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On Sat, Oct 11, 2008 at 11:34:10PM +0200, Alan McKinnon wrote: |
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> Hi, |
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> |
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> My notebook has this graphics hardware. |
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> |
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> alan@nazgul ~ $ sudo lspci | grep VGA |
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> 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 8600M GT (rev |
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> a1) |
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> alan@nazgul ~ $ sudo xdpyinfo | grep -A4 'screen #0' |
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> screen #0: |
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> print screen: no |
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> dimensions: 1920x1200 pixels (332x210 millimeters) |
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> resolution: 147x145 dots per inch |
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> depths (7): 24, 1, 4, 8, 15, 16, 32 |
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> |
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> I also have a second LCD monitor at work, a 1280x1024 that is physically |
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> slightly larger than the notebook screen, with a corresponding lower dpi. |
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> |
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> I've configured it with TwinView to have the second monitor on the right, and |
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> how I usually use it is to put a user's support mail on that where I can read |
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> it and fix their issues using the tools on the main monitor. So it's a very |
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> unsophisticated setup, I have no need for massive 3D accel for eg games, or |
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> even for placing windows across two monitors. Windows are always on one |
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> screen or the other (because of the huge dpi difference). There are two |
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> smallish issues: |
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> |
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> The viewports are aligned along the top edge and the |
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> panel/kicker/plasma/whatever on every desktop environment insists on trying |
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> to stretch across both monitors, into dead space on the right hand one. I'm |
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> getting use to right-click on panel, configure, set width to 57% at work, |
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> 100% at home. If I align the viewports on the bottom edges, windows managers |
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> tend to want to position new windows with their title bars in the dead space |
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> at the top. |
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|
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You probably haven't emerged the applications with Xinerama support. |
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This is especially true for kde 3. Twinview uses the xinerama protocol |
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(well,its an extension of the X protocol... ;) to inform applications |
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about the layout of monitors. |
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> |
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> kdm and entrance want to stretch over both monitors. I definitely do not want |
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> this. Murphy dictates that all useful DM menus will end up in the dead space |
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> regardless of the theme I use <grrrr> |
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> |
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> My research into nvidia's docs leads me to believe that TwinView is designed |
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> to make the presence of two physical monitors invisible and present one giant |
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> X screen, with a funky API for dead spaces (which may or may not work). I'm |
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> thinking Xinerama is the better option, despite the fact that it's old, |
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> clunky, hopeless at dealing with XRandR and can't be changed on the fly. I'm |
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> happy to set up two ServerLayouts to deal with this. |
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|
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As I said, twinview uses the xinerama protocol to inform apps about the |
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monitors, so there wouldn't be any difference in the way applications |
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behave. You would only loose the advantages of twinview (you can look |
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at it as an enhanced, nvidia only, in-driver version of xinerama) |
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|
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Even xrandr 1.2 provides xinerama style info for the applications, so |
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you certainly want your application to be compiled with xinerama |
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support, independently of the way you set up the X server. |
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|
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BTW in my experince kde compiled without xinerama supp. handles multiple |
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(independent) screens O, but not xinerama (well, that could be |
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expected), and with xinerama support it handles xinerama ok, but fails |
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with independent screen ;) |
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|
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> I'd appreciate some pros and cons feedback from the list before I embark on a |
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> huge emerge -e world to include Xinerama support. |
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> |
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> -- |
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> alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com |
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> |
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> |
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|
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yoyo |
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|
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-- |
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_ |
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| |
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YoYo () Siska |
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=================== |
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http://www.ksp.sk/ |