Two monitor are not working correctly

English Hardware
1

I have an annoying problem. I have two monitors, well one’s a TV, and I need to switch them, because on my TV it says “unsupported format” or something as though the resolution is wrong, but on my monitor I only see desktop 2. So I need to modify the display settings of the TV and switch them around to that I get desktop 1 onmy monitor . Any ideas how to do that without being able to see the main desktop?

That would probably only make my TV active which currently has an unsupported format so I wouldn’t see anything on it.

2

It will be hard for those who want to chime-in to this thread if you will not provide more information about your computer
ie: is it a desktop or a laptop, or what is your video card or what DE are you using

3

Yes it’s a desktop computer, my video card is a nvidia gtx 770, and I’m using KDE.

4

Still not enough info. Please tell us

  1. openSUSE version and desktop environment (eg KDE, Gnome,…)
  2. Are you using the open source driver or proprietary nvidia driver?
/usr/sbin/hwinfo --gfxcard
5

Here’s a link to my full specs if you need it.

6

It’s openSUSE 13.1 with KDE.

I’m using whatever driver openSUSE defaulted me to. I’m in Windows at the minute so I’ll run that code and get back to you with the output soon. Can I access a terminal without access to the main dasektop?

7

When I was installing from the disc it did setup up my displays the correct way round. But once installed and booting from the HD it swapped them around and gave my TV funky settings that it doesn’t want to display.

Edit: If necessary I could just unplug my TV from the computer, that should give me the main desktop on my monitor, but I don’t know what to do after that to get them set up so they can both be left connected to the computer.

8

Here’s the output of the commands you gave me earlier:

linux-kmee:~ # /usr/sbin/hwinfo --gfxcard
22: PCI 100.0: 0300 VGA compatible controller (VGA)             
  [Created at pci.319]
  Unique ID: VCu0.+KN0roOebrF
  Parent ID: vSkL.QvIcRUNlaeA
  SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:01:00.0
  SysFS BusID: 0000:01:00.0
  Hardware Class: graphics card
  Model: "nVidia VGA compatible controller"
  Vendor: pci 0x10de "nVidia Corporation"
  Device: pci 0x1184 
  SubVendor: pci 0x1458 "Giga-byte Technology"
  SubDevice: pci 0x361a 
  Revision: 0xa1
  Driver: "nouveau"
  Driver Modules: "drm"
  Memory Range: 0xf6000000-0xf6ffffff (rw,non-prefetchable)
  Memory Range: 0xe8000000-0xefffffff (ro,non-prefetchable)
  Memory Range: 0xf0000000-0xf1ffffff (ro,non-prefetchable)
  I/O Ports: 0xe000-0xefff (rw)
  Memory Range: 0xf7000000-0xf707ffff (ro,non-prefetchable,disabled)
  IRQ: 16 (6217 events)
  I/O Ports: 0x3c0-0x3df (rw)
  Module Alias: "pci:v000010DEd00001184sv00001458sd0000361Abc03sc00i00"
  Driver Info #0:
    Driver Status: nvidiafb is not active
    Driver Activation Cmd: "modprobe nvidiafb"
  Driver Info #1:
    Driver Status: nouveau is active
    Driver Activation Cmd: "modprobe nouveau"
  Config Status: cfg=no, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
  Attached to: #9 (PCI bridge)

Primary display adapter: #22

Edit: I left my TV unplugged and got to my main desktop on my monitor but there was no “start menu” if you know what I mean, the KDE menu in the lower left was not there. Should I remove openSUSE and reinstall it?

9

Please disregard this question, I’ll make a new thread for it.

10

I would advise you to install the proprietary nvidia driver, that should work better especially in a multi-monitor setup:
https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:NVIDIA_drivers

Or (that’s how I would do it) just enable the NVidia repo in YaST->Software Repositories->Add->Community Repositories, then run YaST->Software Management and install the following packages (just type “nvidia” into the search field and you should see all of them):
nvidia-gfxG03-kmp-desktop, x11-video-nvidiaG03, nvidia-glG03, nvidia-computeG03 (at least the latter two should be selected automatically anyway when you select the first one)

This of course implies that you are using kernel-desktop, which should be the default.
For kernel-default, you would need nvidia-gfxG03-kmp-default as first package.
You can check the kernel with “uname -a”, or just look in YaST which kernel package is installed.

I can’t really help you with the two monitors setup, but it should be possible to configure correctly in Configure Desktop->Display and Monitor.
Or you could use “nvidia-settings” after you installed the nvidia driver.

11

All those are already installed (they have a green tick next to them in yast). Do I need to switch to that driver? I’m assuming that since I’m using the open source driver that’s what I need to do.

Also:


linux-kmee:~ # uname -a
Linux linux-kmee 3.11.6-4-desktop #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Oct 30 18:04:56 UTC 2013 (e6d4a27) x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

I don’t know what that output means though.

12

If you want to use the open source nouveau driver, you should uninstall all those.
But apparently something is wrong here. You obviously have nvidia installed and use nouveau.

Please post your /var/log/Xorg.0.log.

I guess the best thing to do is uninstall all of those nvidia packages and install them again. In two steps please, so mark them in YaST to be uninstalled, press OK, then enter YaST again and install them again.

Then the nvidia driver should be in use after a reboot.

Please post /var/log/Xorg.0.log again to check.

linux-kmee:~ # uname -a
Linux linux-kmee 3.11.6-4-desktop #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Oct 30 18:04:56 UTC 2013 (e6d4a27) x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

I don’t know what that output means though.

That means that nvidia-gfxG03-kmp-desktop is the right one.

13

I removed those drivers and reinstalled them but now suse starts up in text mode :frowning: I’ll post the contents of that log when I can get back into the GUI.

14

Did you install exactly those 4 packages I wrote?

Try to choose “Recovery Mode” under “Advanced Options” in the boot menu. That should get you into a graphical system again.
And please post /var/log/Xorg.0.log.old in that case.

15

Yes it was tly those four packages, when I enabled one it automatically enabled the other three.

Here’s the log file, it was too large to post.

16

This log is from a boot to recovery mode.
This doesn’t help, unfortunately.

Please do this:

  • Do a normal boot
  • When the system drops to text mode, reboot to recovery mode
  • Now /var/log/Xorg.0.log.old should contain the log from the failed boot, so upload this please.
17

OK, here it is.

18

The log contains this:

     4.337] (==) intel(G0): Default visual is TrueColor     4.337] (--) intel(G0): Integrated Graphics Chipset: Intel(R) HD Graphics 4600
     4.337] (--) intel(G0): CPU: x86-64, sse2, sse3, ssse3, sse4.1, sse4.2, avx, avx2

So you actually have a hybrid system (intel and nvidia graphics).
Therefore the proprietary nvidia driver does not work.

You could check in your BIOS settings if there’s an option to disable the intel chip (switch graphics to nvidia only), then the nvidia driver should work.
Or maybe adding “nomodeset” to the boot options would help (in YaST->System->Boot Loader->Boot Loader Options).

Or you uninstall the driver again (all 4 packages) and use nouveau.
But that one apparently has problems with your two monitor setup.

And there’s also Bumblebee:

Unfortunately I have absolutely no experience with such a hybrid system, somebody else may be able to help you better.

19

I know how to disable the intel gpu, I’ll do it and report back.

20

Ok there’s good news and annoying news. The good news is that after disabling the intel gpu suse boots up and both monitors are displaying correctly, although I want them both duplicated, not an extended desktop.

The annoying news is that all the fonts are microscopic! I opened the nvidia control panel to see if I could duplicate the displays but the font is just too small to read. It’s all the fonts in all the menus, every single font is tiny :frowning: