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True. It will. First, a disclaimer. I don't run TwinView myself. I have been helping someone else (albeit via email only) with their TwinView setup.
My understanding is that TwinView "tricks" everything into thinking that there is really only one display. As such, there are certain issues with using it. One of those issues is the wallpaper.
I haven't been able to find a better solution than making a custom background. If there is one, I'd love to know, as the guy I am helping out had exactly the same question.
Furthermore, I believe that Xinerama can be used instead of TwinView. This may give the ability to control the second display more easily, but has some other tradeoffs.
Sorry my answer is very vague. In the last few days working with TwinView, I have read a lot of different stuff. It is very hard to get correct information. Many xorg.conf files on the web are a mess and the guides to them leave a lot to be desired. The best source of info has been the README for the nVidia driver. From that:
Quote:
TwinView is a mode of operation where two display devices (digital
flat panels, CRTs, and TVs) can display the contents of a single X screen
in any arbitrary configuration. This method of multiple monitor use
has several distinct advantages over other techniques (such as Xinerama):
o A single X screen is used. The NVIDIA driver conceals all
information about multiple display devices from the X server; as
far as X is concerned, there is only one screen.
o Both display devices share one frame buffer. Thus, all the
the functionality present on a single display (e.g. accelerated
OpenGL) is available on TwinView.
o No additional overhead is needed to emulate having a single
desktop.
If you are interested in using each display device as a separate
X screen, please see (app-r) APPENDIX R: CONFIGURING MULTIPLE X
SCREENS ON ONE CARD.
This is why the one wallpaper is used ("as far as X is concerned, there is only one screen."). This also hints at being able to configure each display device as a separate X screen. You can read the README for specifics, but the short of it is that you will not be able to drag windows between screens and hardware accelerated OpenGL cannot span the two X screens.
although, I'm n00b with GIMP, how do you slap two backgrounds side by side?
The link that I provided gives a hint. The first thing to figure out is what size your new image will be. If you have two wallpapers/screens that are 1024x768, you need to start up gimp and click "File -> New..." It will ask you for dimensions. In my example ( 2@1024x768), the correct dimensions would be 2048 width x 768 height. This is a simple case. You should be able to use the info here plus the info from the link for more complex combinations.
Now, you will have a blank document. Now, use gimp to open up a wallpaper. It will already be selected, so just copy it. Move to the new document and paste it. Use the "Move layers and selections" tool to move it to one side. Repeat for a second wallpaper. Save and you're done.
The fellow I help with his TwinView apparently got the results you are looking for simply by tiling the background. This of course depends on the background size, but will apparently work.
tiling the background? I guess that would work, but the problem is that my backgrounds tend to be in 1600X1200 resolution and my screens are 1152x864 and 1024x758. I'd have to gimp it anyway, and I might as well tailor it to the dualview.
Quote:
Furthermore, I believe that Xinerama can be used instead of TwinView
I've heard about it, but how is xinerama different from twinview?
The only source for information I have is still the nVidia README. The pertinant sections for differences:
Quote:
TwinView is a mode of operation where two display devices (digital
flat panels, CRTs, and TVs) can display the contents of a single X screen
in any arbitrary configuration. This method of multiple monitor use
has several distinct advantages over other techniques (such as Xinerama):
o A single X screen is used. The NVIDIA driver conceals all
information about multiple display devices from the X server; as
far as X is concerned, there is only one screen.
o Both display devices share one frame buffer. Thus, all the
the functionality present on a single display (e.g. accelerated
OpenGL) is available on TwinView.
o No additional overhead is needed to emulate having a single
desktop.
Quote:
While there are several disadvantages to this approach as compared to
TwinView (eg: windows cannot be dragged between X screens, hardware
accelerated OpenGL cannot span the two X screens), it does offer several
advantages over TwinView:
o If each display device is a separate X screen, then properties
that may vary between X screens may vary between displays (eg:
depth, root window size, etc).
o Hardware that can only be used on one display at a time (eg:
video overlays, hardware accelerated RGB overlays), and which
consequently cannot be used at all when in TwinView, can be
exposed on the first X screen when each display is a separate
X screen.
o The 1-to-1 association of display devices to X screens is
more historically in line with X.
That sums it up much better than I can.
Basic translation, if TwinView works well for you, keep it. If you have trouble, like you can't play videos or stuff that needs video overlay, use the second option.
TwinView gives you OpenGL acceleration. Xinerama (if I am calling that right) gives you video overlays (though only on one screen.
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