[Help Request] Setting up a very specific Dual Monitor Setup

English Hardware
#1

Hello I am a new member of the active Linux community altho I have been watching from a windows distance for a few years with occasional test runs on different distros.

I apologize in advance if i have posted it on the right section but none else seems to be appropriate plus from what i have gathered people on similar setups and 32bit didn’t have the same problems

Sort story / progress report
I am running open SUSE 11.4 for a couple of days now and I have put an effort to make everything work smoothly. One thing remaining is setting my Dual screen setup just right.
I started by using the default drivers and configuration tools but it was necessary to instal ATI catalyst in order to make some games work. Catalyst provides 2 different solutions to handle the multi monitor desktop.
An extended desktop where everything is slammed together as if it was one screen and resolution is a shared variable therefore creating “Null space” (Desktop space that no monitor may reach)at higths where one monitor may reach while the other doesn’t. I abandoned that configuration because of the “Null space”
The second option is total separation of the 2 monitors by making separate desktops. That kind of works but been able to transfer windows from one to the other is crucial to both my work and sanity.
Therefor I went ahead and enabled Xinematic which is perfect for the bridging of the 2 monitors. On the other hand it disables all desktop effects which may not be necessary but desirable and a matter of principal (Linux = customization)

So my ideal setup would require

  1. no “null space”
    2)Interaction between the monitors
    3)Desktop visual effects

Things I tried (And failed)
I did try the KRandRtray utility that comes with openSUSE 11.4 but it doesn’t lunch for some reason (Icon keeps bouncing beside cursor until it finally gives up and disappears)
I searched Far and wide for a solution but while finding similar problems they where either not answered, very old (2-3 years back)and did not apply or did not fix the Desktop effects problem.
I also tried to use xRandR from terminal but with no success as it just refuses to acknowledge the existence of my second Monitor.

Things I can’t Try
I am not in a financial position to replace any of my equipment
Change Operating system since I have figured out everything else for now and it would be fairly difficult for me to format again

Monitor Info
1440x900 , 1280x1024
Monitors are placed side by side with the wide one raised at a point so that only a 300 pixel stripe spans both monitors

Graphics Card info
ATI Radeon HD 4850 both cards are read by the software as VGA but the narow one uses a DVI to VGA adapter
Have installed ATI proprietary drivers (Including Catalyst)

Software Info
Catalyst has taken control of most configurable settings.
Everything on the system except catalyst reads only one monitor (1440x900)

I would really appreciate any help you can give me and I hope I didn’t put you threw too much reading :shame:

#2

See if these threads help:

ATI Dual Monitor Xinerama with different resolutions

Config Problem - ATI v4800 running Quad Monitors on OpenSuSE 11.4

#3

No. Unfortunately none of those solutions would work. Editing the Xorg.conf like this would loop back to the “Big desktop” where i would have Null space again. And the second thread talks about detection of monitors. My monitors are detected by the computer. Catalyst just overrides all settings done from any other program or even the terminal. almost like it intercepts the flow of data from the hardware to the operating system, configures them and then projects an output of one monitor that openSUSE reads. I came to that conclusion because both the terminal and the default monitor manager of KDE where able to configure both screens in the “Big desktop” mode with “Null space” before I installed catalyst.
It seems to me that i am in a (2 choices, both of them half correct) situation and i am looking for a way to “Break the rules” and be able to use the “Big desktop” compatibility without the “Null space”.

#4

Maybe if i set it in the “Big desktop” mode from Catalyst and somehow set hard boundaries that my mouse and windows cannot cross, Like say

No mouse,Windows allowed on (1444,0 x 2740x600), (0,900 x 1440,1624).

Anyone here able to write such program that runs in the background ? I say program because i am pretty sure this cannot be done by a shell script.

Or perhaps give me some pointers on how it can be done, would it require C or would python suffice etc ,etc…