Multiple-Display Power Tools For Linux? 410
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."
Issues I've had. (Score:2)
The biggest problem I have with multiple displays is when full screen games don't support it and end up half way off one of the screens.
But that's getting better.
At least I don't have to deal with 3d and video only working on one of the screens. I just use nvidia twinview.
Re:Issues I've had. (Score:4, Informative)
I've been using linux for the last 10 years at home, finally ditching Windows entirely about 4 years ago (So I'm pretty decent at setting up/working with Linux)... Just 2 days ago, I tried to setup a 3 monitor desktop at work (2 Nvidia cards and 1 Intel card), and gave up after 10 hours of trying to get it work. I got X using them as different sessions (One instance of Gnome per monitor), but couldn't get a unified window manager between them... And I tried 2 different distributions (Ubuntu and Fedora)
One thing Windows does REALLY well right now, is multiple monitors. What you said, is pure anti-MS hatred. There's a lot that I don't think Windows does well, and a lot that I think Linux does REALLY well, but multiple monitors clearly isn't one...
Re: (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:4, Informative)
Xinerama keeps things aware of monitor boundaries (at least, I'm using multiple monitors with Xinerama right now, and things work properly).
Re:Issues I've had. (Score:4, Informative)
If you're using just Xinerama or Twinview then screen boundaries are respected.
There's a "fake xinerama" patch available though that works around the TwinView with Xinerama problem.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Did you seriously not expect to get called out on that?
http://imgur.com/RSTFx [imgur.com]
How the hell does this sort of crap keep getting modded informative?
Re:Issues I've had. (Score:4, Insightful)
Just because you can post a screenshot of a Linux machine running multi-head, doesn't rebut at all the fact that it's a pain in the ass to set up, doesn't work consistently between window managers. In short, your productivity on a Linux box is inversely proportional to the number of monitors you've got hanging off it, the very opposite of the point of having them.
Now I see Microsoft have finally decided to breathe some life into their dual-head code that they haven't touched since Windows 98, and come up with something that doesn't blow chunks. Bravo. Now their users can join the Mac users who have had dual head for longer than most of than remember.
Now don't get me wrong, I like Linux, I run it, and I will run it for as long as I need and can get it*. But I don't get all silly and got plugging displays and mice into it. Linux is not a desktop operating environment, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise (such as myself, two years ago, before I wised up).
* maybe another ten years? It'll more likely be outlawed than ever die.
Re:Issues I've had. (Score:4, Insightful)
Which would mean that if I had four monitors on my machine, I could only do one third as much work. The only way it could be true would be if I were compelled to spend three quarters of my working day reconfiguring my monitor setup, every single day.
I hope I won't sound too much like a zealot for saying this, but if that is your experience of Linux sir, then I humbly submit that you are doing it wrong.
I take your point that setting up multi-display systems could still be easier, but let's not be ridiculous.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Just because you can post a screenshot of a Linux machine running multi-head, doesn't rebut at all the fact that it's a pain in the ass to set up,
Plug in monitor.
Click System/Preferences/Display.
Click X-Server Display Configuration.
Click Detect Displays.
Select Twinview from the combo selector.
Click Apply.
Close the dialog box.
You'd have to be a real mouth-breather to find that difficult.
And you'd have to be a complete moron to think that always works. I have one of the older ATI cards at work and up until the latest version of ubuntu (with newish open source drivers) I'd routinely get graphics corruption. On my newer ATI card at home, there are no decent open source drivers and driving two screens with the propietary drivers is a real pain. Like when notifications suddenly start appearing partway off screen. Not to mention when I use compiz, video playback is dog slow, and there doesn't se
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
What kind of crack are you on! Windows will take just about any piece of shit video card you have and multi head it without problems.
Plug it in, install drivers, "extend desktop to this monitor"
It's been this easy for a good 10 years now.
Re:Issues I've had. (Score:5, Insightful)
Linux is a desktop OS. it just has some rough edges for installation and a couple of ease of use problems.
So, the same as every other OS then?
I'm tired of people making out that Linux isn't "ready for the desktop" because of a few minor problems, as if all the OSes they think are "ready for the desktop" are perfect. News flash: every OS has its problems, sure you may think that another OS is "better" than Linux because you have already learnt to live with its problems, but that's pretty much missing the point. From my perspective (having been using Linux as a desktop OS for around 12 years, and pretty much exclusively for the last 7), the likes of Windows and OS X are far less "ready for the desktop" than Linux, probably mostly because they present a whole new set of problems that I have to deal with.
One thing about Linux is important to me though - if a problem is a big enough deal to me then I _can_ fix it myself, whereas under many other OSes this simply isn't an option.
the maximaize window bug
What "maximize window bug"? I'll admit that I don't have a lot of use for maximizing windows, but on the odd occasion that I do it seems to work perfectly.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
You're problem was entirely because you used two graphics cards. The same setup is unlikely to work under windows either unless you cards from the same manufacturer.
Re:Issues I've had. (Score:4, Informative)
I'm running three monitors on Windows XP, with a Radeon x1650 driving two and a Geforce 7600 running the other one. It was literally a matter of installing the ATI drivers, then the nVidia drivers, then checking a couple checkboxes. Both Catalyst and Nvidia control panel work fine.
Maybe I happened to pick a couple cards that don't interfere with each other?
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:5, Informative)
Re: (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.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Multiple graphics cards? That's a very exotic multiple-display configuration these days now that dual-head graphics cards are the standard. So if you act like your experience with your exotic setup is typical, you can expect shocked reactions from the 99% of multi-display users currently using a single dual-head graphics card with no problems or setup difficulty.
The most common problem is having to use nvidia's setup tool instead of the standard 'display preferences' control panel because nvidia is taking f
Re:Issues I've had. (Score:4, Insightful)
I've setup quite a few multiple monitor setups using Linux. Some work out of the box. But most required some significant xorg.conf hackery. And the documentation for xorg.conf is cryptic at best. I didn't say it wasn't possible. I didn't say it was hard in all cases. I didn't say that once setup it didn't work very well... What I did say is that it's no ways near as easy as with Windows. Don't believe me? Go Google "Dual monitor Ubuntu", and look at the replies to the forums... 46 PAGES of people with problems? And you all are tearing me apart saying that Linux isn't that good at it?
As I've said before, there are somethings that Linux does REALLY well, and multiple monitors is NOT one... Once you get it setup, it does work quite well. But getting it setup can be an exercise in madness...
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Firstly, you do know that neither Vista nor 7 will let you use multiple cards with different drivers (e.g. you can't even use substantially different generations of nvidia cards together)? So much as you complain about it being hard to use nvidia+Intel cards for 3 screens on Linux, it's actually impossible in the latest versions of Windows.
Secondly, in terms of your Linux setup, you need to use Xinerama and disable nvidia TwinView. The way to do this is to add two separate "Device" sections (within /etc/X11
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
According to that article heterogeneous multi-adapter will work in Vista/W7 if you use XPDM drivers instead of WDDM drivers.
At least that's my understanding of this:
A user could force the installation of a XPDM driver for each of these devices, and therefore get heterogeneous multi-adapter multi-monitor to work as in Windows XP.
Re:Issues I've had. (Score:5, Informative)
Did everybody miss the line in TFA where he said:
Still stuck on FVWM?
Windows 3.1 had pretty miserable multi screen support too. That's why everyone dumped it like a leaking baby diaper.
Ubuntu, and KDE both handle multiple monitors very well.
Why would the OP mention Windows 7 in the same post where he whines about FVWM?
Level playing field much?
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
A single card with two heads is easy, yes. Multiple cards, though, can get tricky, especially if they're not from the same manufacturer (by which I mean Intel, ATI, or nVidia).
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I am an avid Ubuntu linux user with two screens, of different sizes, and I assure you it is not fud.
It took quite a bit of trial and error and I ended up having to settle between one of two evils, with some minor work around bugs. Granted overall the performance of my ubuntu desktop is far superior to my windows XP install, but for split-screen control and ease of use I have to give the point to Windows, or rather to the fuller NVIDIA support and tighter integration with a single distro Windows provides.
Separate Workspaces? (Score:4, Interesting)
Why not just make each monitor it's own workspace?
Re:Separate Workspaces? (Score:4, Insightful)
Honestly why? You can drag windows on one workspace to another, the keyboard shortcuts to move windows from one workspace to another already exist.
So why not have each monitor be it's own workspace, then just move windows between them?
Compiz can do it. (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
The man is using FVWM, something tells me going from FVWM to compiz is not what he's looking for exactly...
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Read again. He's using FVWM and it has the feature. He's asking about it for other WMs.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Two choices:
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Drop the van on a hairpin-covered trampoline on the Moon. You'll need to be in a vacuum because your van's terminal velocity in Earth's atmosphere is less than 250 mph.
How is the terminal velocity of the van in Earth's atmosphere relevant if the van is being dropped on the Moon? And why does it need to be a vacuum? Next you'll be suggesting that it needs to travel at the speed of light in order to exceed escape velocity, even though some significantly lower speed would also be sufficient.
Re:Compiz can do it. (Score:4, Funny)
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?
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Re:Another Question (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Another Question (Score:4, Informative)
I've heard anecdotal stories that Compiz can't cross video cards.
Compiz doesn't really have the problem here. It's the driver's problem. Specifically, on certain Intel video chips, there's a limit to the size of the framebuffer you can have with DRI, which Compiz requires. 2048x2048 was the limit, which is pretty hard to fit two-three monitors into with reasonable resolution, especially with the Widescreen Monitor Proliferation we've seen in the past decade. IIRC, this has been fixed with later drivers ("shatter" fb, which does exactly what it sounds like it does, was the solution I remember hearing about), but it plagued many for a very long time.
Re: (Score:2)
You can configure KDE to use the keyboard (Score:2)
Configure desktop > Keyboard and Mouse > Keyboard shortcuts > kwin
Select the action you want to do (move, maximize, move 1 desktop to left/right, move to desktop #, etc), and the keyboard combination you want to assign to it.
Yes, thank you! (Score:2)
...My favorite is pack left/right/up/down. Does Windows 7 have anything like that?
No, it's not an instant "go to the other screen" button, but it's a bit more generic, and it's never more than two or three taps of it to get to the other screen.
What's wrong with dragging windows? (Score:4, Informative)
Given that, if you really waanted keyboard control...
alt-space, down arrow, down arrow (to un-maximise), return
then
alt-space, down arrow, down arrow, down arrow (move)
use arrow keys to move window to wherever on your desktop you want it.
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alt-space,x(to un-maximise), return then
alt-space,m(move)
use arrow keys to move window to wherever on your desktop you want it.
FTFY
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.
Multiple desktops (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Multiple desktops (Score:4, Insightful)
Would be nice wouldn't it? Unfortunately the only way I have seen multiple monitor setups working is each workspace just gets much bigger, and shares all the monitors. For example, I start playing a movie in workspace 3, then drag the movie to the top of my workspace to where my tv is, then full screen. Then, when I flip to workspace 2 to check my email, my movie gets flipped away from also, until I move back to workspace 3 again. Not the way I would have expected it to work, but I have just been getting used to it.
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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: (Score:3, Informative)
Xmonad has a small learning curve if you're used to doing everything with the mouse but you can set any keybindings you like, it takes nearly no system resources to run, and handles multiple monitors extremely well.
Power Tools (Score:2)
Keyboard Shortcut in GNOME (Score:5, Informative)
To move a window to another monitor (not workspace) in GNOME, press alt+F7, hold shift and the direction you want to move.
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Tiling (Score:5, Informative)
Linux has many fine tiling window managers available, such as Xmonad, AwesomeWM, and StumpWM. These pieces of software deal very well with multi-monitor setups. They have support and expressive keybindings built in. They also automatically manage window size and placement, which is a great boon, especially if you have a lot of screen real estate: no more dragging windows around to see everything!
Truly, tiling window managers are screen-management power tools. I personally use Xmonad on four screens with named dynamic workspaces, which allows me to nicely label each set of windows and layout according to the content of the windows involved.
Re:Tiling (Score:5, Informative)
stumpwm tiling across five monitors at different resolutions [nongnu.org]
There is also a window manager that has some similar features called xmonad [wikipedia.org], but it is written in Haskell, so it has a bit of a syntactic learning curve if that matters to you.
xmonad tiling across three monitors [wikipedia.org]
On a side note, it's interesting that the proliferation of Lisp, Haskell, and other powerful functional programming languages has created a demand for a different kind of window manager that is written in, and can be extended with, the language. It's almost as if programmers began to see the limitations of static, C/C++ programmed environments after they started using these languages, and then started to build up new environments more suitable for high-level programming. Is this the beginning of the end for the traditional Unix way of always running back to the C languages?
dwm (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Your problem is your window manager... (Score:2)
I've used KDE for years and it has very advanced keybinds to move windows pretty much anywhere. I can resize and move windows with just my keyboard. It has had this functionality much longer than windows ever had. Your only problem is the window manager. Linux isn't lacking in t
Re: (Score:2)
Please read his post again. He clearly states that his current window manager (FVWM) handles this fine, and he is wondering if more modern, more common window managers handle it too. Since I too am a FVWM user (quite satisfied, in fact the reason I always return to FVWM is that other window managers simply do not have the functionality and flexibility FVWM does), I can confirm that it is possible to do this in FVWM. I cannot provide any information about other WM, as I never used any of them with multipl
I hope you're not a troll (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I hope you're not a troll (Score:5, Funny)
FVWM is a windows manager that has been around with few major functional changes for several decades.
It true! My grandfather used this back in the 30s and 40s! He stopped when he was drafted into WWII, but that's a whole different story....
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Any number greater than one counts as several.
several -adjective
1. being more than two but fewer than many in number or kind: several ways of doing it.
(dictionary.com unabridged)
several adj.
1. Being of a number more than two or three but not many: several miles away.
(american heritage)
several determiner & pronoun - more than two but not many.
(oxford compact)
It sounds very much to me like more than two is necessary. Some dictionaries suggest more than three.
FVWM was first released in 1993, i.e
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
Partially correct, he is (Score:5, Insightful)
Let's not pretend there was no problem with multiple monitors at times.
To me, Linux has been ready for the desktop for 10 years, and I've been using it almost exclusively. So, that's said.
Though, using dual monitor out of the box has failed me at the first instance a good number of times. And that's far away from perfect. Because I know how to handle Xorg.0.log and xorg.conf; and I know where to post for help; but Aunty Tilly doesn't.
Example 1: 1600x1200 next to 1024x768, Gnome, year:2009. Failed. Took me a few hours until I found a filed bug, that Xorg would not accept a higher resolution of the virtual desktop than 2048x2048. Placing 1600x1200 above 1024x768 finally worked; based on Gnome's GUI. Still not good.
Example 2: Playing with KDE (4.3.2-4), that same thing doesn't. The desktop configuration applet (Computer Administration->Display) simply doesn't allow to un-mirror the two screens; contrary to the 'Display' applet in Gnome. Another need to resort to Google, and a forum. Solution: I need to issue a number of xrandr commands to split the two displays to show separate content. Not good.
Example 3: Having another box with Nvidia-card with TV out. The same KDE (4.3.2-4) applet simply is not aware of the TV output. It shows one standard display, the LCD monitor. Over. Of course, the Nvidia-applet works fine, doing anything with the TV of my liking. But it would require the user to know that she uses a Nvidia card, and that there is another applet that she needs to use. Not good.
The problem, AFAIK, is not that on Linux one couldn't; but one can't, once too often, not simply out of the box.
Re: (Score:2)
If I had to guess, you have a somewhat old Intel chipset (945?). They have hardware limitations which prevent the total virtual screen from being > 2048x2048. It's not so much a bug as an inherent limitation. My old laptop
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Of course, the Nvidia-applet works fine, doing anything with the TV of my liking. But it would require the user to know that she uses a Nvidia card, and that there is another applet that she needs to use. Not good.
How is this different from Windows? If I want to do something special with graphics output under XP, I use the Intel applet that sits in the system tray. ATI and nVidia also have their own special applets under Windows.
multiple monitors with FVWM for a long time (Score:5, Informative)
I've been using FVWM with multiple monitors for years. xrandr has simplified things considerably. I can drag from one monitor to another with no problem. Below is my current xorg.conf (note that I am running on Fedora 10). You can use a Radeon card by changing the driver to 'radeon'. Use 'lspci' to get the appropriate BusID for your card(s). There may be simpler solutions but this has worked well for me.
And for those saying to use a different window manager please note that FVWM has not stood still but is still true to the name it had when I began using it 15 years ago: the Frugal Virtual Window manager. It is frugal with regards to RAM and CPU use. I also like it because I can edit a file (gasp) to modify the configuration. For old farts like me that's a plus. YMMV.
Section "InputDevice"
# keyboard added by rhpxl
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "kbd"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "DVI0"
Option "Enable" "true"
Option "DPMS"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "DVI1"
Option "LeftOf" "DVI0"
Option "Enable" "true"
Option "DPMS"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "nVidia Corporation GeForce 8600 GT"
Driver "nv"
BusID "PCI:1:00:0"
#Option "Monitor-DVI0" "DVI1"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "nVidia Corporation GeForce 8600 GT"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Virtual 3840 1200
EndSubSection
EndSection
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Default Screen"
InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
EndSection
Re:multiple monitors with FVWM for a long time (Score:4, Funny)
Frugal Virtual Window manager
So thats what the F means.
Re: (Score:2)
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)? No
here's my toolchain (Score:3, Informative)
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.
Is this a joke? (Score:2, Informative)
I must not be understanding the problem correctly. So help me out please. Is your set up a) 1 desktop stretched over 3 monitors? Yes? b) You want to move be able to movie, say Firefox, or a xterm, etc. from say monitor 1 to monitor 3 using keyboard shortcuts? c) You think a Linux desktop environment can't handle this currently?
If this is the correct setup you have, then you must not be a KDE user. This is trivial with KDE.
Not A Shock (Score:2)
Usually development follows demand. Since the numbers of people wanting to use multiple monitors with the options is quite small it is no shock that little work is done in that area. If it were for a commercial OS such as Windows think of how much each buyer might be asked to pay for such a program.
Two Video Cards a problem (Score:2)
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: (Score:3, Informative)
So, each can clearly show unique content in text mode, but does any tool exist that can bring some order to it?
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Framebuffer-HOWTO-14.html [tldp.org] mentions a tool called con2fb. I haven't tried it, but it sounds like it does what you want.
KDE 4.2 has shortcuts to move screen (Score:3, Informative)
Settings -> Keyboard and Mouse -> Global shortcuts -> Kwin
Window to screen \d
Kwin has a lot of shortcuts you can define.
I don't know what the post is all about, but it is defiantly not true.
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.
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I rather refute it. I have used linux on the desktop exclusively for years. What problems exactly are you having?
Or are you just trolling?
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Indeed. And why is the use of multiple monitors the domain of the desktop? I know many work environments where multiple monitors are used, even when they are all text.
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what video card/s, which driver, and please do post your xorg.conf
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if using a distro that supports XrandR please give the command you used to format that. Or the results of the logs when trying to config it via some gui tool.
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Rather than post xorg.conf, try renaming it out of the way, and see if you can get any closer to what you want using xrandr plus whichever GUI tool suits your WM and choice of GNOME versus KDE. (krandrtray in my case under Kubuntu, and no, it doesn't work too well - I have written a small xrandr script with the right serious of commands for usual setups I use.)
I say this because recent versions of the X server (past 1.6) do much better at figuring out stuff automatically and xorg overrides tend to just conf
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FreeBSD 8.0 (7.2 until just recently) on a Mac Mini 2.0 GHz core2 duo with Intel 945 graphics. No xorg.conf is necessary on this machine -- as on most machines now, it has been rendered obsolete by hald and dbus, in Linux as well as *BSD.
And you were saying what now?
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Use an accelerated FF build from a third party. Official Firefox builds on Linux are less optimized than their windows counterparts since they don't come with PGO etc.
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Multiple slashdot tabs is one of your slowdown causes. Slashdot's site code is so horrible that what once loaded fine and fast on an outdated P3 doesn't load for at least ten minutes.
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Where is the "elitism" in the previous conversation? All I see is one guy asking if an AC can post his xorg.conf (ie trying to help), and the AC not responding.
Re Firefox: You can't, the Windows version is compiled with performance guided optimization, the Linux version is not. Try chromium though, it'll blow the socks off of firefox wrt performance (and the Linux and Windows versions are about equally fast from what I've heard) and it seems to be a hell of alot more stable (mostly because one tab crashing
The point of computers is to save time (Score:4, Insightful)
Then there's the other huge advantage. I have a dozen twin head machines with similar video cards and similar monitors, and new ones end up being about the same. I only had to tweak the xorg.conf file ONCE (took about a minute) and now I just copy it to each machine. With no portable file and a GUI tool I would have to log onto each machine and click away at a maze of twisty menus and boxes to get a configuration I already have.
Configuration files are the way of saying - "just do what this other machine does and don't ask me to repeat myself" - vastly superior to a GUI micromanagement method. Generating the files is a different story, but the important thing is to be able to do something with them to avoid pointless busy work.
Parent just isn't ready for Slashdot (Score:3, Informative)
Mod me up (I prefer "informative") but you know it's true
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Not sure what the default 9.10 ubuntu gnome window manager is, but it works great.
But I do not use any close source drivers, so that may have something to do with it.
Re:You need a GUI? (Score:5, Interesting)
multiple mointor support is through XRandR. It also does away with the stupid xorg.conf.
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You should config it with nvidia-settings. That will recognize it as a huge monitor.
I have only seen this used with nvidia proprietary drivers, if you use another video card you will need to see how its driver treats this device.
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Don't bet on it.
It's not a linux limitation but a general limitation, most laptops just can't run three display, and if they're doing 2 then usually one of them MUST be the builtin.
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most laptops just can't run three display
Any laptop with USB ports (eg any recent laptop) can run at least 9 non-builtin monitors - external vga + 8 x USB-VGA. USB to VGA adapters have been around for ages and the one i'm familiar with supports up to 8 such devices connected. Other brands or other models may support more. Last time I used one it even played youtube video's quite well - I was expecting it to render text just fine but to bog down doing much else but it surprised me.
Additionally, there are devices available to split a single VGA outp
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b) A lot of people seem to be using whatever window manager they want, and I expect fvwm is still in good use
c) He's not actually talking about multi-desktop, he's talking about multi-screen. He wants to use the keyboard to move a window to another physical monitor, not another virtual desktop.
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I hate icons, window decorations and the usual way of interacting with the mouse, so my fvwm config file removes all decorations, hides windows instead of iconizing them, and reprograms the mouse buttons to do specific things. For example, clicking twice with the 4th button hides the window, but click-dragging moves it. This works anywhere within the area of the target window, so I don't have to go nuts trying to hit the exact two pixels o
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Hey I like fvwm. I use it every day. If you don't like it thats okay. But its bad form to criticise things which you don't understand. Have a nice day.
And since I am having a rant. Does anybody know how to make the gnome window list/task bar not minimise windows? Its driving me mad. Window A is on top of window B. Click B in the window list and it minimises.
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Ehm, it is my impression he says he has it working in FVWM, but cannot make it work in more modern desktop environments. Which does not surprise me. Every time I try to use some new window manager (usually because it comes as default after installing new system on a new computer, or because people rave about how great it is), I always end up returning back to FVWM, because nothing has the functionality of FVWM, while being equally fast and lightweight. Compiz is just beginning to implement things that FV
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