Dual Screen Issues

English Applications
1

I’m stuck with a dual screen problem. This is my first post and I couldn’t find an etiquette guide or advice on consistency of information forum post, so I apologise in advance for not doing certain expected things.

First up, here’s what I’m trying to do.

  1. Have laptop docked with large monitor and extend desktop to larger monitor. I want the larger monitor to be the primary monitor.
  2. Undock the laptop, while still docked and either a) automatically switch to one monitor and that is primary monitor or b) use hotkey or panel widget to change monitor configuration
  3. Power down the laptop and undock the laptop then power it up undocked and automatically switch to one monitor and that is primary monitor.
  4. Power down the laptop and dock the laptop then power it up and either a) automatically switch to extended desktop to larger monitor. I want the larger monitor to be the primary monitor or b) use hotkey or panel widget to change monitor configuration.

My problem is this. I’ve managed to set-up “profile” 1. using an application called display. I’ve undocked and now at another location I’d like to move to “profile” 2, but when I log in I get a desktop, that isn’t what I expect. My panel is not present so it’s more cumbersome to start programs. I ran the same display program and it showed one monitor, and I set it up for one monitor, but there is no option to set primary monitor. In “profile” 1, I didn’t set the primary monitor, I just dragged the panel from one screen to the other. Now I imagine this panel is somewhere else.

The questions:

  1. How can I get my screen back in “profile” 2 mode without calling it quits and recreating the panel again and then have a risk of two panels when I’m next in “profile” 1 mode.
  2. How can I conveniently get the set of profiles above to work regularly.

I can let you know any info you want. Right now I’m, confused because there seem to be so many options, SAX2, xrandr, xinerama, twinview, mergeFB as well as lots of different inconsistent applets to configure them. Is there a best practice for doing this?

Lenovo X61, openSUSE 11.2 64-bit

2

For anyone to be able to help you, we need more info. Video card (I guess NVDIA because you mention Twinview but we shouldn’t have to guess)? KDE4 or Gnome? What’s the application called “display”? It might also be more productive to post this in Hardware, preferably in the Laptops subforum.

3

I think you will need to use Xrandr, and probably a bit of googling to assist with the desired configuration. I’m guessing the X32 has an Intel X3100 chipset? As gminnerup already mentioned, desktop environment (Gnome, KDE etc) and chipset details are important here. Anyway, a couple of links that may be useful to you:

Multiple Screens Using XRandR - openSUSE

Ubuntu-based tutorial, but still relevant:

Zoinks! - HOWTO: Ubuntu Dual-Screen Intel GMA X3100

4

First of all thank you for taking the time to respond to me. @deano_ferrari Thanks for those links. They contain some really useful information and I’ll try those out as soon as I get some time (I dual-boot on the laptop out of necessity and work has me using some proprietary Windows tools at present). I’d love some auto-detect/automation for this, but I think it may just work.

Second, let’s get you some more information:

“display”:
This is unknown to me, how can I find out what the program is? Here’s what I do to run it; I right-click on the desktop and select run-command, I type display and an applet called Display comes top of the list so I click on it. That’s all I know. This application can be run from the command-line by entering display also.

Laptop:
Lenovo ThinkPad X61

OS:
openSUSE 11.2

Video card:
Mobile Intel(R) 965 Express Chipset

Displays:
ThinkPad Display 1024x768
ViewSonic VA2226w-3 1680x1050

Third, some personal comments. This is totally off-topic, but something I wanted to talk about. I won’t continue this after this and it’s not personal to anyone, just observations. The goal being a better Linux community.

@gminnerup I’m both experienced in some parts of Linux and a dumb newbie in others. Today I’m playing the role of dumb newbie. Part because I don’t want to assume something incorrect and over complicate the process of solving my problem (I don’t know much about display config outside of a single-head set-up with SAX and haven’t used SUSE since 1998) and part because I firmly believe that Linux can work on the desktop, but does lack certain things tom ensure maximum adoption.

This dual screen set-up is one of them so I’m playing the role of the first timer. I apologise if this means you have to explain things, but I think it’ll help the move to Linux on the desktop.

Saying things like, “we shouldn’t have to guess” seem born of frustration and annoyance and aren’t helpful. Not everyone knows how everything works, nor exactly what they are doing. The spirit of adventure and community brings us together to explore this. I have no idea how all the different windows managers and X variants and configurations are put together, if I did I may already have found my answer. I’m here asking you to a) help me and b) if you need more information, I’m asking you to help me to work out how to get it to you.

You are right: you shouldn’t have to guess. However, guessing is not the default position, cooperation is, then you get the information you need and I get the help I need.

5

Further to the excellent links provided by deano_ferrai, here are a couple of more, which apply to situations where you boot your laptop, and then AFTER it was booted, you then plug in your external monitor.

Hopefully the graphic images will help make it clear.

6

Not sure what’s offended you in my reply, that certainly wasn’t my intent. But if you hang around this forum for a while, you’ll soon find plenty of requests for help that don’t provide the information needed for anyone to be able to help. You mentioned Twinview as an option so I guessed NVIDIA (Twinview is specific to the proprietary NVIDIA driver). If you’d simply stated which video driver/hardware you’re using nobody would have had to guess. That’s all I meant to say.
This isn’t about Linux or the Linux community. In the Windows environment, any query about video requires the same information.