Dual Monitor/extended desktop
 

Hello,
I am completely new to Linux. I am running Suse 12.01 in my IBM W520 laptop. I have nVidia Quadro 1000m video card. My laptop also has Windows 7 professional 64 bit, and SUSE is also 64 bit. I have two extra monitor, with windows I am easily able to extend my desktop to my monitors, but I am having difficulties with SUSE. Following is the list of my X11 directory structure

drwxr-xr-x 10 root root 4096 Jan 17 01:19 .
drwxr-xr-x 124 root root 12288 Jan 17 11:26 ..
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jan 17 01:19 fs
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jan 17 01:19 lbxproxy
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jan 17 01:19 proxymngr
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Jan 17 01:19 rstart
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jan 17 01:19 xdm
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5708 Oct 22 15:29 xim
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Nov 10 12:14 xim.d
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Jan 17 01:19 xinit
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1353 Apr 12 2003 Xmodmap
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1049 Jun 20 2001 Xmodmap.remote
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jan 17 11:17 xorg.conf.d
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 849 Jan 17 00:30 xorg.conf.install
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4017 Apr 22 2009 Xresources

Unfortunately there's no xorg.conf file, but as you can see there two xorg.conf.

So, I was wondering if someone can guide me through the dual monitor configuration process, I would be grateful. Also, my laptop is attached to a docking station.

Thanks
Rayehan

look into xrandr,
thats what I use to manage two screens (my laptop and a tv).

sample command i use is "xrandr --output HDMI1 auto --right-of LVDS1"

just running xrandr will give you a list of connected displays.

Thanks for your quick response. I've run the xrandr as you had suggested, and follwoing is the output of the command

rayehan@linux-4pc7:~> xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1600 x 900, maximum 8192 x 8192
LVDS2 connected 1600x900+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 345mm x 194mm
1600x900 60.0*+ 50.0
1024x768 60.0
800x600 60.3 56.2
640x480 59.9
VGA2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
rayehan@linux-4pc7:~>

it seems (I may be wrong) OS is not recognizing other two external displays.

Thanks
Rayehan

how are the other displays connected?

DVI not standard VGA

what drivers do you have installed for your video card? the open source ones or the proprietary ones?

I went to Yast and typed nVidia. There were few in there already installed, I didn't install anything apart from the OS. Is there a way I can check it?

Thanks
Rayehan

post output of lsmod

With quadro cards I usually grab the drivers from nvidia directly, drop to init 3 and install, then use a combination of nvidia-settings and manually editing xorg.conf to configure the dual screen.

Module Size Used by
hid_magicmouse 17938 0
hidp 28410 1
af_packet 35338 6
ip6t_LOG 17095 5
xt_tcpudp 12924 2
xt_pkttype 12504 3
ipt_LOG 13040 5
xt_limit 12711 10
rfcomm 77995 4
bnep 19817 2
ip6t_REJECT 12974 3
nf_conntrack_ipv6 14349 3
nf_defrag_ipv6 18438 1 nf_conntrack_ipv6
ip6table_raw 12683 1
xt_NOTRACK 12504 4
ipt_REJECT 12576 3
iptable_raw 12678 1
iptable_filter 12810 1
ip6table_mangle 12740 0
nf_conntrack_netbios_ns 12665 0
nf_conntrack_broadcast 12589 1 nf_conntrack_netbios_ns
nf_conntrack_ipv4 14783 3
nf_defrag_ipv4 12729 1 nf_conntrack_ipv4
ip_tables 27717 2 iptable_raw,iptable_filter
xt_conntrack 12760 6
nf_conntrack 96202 6 nf_conntrack_ipv6,xt_NOTRACK,nf_conntrack_netbios_ns,nf_conntrack_broadcast,nf_conntrack_ipv4,xt_con ntrack
ip6table_filter 12815 1
ip6_tables 27864 4 ip6t_LOG,ip6table_raw,ip6table_mangle,ip6table_filter
x_tables 34102 16 ip6t_LOG,xt_tcpudp,xt_pkttype,ipt_LOG,xt_limit,ip6t_REJECT,ip6table_raw,xt_NOTRACK,ipt_REJECT,iptabl e_raw,iptable_filter,ip6table_mangle,ip_tables,xt_conntrack,ip6table_filter,ip6_tables
cpufreq_conservative 13821 0
cpufreq_userspace 13162 0
cpufreq_powersave 12618 0
acpi_cpufreq 18766 1
mperf 12667 1 acpi_cpufreq
microcode 35758 0
fuse 87950 9
hdj_mod 163047 0
snd_hda_codec_conexant 70845 1
arc4 12529 2
snd_rawmidi 34844 1 hdj_mod
snd_seq_device 14540 1 snd_rawmidi
ecb 12863 1
uvcvideo 76804 0
sg 36561 0
sr_mod 22464 0
btusb 23904 4
cdrom 47994 1 sr_mod
bluetooth 270903 28 hidp,rfcomm,bnep,btusb
videodev 102250 1 uvcvideo
v4l2_compat_ioctl32 17083 1 videodev
iwlagn 396525 0
joydev 17606 0
mac80211 332546 1 iwlagn
sdhci_pci 14286 0
sdhci 37175 1 sdhci_pci
snd_hda_intel 33441 2
snd_hda_codec 118874 2 snd_hda_codec_conexant,snd_hda_intel
cfg80211 210325 2 iwlagn,mac80211
snd_hwdep 13613 1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm 109594 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec
firewire_ohci 44818 0
pcspkr 12702 0
thinkpad_acpi 84139 0
firewire_core 71750 1 firewire_ohci
iTCO_wdt 17863 0
snd_timer 34086 1 snd_pcm
crc_itu_t 12707 1 firewire_core
iTCO_vendor_support 13718 1 iTCO_wdt
snd_page_alloc 18572 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
i2c_i801 18013 0
mmc_core 108074 1 sdhci
xhci_hcd 137451 0
rfkill 25967 5 bluetooth,cfg80211,thinkpad_acpi
e1000e 222320 0
mei 84843 0
ac 13055 0
snd 86602 14 hdj_mod,snd_hda_codec_conexant,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hwdep,snd_ pcm,thinkpad_acpi,snd_timer
battery 18608 0
soundcore 15091 1 snd
tpm_tis 19253 0
tpm 26915 1 tpm_tis
tpm_bios 13683 1 tpm
autofs4 43290 2
i915 638343 4
nouveau 778194 0
thermal 22961 0
ttm 80953 1 nouveau
drm_kms_helper 42489 2 i915,nouveau
drm 252967 7 i915,nouveau,ttm,drm_kms_helper
i2c_algo_bit 13423 2 i915,nouveau
mxm_wmi 12979 1 nouveau
wmi 19256 1 mxm_wmi
video 19653 2 i915,nouveau
button 13949 2 i915,nouveau
processor 45192 1 acpi_cpufreq
thermal_sys 25017 3 thermal,video,processor

just downloaded the driver as per your suggestion with extension .run. how do I install it?

chmod +x *.run && ./*.run

I assume that's in response to my comment.

You need to add execute permissions to the file and shut down X in order to install.

"chmod +x" for permissions, and I usually use Ctrl+Alt+F# (F1-F7 depending on which one is X in your distribution) to switch to text mode, log in as root, and run "init 3" to shut down X. Once running in init 3, I run the installation (you'll need kernel-headers, kernel-devel, etc installed as well), it'll write out the xorg.conf file, and assuming all goes well, just run "init 5" or reboot the machine to go back to normal.

You should be prepared for something to not go well though, and it would be helpful to have another computer next to you so you can search the internet for the solutions to any problems that might pop up and leave you stranded without X.

you are right. There's an error, it says Nouveau Kernel driver is currently in use by your system. This driver is incompatile with the NVIDIA driver, and must be disabled before preceeding. then blah blah blah..................

How do I disable it? Also, I tried typing init 3 in the command line after pressing ctrl+Alt+F1......but didn't do anything. Any idea?

I ran into that when I set up a Fedora 16 machine a week or two ago. The answer (for me at least) was to rebuild initramfs using dracut. See Step 5 on this page:
http://www.if-not-true-then-false.co...ouveau-driver/