My desktop runs Slackware 14.2 rc2 (as of 17 April 2016) with kernel-generic 4.4.7. Extended desktop functionality across two displays works just fine in X11. The issue I'm having is that following the "hand-off" to the Nouveau FB while booting, my GeForce GTX 960 mirrors the active text console on both of the displays connected to it. It's a bit annoying, especially as my auxiliary display is a portrait display (so the text is displayed sideways). In case this matters, one display is connected directly to the DVI port of the 960, the other is connected to the HDMI port of the 960 with a DVI<->HDMI adapter.

Unlike other LQ posts I've encountered on this topic (e.g., this one), I wish only to turn off output to the auxiliary display when I'm working in the console. (Dual displays are only useful to me for windowing apps.) I tried throwing fbcon=map:<n> parameters to the kernel, but so far have succeeded only in retaining the existing mirroring of the console output to both displays or having no video output at all. I wasn't able to find what I needed on the ArchWiki or Gentoo forums, either.

This is the first "dual head" workstation I've owned, so I'm admittedly quite new to this. How can I boot up with just one console on just one display, without affecting the dual display functionality when I "startx"? Can anyone offer pointers or suggestions?

I don't understand. Why isn't nouveau blacklisted?

I'm afraid I'm not making the connection. Why would nouveau be blacklisted? The only driver of note that I'm seeing blacklisted in /lib/modules.d/framebuffers.conf is nvidiafb, not nouveau.

For that matter, why should it be blacklisted with regards my question?

My apologies. I just couldn't imagine anyone spending the bux for a GTX 960 NOT using the proprietary nVidia driver. Aside from performance, which is vastly superior, I'm pretty certain there is substantially finer control available in the manufacturer's own driver, especially for the higher end cards like yours.

No apologies needed. I see now what you are getting at! :-)

Truth be told, the card might be an expensive mistake--I had plans for doing some spatial analysis, and wanted some oomph for McIDAS-V or ParaView. Now I'm not sure if I'm going to find the time to do much with it. Until I'm ready, I'd like to use the free drivers, which will at least be more robust/painless across software upgrades.

If the problem is indeed that Nouveau doesn't offer fine enough control to place one console on just one display, then I have no real choice. But my hope is that I'm just overlooking a kernel flag, or something.

I'm glad I responded. I was unfamiliar with both of those applications and Paraview is particularly interesting to me. 'm now curious how both of those intersect for you, since they seem quite different with McIdas-V being very specific and Paraview more general. Do you combine them? or are they separate projects for you?

Separate projects. McIDAS-V I was looking to use for correlating weather patterns with bird migration, ParaView for 3D mapping of habitat use by satellite tracked birds of prey. The latter project had the funding pulled out from under it because of litigation. The former is a more personal research project, but I discovered some problems in my data sources I need to nail down before I even think of getting carried away crunching and rendering datasets. Fun stuff, in any case!

Indeed! A close internet gaming lady friend of mine got me interested some since she spent time in the field on projects for both Peregrine Falcons and Spotted Owls. Have fun!

As I use the latest beta driver with my gtx-960 I which I love it is quiet and very good work horse. This could be handled much better with the proprietary driver.
since you are running current I understand with all the xorg updates and mesa updates un-installing and re-installing can slow things down.
so I made a script to hand mine.
Name this one uninstall-nvidia.sh
and the install-nvidia.sh
I been testing the new glvnd-glx-client
no issues yet.
http://docs.slackware.com/howtos:har...aphics_drivers
do it this way or run the script nvidia will add them for you then reboot to run level 3 again
and build them.

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If you are intent on using the free driver, though I actually do recommend using the Proprietary driver with Maxwell based cards, Nouveau will work, but it'll require somewhat of a different setup for the terminals and the framebuffer, while xorg will be best handled through the modesetting driver through glamor rather than the nouveau ddx driver through exa.

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