I was slightly unsure in which forum this should go... But I don't know whether this is more hardware or software. I'm running Gentoo without an X server, and was wondering if there was a way of getting a console on each monitor. I haven't found anyone on the web trying to do anything similar except http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t...l+monitor.html which seems to be focussing on cloning the output of one monitor on the other.
I'm using uvesafb as my framebuffer and my graphics card is an nVidia one, though I don't know the extent to which either of those is applicable to the question... I feel to be set up usefully, there must be some kind of software to enable you to switch keyboard focus between the two monitors, but I was unsure as to exactly what level this software would be working at (ie. whether I would install a programme to do it, or whether I need to mess with my kernel, or whether I need to use a special framebuffer, or whatever).
Any links or advice would be helpful
Thanks,
Josh

I think the issue is more 'software' than 'hardware', but if you decide you'd like the thread moved at some time, just click REPORT on a post (bottom right corner) and ask one of us to move it somewhere for you.

As for the subject matter -- I really wish you luck, because I'd really like to be able to use both of my monitors with virtual terminals too, without X, but it doesn't seem to be happening.

Here's a post I made asking pretty much the same question, in June of 2008:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ut-x**-652409/

I posed the same question on nVidia's NVNews forums in 2008:
http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=115876
but got not a single reply.

Last time I was intensely looking into this, I seem to remember learning/reading the the virtual console code and/or framebuffer code of the Linux kernel, is just not written in such a way as to have the use of more than one virtual terminal (visible on multiple monitors), outside of X.

When I had one card only, I got the cloned display when I booted up; I don't remember if it remained cloned after I logged in too, but I believe it did. And now, with two cards and at least one monitor on each card, I get only a total of ONE monitor even turning on during boot, and that's how it remains until X starts. The other display(s) remain asleep.

I'm glad you posted your question, as it isn't an issue that comes up often; maybe there's something new floating around that is geared towards this. Much of what I discovered when I was looking, involved a bunch of sketchy, unsupported kernel patches, that I couldn't get to do anything.

Good luck!

1 members found this post helpful.

Thanks for the prompt reply...

The point brought up about VTs in the first thread you posted also occurred to me this morning, that there shouldn't really be that much of a difference just to have half of your virtual terminals on one screen and half on the other.

I too have previously got the cloned output - I can't remember when, I *think* it was on earlier versions of Ubuntu when I dropped to a terminal. Or perhaps it's when I boot into a live CD? I can't remember, I just can remember having the Ubuntu logo on both screens and a duplicated console on both screens.

I only wish it were the summer holidays, I might have more time to look into it... If work slacks off a bit then I might give it a shot, but I'm no expert programmer. It says a lot that my favourite languages are still Python and Java :/ But if I get anything remotely working, I'll post something back here

Thanks again for the response,
Josh

As requested, moved to Software