Tri-head and twinview problems

dockpunk · 06-28-2011, 02:49 PM

running 13.1 with xfce, ive had a dual head display on a pcie card for a while working great. i just added a 3rd monitor on the internal gpu and hit some rough spots. both igpu and egpu are nvidia

all 3 displays are working mostly right, i have the igpu monitor as its own xcreen and the 2 egpu monitors set to twinview. problem with the twinview monitors is maximizing and task bars span across both and msg boxes/windows default to pop up dead center of them.
got just about everything else worked out like full screen games switching to the correct mode and shutting down one twinview screen while playing in full on the other. lots of weird quirks trying to get things set with nvidia-settings so i went back to basics and setup xorg by hand. trying to get my old setup which treated the twinview monitors as 1 desktop but respected them as 2 screens.

Code:

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    Screen      1  "Screen1" RightOf "Screen0"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
    Option         "Xinerama" "0"
EndSection

Section "Files"
    FontPath        "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc/:unscaled"
    FontPath        "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
    FontPath        "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
    FontPath        "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc/"
    FontPath        "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/"
    FontPath        "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo/"
    FontPath        "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/"
    FontPath        "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/"
    FontPath        "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic/"
    FontPath        "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/TTF/"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "HannStar Display Corp Hanns.G HW191"
    HorizSync       30.0 - 83.0
    VertRefresh     49.0 - 75.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor1"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "Acer X193W"
    HorizSync       30.0 - 82.0
    VertRefresh     50.0 - 75.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor2"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "Acer X193W"
    HorizSync       30.0 - 82.0
    VertRefresh     50.0 - 75.0
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce 8100 / nForce 720a"
    Option         "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"
    Option         "AddARGBVisuals" "True"
    Option         "NoLogo" "True"
    Option         "AllowGLXWithComposite" "True"
    Option         "DRI" "True"
    Option         "RenderAccel" "True"
    Option         "RandRRotation" "on"
    BusID          "PCI:2:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device1"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce GTS 250"
    Option         "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"
    Option         "AddARGBVisuals" "True"
    Option         "NoLogo" "True"
    Option         "AllowGLXWithComposite" "True"
    Option         "DRI" "True"
    Option         "RenderAccel" "True"
    Option         "RandRRotation" "on"
    BusID          "PCI:3:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device2"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce GTS 250"
    Option         "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"
    Option         "AddARGBVisuals" "True"
    Option         "NoLogo" "True"
    Option         "AllowGLXWithComposite" "True"
    Option         "DRI" "True"
    Option         "RenderAccel" "True"
    Option         "RandRRotation" "on"
    BusID          "PCI:3:0:0"
    Screen          1
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "TwinView" "0"
    Option         "TwinViewXineramaInfoOrder" "CRT-0"
    Option         "metamodes" "nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen1"
    Device         "Device1"
    Monitor        "Monitor1"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "TwinView" "1"
    Option         "TwinViewXineramaInfoOrder" "CRT-1"
    Option "metamodes" "CRT-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+0, CRT-1: nvidia-auto-select +1440+0; CRT-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+0, CRT-1: NULL"
#    Option         "metamodes" "CRT-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+0, CRT-1: nvidia-auto-select +1440+0"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen2"
    Device         "Device2"
    Monitor        "Monitor2"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "TwinView" "0"
    Option         "metamodes" "CRT-1: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
    Option         "Composite" "enable"
EndSection

any idea what i may be missing? screen0 is the new monitor attached to device0 which is the igpu on its own xscreen. screen1 and screen2 are attached to the egpu which is device1 and device2 (didnt seem to work when i had both screens set to use the same device entry) which is the twinview.

dockpunk · 07-31-2011, 10:51 PM

hate bumping posts, especially this far along, but i still haven't found a solution. i've switched back to 3 separate desktops which is far from ideal. can't move windows between screens but at least everything maximizes to just one monitor. turning on xinerama solved some problems but created others, and i'd like to stay away from it anyway since i've read it conflicts with the nvidia drivers own xinerama support.

i just dont get it, there has to be something i'm missing. could it possibly be an issue with xfce? really don't want to have to switch to kde just for this.

oddly enough looking through my old posts i found an unrelated problem i had 3 years ago with a 3 monitor/2 card setup. maybe i should take it as a sign from "Bob" that i should just give up.

ecki_ · 08-01-2011, 06:09 AM

I'm just guessing here, since I never used TwinMode for myself. But I configured it for a friend. And I remember him having the same problem under KDE sometimes.

The "metamodes" for Screen1 look kinda suspicious. Have you tried the commented out line also? It looks to me as if the first line overrides the positioning with "...; CRT-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+0; CRT-1: NULL". And the TwinViewXineramaInfoOrder might lack the CRT-0 also.

Additionally, I noted that crafting the TwinView configuration by hand didn't have any real benefits over using nvidia-settings. You might want to backup your config, then try nvidia-settings and look if things get any better. Nvidia-settings might ruin your second display though, and you might want to use the backup to merge the non-TwinView info back in after you're done with the TwinView.

As mentioned before, I'm just guessing, but maybe it helps.

dockpunk · 08-01-2011, 11:24 AM

I have tried with the commented out metamode, the metamode i am using is to better control full screen games, allowing me to set the resolution to either span across both monitors at 2880x900 or locked down to one 1440x900 screen with the other monitor turned off. using either produces the same problem.

The reason for doing the xorg.org by hand over nvidia-settings is the gui option doesn't do well with odd set ups. had many times where the mouse is trapped on one or two monitors yes all the had a desktop. lots of little quirks i had to fix by hand. works fine for 3 individual desktops or 1 tri head xinermama but the middle ground i want needs hand tweaking. what i have is more or less the output from nvidia-settings merged with my old xorg.conf from my dual head set up.