was a new file that was created. So the file didn't exist prior to me creating it. I did add the commands exactly as you laid it out, but it didn't appear to do anything.

Hello what DE do you use and
can you post the output of

switch user whit your log in user.

or simply in user directory exec ls -la and post so we can see.

Here is the output.

Keep in mind that .xinitrc exists because I created it. The following is what is in the file:

Ok, strange but try this first change the mode of script

and then in X go to the start menu Settings, Xfce 4 Settings Manager, Session and Startup, Application Autostart and Add the script .startxrandar

Ok, so I just did what you suggested and it worked. Thank you very much.

Now the question I have is isn't there a way to have that start via files from the command line or something? Using the application autostart is fine, but I would like to know how to get things to start automatically just by modifying the proper files (like with the .xinitrc if it had worked). I'm trying to learn all I can and I don't want to end up being tied to any specific window manager if possible.

Thanks.

If you want to start from command line, you can copy .xinitrc from /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.xfce to your home directory, just rename it to .xinitrc. And edit to start the script.



To learn more here are some links:


http://www.slackbook.org/html/x-wind...m-xinitrc.html

and

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xinitrc

Thanks for the info and the links. I'll read through them and try it out.

Thanks for all your help, going to finally close this thread :)