Multiple-Display Power Tools For Linux? 410
Posted
by
timothy
from the it's-a-hard-knock-life dept.
from the it's-a-hard-knock-life dept.
shift writes "I've used multiple monitors for years (currently 3) and find that Linux is lacking in power tools for such setups. Even Windows 7 has added the feature to move a window from screen to screen with keyboard shortcuts. Are any of the major desktop environments adding such features? I'm still stuck on FVWM and have defined functions to swap the contents of screens as well as move windows from screen to screen and so on. But this just seems like such basic functionality people would want in multi-screen setups that I'm surprised I don't find any of these features in our latest desktop environments."
Separate Workspaces? (Score:4, Interesting)
Why not just make each monitor it's own workspace?
Another Question (Score:3, Interesting)
While we're on the subject, I'm curious to know how well Linux supports three monitor setups. I'm thinking of setting up three monitors on two graphics cards with KDE4. Does anyone have experience with this setup? How well does Compiz work for you? (I've heard anecdotal stories that Compiz can't cross video cards.) Is this something that SaX (or another GUI tool) setup, or will I be hand-editing configuration files?
Isn't this pretty widespread already? (Score:5, Interesting)
Is this just a problem with FVWM? I know I've been doing it for years in both FreeBSD and Linux. I've done it with FreeBSD running Windowmaker as early as 2002-2003, iirc. And I've done it on Linux with KDE and Gnome.
I've done it with Matrox, ATI, and Nvidia cards. I guess I'm not really sure what the submitter is talking about, because it works for me just as he's asking for without any special hardware.
In fact, in linux running Ubuntu, this was the default configuration as I recall, and I've actually got this working on the Ubuntu 9.10 right here.
Tiling Window Managers (Score:4, Interesting)
xmonad window manager for multiple displays (Score:3, Interesting)
Xmonad seperates the concept of virtual desktops from the displays on which they are put.
so not only can you move a window from one monitor alt-shift-[wer] for moving from monitors 1 2 3 respectivly.
you can put any of the (default 9) virtual desktops on any monitor with alt-[1-9]. The window manager is about as hard to learn to use as VI though it is really really well worth it. expecially when you use it from within gnome so you dont have to loose all the task bar goodness.
Re:You need a GUI? (Score:5, Interesting)
multiple mointor support is through XRandR. It also does away with the stupid xorg.conf.
enlightenment 17 (Score:2, Interesting)
e17 handles it rather brilliantly.
Each screen gets its own set of virtual desktops, and you can drag windows from one screen to another, or set up keyboard shortcuts to do it.
I set up 2 screens side by side, each with a set of virtual desktops that I can switch between by moving the mouse to the right and left edges. If I move the mouse to the bottom edge of the right screen it shows up at the top of the left screen. It takes only a few minutes to get used to.
Of course, you could give up the virtual desktop scrolling and have the more intuitive setup of the mouse hitting the left edge of the right screen and going to the right edge of the left screen.
Pretty common really. (Score:3, Interesting)
Last place I worked we had two monitors for every developer, and we had about 40 developers. Place I work now has 4 developers, and 3 have 2 monitors and 1 has 3 monitors. The one thing we found in both places is that older Nvidia cards work best. 7800 series, stuff like that. Get the latest cards and you'll pull your hair out trying to get them to work.
Please mod down my post (Score:1, Interesting)
That's one reason why Linux has not gained widespread acceptance. Because of these people. They and their elitist way of treating other people, are part of the problem, not part of the solution. Just one of them can more than undo the efforts of 10 helpful people.
I wish I know how to contact these people, so I can stick it to them, "Hey shut up already! Either you find a solution to these outstanding problems (which you KNOW is true - or not), or shut the fuck up!"
Sorry for trolling. Please mod this down. But I really need an outlet right now.
Btw, anyone knows how to get Firefox to work fast in Linux (Gnome or whatever)? I find that it works 2-3 times faster in Windows XP on my Eee PC than in Debian LXDE, when having multiple Slashdot tabs open. :( I've searched Google but there's not many practical solutions that I can apply. Ditto for SeaMonkey, IIRC.
Re:Issues I've had. (Score:3, Interesting)
Option "Xinerama" "1"
in your Section "ServerLayout" should tie all separate screens together into one desktop.
That's easy, just try and get a composited desktop in this mode though.
http://mugginix.com/articles/2009/Nov/12/Xinerama_Composite_Fail/ [mugginix.com]
Re:Issues I've had. (Score:1, Interesting)
Are any of the major desktop environments adding such features?
He is aware of them and chose to remain ignorant. The most cursory Google search would have been enough - there's even videos showing how to do it.
FWIW, I just tried adding the monitor to my vanilla Xubuntu laptop. I achieved this tremendous feat by clicking System/Preferences/Display, then Detect Monitors (screenshot below). I'm so "uber-l337"...
http://imgur.com/k47cK [imgur.com]
What about the text console? (Score:5, Interesting)
If there's one thing I've wanted for as long as I've used Linux, it's multiple monitor support on the regular, plain text console. I use a dual-head nVidia card, which works fine under X, but console mode has always been a let-down. One monitor always displays a normal console, while the other usually ends up displaying whatever I saw perhaps 10 minutes prior (as if it is showing part of the other monitor's scrollback buffer).
So, each can clearly show unique content in text mode, but does any tool exist that can bring some order to it?
Re:Issues I've had. (Score:5, Interesting)
Use nouveau instead of nvidia, and do Xorg -configure, and you should be golden. The big thing is that nvidia won't do multicard with non-nV hardware.
I have two ATI chipsets in my current work box, and everything works just great.
Re:Issues I've had. (Score:2, Interesting)
We are running 4 monitors on every linux workstation at work. Using two nvidia dual display cards and the nvdia drivers. No problem at all having all 4 appear as one integrated desktop where windows can be moved between screens at any time. A rather nice setup.
Details:
Quadro NVS 440 cards ( probably now replaced by something even nicer ).
Has Xinerama enabled.
Ubuntu 8.04 ( Hardy ) A very stable release.
Re:Issues I've had. (Score:1, Interesting)
I have multi monitor setup both at home and work. Both boxes are Ubuntu 9.04.
One thing that Linux (at least KDE, didn't see it in gnome) has way better than Windows is the fact that you can move full size window from one monitor to another! To me, this feature is just awesome.
You can drag a fullscreen window from one monitor to the other and it automatically stays fullscreen.
In windows, i have to restore window, move it, then maximize again. Thats how gnome works too last time i've used it (which was few weeks ago). Annoying.
Re:Issues I've had. (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm currently running dual screens under OpenSUSE 11.2. Multiple screens is easy, getting them to run in portrait mode (on nVidia) is somewhat trickier. (It was easy under OpenSUSE 10.x, but the driver for the new Kernel in 11.x broke it...) But once it's working you can run Compiz, which puts window management streets ahead of any Micro$oft products. It's worth the effort.
It Works (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm using a pair of triple- and quad-head PCs as we speak. Linux on both: CentOS 5.3 on one, Ubuntu 9.10 on the other. One ran OpenSuSE 10.2 previously. Two cheap dual-head nVidia cards, their binary drivers. Started with the xorg.conf generated from the nVidia tool. Spent several hours the first time trying to get it going years back, but nowadays just spend about 15 minutes setting it up upon install. Works as one large screen in each case. As such, I just drag things around on the (big) desktop to change displays. The doco supplied with the nVidia drivers is reasonably good and all I really used. Runs 3D stuff fine on each. One is KDE, the other GNOME. Both environments seem to have an awareness of the physical displays as well- if I hit maximise, it'll fill the current monitor. I'm not sure that the Linux ecosystem is really lacking such things.
I'm not 100% sure which features are apparently lacking? Is it just keyboard shortcuts to move a window from one physical screen to another? That'd certainly be useful, though I can already do this with a mouse. I know that the keyboard shortcut list is lacking in GNOME, and more options in KDE couldn't hurt either. Perhaps that's what it's about.
Multiple monitors in current X system (Score:3, Interesting)
Yes, this solution is fine (and easy!) for someone who wants to shell out the $$$ for a multi-headed graphics card (or even say the new Matrox 8-screen card) -- but say one wants to live with older hardware. Say one has a MB with an i915 chip for "standard" VGA and one has added a "Radeon HD 3450" card which is relatively a cheap 2 head graphics card -- one has the capability of configuring 2 additional (total of 3) monitors -- but can one get X to talk to both hardware drivers (the Intel and the ATI)? Not in my experience (and I have tried).
If X indeed supports this (multiple screens across multiple hardware (driver) types) then I simply have not figured out the required tricks. If it doesn't support this it is a deficiency in the X capabilities and should be fixed.
The version of X I am currently running is 1.7.1 and I'm about to upgrade to 1.7.3.
Side note: The most annoying thing IMO is that given the cooling capacity requirements of most current medium-to-high-end video cards is that they take up 2-slots. Slots I could devote to other uses (ATI TV receivers -> MythTV recorders for example). The standard "one size fits all" releases of hardware to the masses will never be right for my interests (I generally view unused slots as opportunities to make my computer more interesting [think very old car/engine tinkerer]) -- so I will want all of the slots available -- and the MB manufacturers have generally not changed the general design layout in ~15 years to deal with this.