dual display with Mandrake 10.0
 

i am new to linux and i have been having this particular problem for a couple of weeks now, and no matter how much fiddling i do with the configuration utilities... i cant get my dual display to work

i have a Dell Inspiration 2400 with an integrated video card as well as a Rage 128 PCI card. i have my BIOS configuration already set so that the integrated card is the default display and this is where all of the boot text or whatever it is called is displayed.

now as it all goes right now... there is a desktop displayed on both of my 17" monitors... but there are two start bars and i cannot drag programs across from one to another. also, the placement is wrong - my primary monitor is on the right... and my secondary is on the left... however linux has it logically set up the other way around so i have to move my mouse to the right to get the cursor to the secondary monitor which is actually placed on the left.

everything works perfectly in windows XP (i have dual boot)... no problems at all... but i cant get it to work in linux. i am quite advanced in my knowledge of windows.... but that means nothing here. is there any help anyone can provide? i am at a total loss of what i should do.

thanks a bundle

You will probably need to edit your /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 file. In the ServerLayout there will be a line like:

Screen "Screen2" LeftOf "Screen1"

If you change the LeftOf to a RightOf (or vice versa) then the monitors should no longer be swapped. As to the dragging windows across window borders, etc. You probably need to enable Xinerama. This is done by adding a line:

Option "Xinerama" "true" to the ServerFlags section of your /etc/X11XF86Config-4 file. Whist the above modifications aren't too likely to break things and should be easy enough to correct should something go wrong it is probably a good idea to back up /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 just in case.

thanks im gonna go try that right now

Thanks for your help! it worked perfectly!

Glad to hear it.