I have a dual monitor display set up with an extended desktop. I would much rather have a different (independently changeable) desktop showing on each monitor. Is this possible at all in linux?
If you’ve already set up an extended desktop, you should have seen there is more than one option for how to configure a dual monitor setup
There are a couple of different ways to configure dual monitors and it can differ slightly between nvidia and ati cards if you’re using the vendor’s own software
You don’t state which you’re using or how you set up the extended desktop, but it can also be done with either card using Sax2’s ‘Activate Dual Head’ option in the Sax2 monitor screen
You’ll have to use the mentioned extended mode instead of mirror mode.
This will give you an additional screen on one monitor, which seems to always open windows on the monitor you don’t want them to… changing the “primary monitor” in the nvidia panel doesn’t seem to do much.
Ah, I forgot to mention the card. It’s an NVidia NVS 110M using their proprietary drivers on my laptop. As I mentioned previously, the extended mode is already set up. In SaX2, dual head is already activated with the Xinerama mode (not cloned mode, which is the only other option). All this is working perfectly.
What I want is whether I can have two different independent desktops on each monitor. For example, I want my left screen to be on desktop 1 at one moment and my right screen to be on desktop 8. I don’t see any such option off the bat.
I think you want to have one of your ‘multiple desktops’ on one monitor and another of them on the other monitor, is that right?
Looking to have an independent panel, kmenu etc on each monitor?
If you’re trying to do what I think you are I’m not sure it’s possible, but you could probably simulate it using your current desktop by adding another panel and dragging it over to the second monitor, then adding any applets you want to use on the second one to the new panel
The same things which are on your ‘normal’ panel could be added to the new one (making it pretty much identical to the original one), and if I’m remembering this right, any programs you run from the second monitor’s panel should open on the second monitor
I’ve not had room on my desk for two monitors in a while so the above is from memory and I can’t do it myself here to check myself, but if I’m understanding you right, and my memory isn’t failing me (far from impossible!), while it wouldn’t be be strictly what you’re asking for, the effect of it should be pretty much the same
A simpler way would be to just drag anything you open on desktop 8 over to the second screen, the only difference I can picture there is no panel on the second monitor and dragging the stuff over could get tedious
Ah now I see what you’re trying to do… You want another virtual desktop on the second monitor.
Mmmh, no idea if that’s possible, hope the term “virtual desktop” is of some help to you at least.
Thanks for the comments guys; virtual desktop wasn’t quite what I had in mind, but thanks for the suggestion. Ecky’s almost got it: I want two independent views into the same (set of) desktops. I don’t think Ecky’s temporary solution does what I want for my use cases. I think this may very well not be available for Linux anywhere. But I’ll give you a simple use case (normally mine are more complex involving up to 9 desktops).
Say, I have 3 desktops (label them D1, D2, D3), and I’ll use this simple notation [D1 D2] means that the left monitor is viewing Desktop 1, and the right is viewing Desktop 2.
Say I’m working with D1 & D2 on related things and D3 has my e-mail and TODO. So I have [D1 D2] while I do focused work. Then, say, I get an e-mail and switch to [D1 D3]. I get two pieces of feedback - one that affects work in D1 and one that affects stuff in D2. So, I work on [D1 D3] to take the feedback into account, then I switch to [D2 D3] and do similarly. Then I switch back to [D1 D2] to continue working.
Anyhoo, this workflow is probably not possible in Linux today given what I have found so far. But this was my last attempt just in case anybody knew how to pull it off.
Thanks again.
I think you are after a multihead (in your case dualhead) setup. You will basically require two monitor device, and screen sections in your xorg.conf file. Have a read of this:
http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/Using_multiple_monitors_with_XFree86
What I think he needs is ten monitors 
marcianx have you looked at the desktop cube in compiz at all?
Allows you to ‘rotate’ through a series of desktops, never really seen anyone needing 9 desktops at a time to be honest, but the cube could help go at least some way to what you’re hoping to achieve
As for it not being possible in linux today I think about the only thing it might be possible in is NASA Central!
Have you actually managed to get what you’re talking about working in ANY operating system?
Your explanation of what you’re looking to do is actually somewhat confusing
‘Then, say, I get an e-mail and switch to [D1 D3]. I get two pieces of feedback - one that affects work in D1 and one that affects stuff in D2’
Where and what exactly is this piece of ‘feedback’ affecting D2 meant to be when what you say you’ll be viewing is D1 and D3?
Forgive me if I’m being a bit slow here, but how are you expecting to see what’s happening on D2 with two monitors when none of those monitors would be displaying D2 at that time?
Unless you mean that whatever happens on D2 displays on one of the desktops you’re actually viewing at the time I can’t see how it makes sense, or what the point of having the seperate desktops would be to begin with if any of the desktops were to show what’s happening on any of the others
Someone reassure me that I’m not being a bit thick here and completely misunderstanding the question
Thanks for the suggustions, deano_ferrari. I’d looked into dual X screens before, but this has three important drawbacks:
- The desktop sets are not common. I want separate views, not separate sets of desktops.
- I can’t move an application from the left monitor to the right monitor (I looked into xmove, but it’s inconvenient for this usage).
- A second Firefox process cannot be started without creating a new profile (understandably).
All of these cause problems with my usage.
Thanks.
Ha!
9 monitors might do the trick. But I wouldn’t want to look at my electricity bill at the end of my month, heh. The more desktops I have, the more I spatially spread out, and 9 seems to be my optimal.
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No I haven’t seen this feature in any OS but I haven’t looked for it as much as I have for SuSE. I admit, the average person might not have the same type of work behavior as I might, but it was worth a try to find out whether this was possible.
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Yea, I’m aware of the cube. But I already go left/right/up/down through my desktops (using the HJKL keys like vim, so I never leave the home row unnecessarily). So I don’t see the cube adding anything of interest to me.
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Clarifications in that use case: D3 has the e-mail and the feedback. I switch to [D1 D3] to modify stuff in D1 based on D3. Then I switch to [D2 D3] to modify stuff in D2 based on D3. Seriously, this is just the simplest example I could come up with to give you an idea of how the mechanism is supposed to work, but I have multiple ways in mind to use this “multiple view” ability.
One may be worried about being confused, but I really think very spatially and this use is very natural to me.
Have you tried using nvidia-settings and changing the Configuration from Twinview to Separate Displays? Click on the Configure… button.
Yes. Presumably, you mean “Separate X screen”. That’s the same as the multiple X session, and I mentioned the issues with that on my last reply to deano_ferrari.
What you want is I think technically possible, but as far as I know not implemented.
You want a common set of desktops because you are viewing the same set of apps. However you want independent views on the desktops. So what you need is a desktop manager that is aware of two (or more) screens. I’m not sure how that would play out technically with each screen running an X server since an app is tied to a server. Maybe the DM would have to interpose a virtual server in between, or make it all one large server and manage the views itself. AFAIK there is no DM that does this today, but I haven’t looked in any depth.
I guess you could call it multiview. It makes sense because multiviews sits in between multiscreens and multidesktops.
Maybe current DMs could do a poor man’s version by allowing some apps to be sticky in some desktops but not others. Then a virtual desktop containing the set of apps you want is a “view” in your scheme.
Well, the selective-“sticky” doesn’t quite have the ability to mix-and-match arbitrary desktops at your whim easily, but it’s one step closer, for sure.
I think multiview is indeed the perfect word for what I want. The actual thing might be implementable in the desktop manager itself, but I don’t know whether there is any way for the X server to indicate whether there are multiple views into the same desktop. Perhaps there is no need for that if there were implemented as one large virtual desktop which was logically separated into two independent views – a DM could probably do that by itself. Anyhoo, if enough people are interested in Multiview, I don’t see why it won’t eventually get implemented.
I just installed 11.1 on a computer here at work. and it is having the same problem that I reported in 11.0.
openSUSE 11.0 Dual Desktop problems with KDE 3 and 4 - openSUSE Forums
Dual desktop is not working. The second desk top is a black screen and you see the default X pointer when you move the mouse over. The KDE desk top is not running on the second monitor. It works on 10.3 which is what I am still running on my computer. When 11.0 or 11.1 fix the problem then I will upgrade my computer.
Just seen this post as i’m looking for the same solution. What marcianx wants (if the same as me), is the ability to be able to drag and drop a document/file/whatever onto the 2nd display and be able to work on that screen. I don’t want another taskbar or desktop section, just a seperate screen from the primary.
This is easily achieved in windows as it is nativly supported in the Nvidia drivers E.G. Having programs running on the 2nd screen whilst working on the 1st (like seeing your music/video player on one screen as you work on the other).
In OpenSuse it’s possible to configure seperate displays in the Nvidia Display Panel, but Sax2 does not allow seperate displays, only extended/clone modes. In this case the stumbling block is Sax2 not Nvidia.
Regards
What you are looking for is a single desktop on dual monitors, done with twinview (for Nvidia ) or Xinerama ( X11 ) monitors. Twinview in an option in the device section for an Nvidia card. Xinerama tells X11 to span the desktop across all monitors configured. I am the only one in the Computer lab that I work in that perferes dual desktops. Everyone else has single desktop on dual monitors.
Here is one way to setup an Nvidia card useing Xinerama
Create a copy the existing device section, add the screen line for each device section.
Section “Device”
Identifier “Device[0]”
Driver “nvidia”
VendorName “NVidia”
BoardName “GeForce FX 5900 Ultra”
Screen 0
EndSection
Section “Device”
Identifier “Device[1]”
Driver “nvidia”
VendorName “NVidia”
BoardName “GeForce FX 5900 Ultra”
Screen 1
EndSection
Create a copy of the Screen section. (Below is not the full section)
Section “Screen”
Identifier “Screen[0]”
Device “Device[0]”
Monitor “Monitor[0]”
…
EndSubSection
EndSection
Section “Screen”
Identifier “Screen[1]”
Device “Device[1]”
Monitor “Monitor[0]”
…
EndSubSection
EndSection
Here is the server layout.
Section “ServerLayout”
Identifier “Layout[all]”
Screen “Screen[0]” 0 0
Screen “Screen[1]” RightOf “Screen[0]”
InputDevice “Keyboard[0]” “CoreKeyboard”
InputDevice “Mouse[1]” “CorePointer”
Option “Clone” “off”
Option “Xinerama” “on”
EndSection
We are having problems with dual desktops, two seperate task bars.
Dave
If you’re using KDE4.1 you might want to try KDE 4.2, the task manager had a “only current screen” option added to it (worked great for me).
And as a tip:
Panels on the intersecting side of the screens are a bad idea in 4.2, gives some maximizing issues. So place them at either the ‘furthest’ sides or the top/bottom.