Xorg and openSUSE 11.2

English Hardware
1

I just installed 11.2 32bit. I wanted to see if there is still a problem with dual desktops. See following threads:

openSUSE 11.0 Dual Desktop problems with KDE 3 and 4 - openSUSE Forums

Different desktop on each monitor - openSUSE Forums

I went to /etc/X11 to edit the xorg.conf file. Its not there. The xorg.conf.install does not match items in /var/log/Xorg.0.log, so that file is not being uesd.

Looked in yast2 under hardware for Graphics Card and Monitor, and its not there. Found Display in Personal Setting, but its Multiple Monitors says that I do not have multiple monitors.

How is X configured now, and what was wrong with the old way?

Thanks.

2

You are right, there isn’t one
But run sax2 and it will create one.

3

Thanks for the reply. I need to reboot back into 11.2 and try that.

4

Dual Desktop is not working in 11.2. Left screen has desktop right screen is back. X has configured it because you can move the mouse to the right sceen a see an X for the cursor. Multiple Monitors in personal settings still says that I not configured for multiple monitors. Last working version of openSUSE was 10.3. I do not want TwinView or Xinerma. For me I prefer dual servers. For the simulators we build, we need seperate servers (4 video cards, 8 displays, 4 displays rotated).

serverlayout and device sections from xorg.conf:

Section “Device”
BoardName “GeForce 6800 GT”
Driver “nvidia”
Identifier “Device[0]”
BusId “1:0:0”
Screen 0
VendorName “NVIDIA”
EndSection

Section “Device”
BoardName “GeForce 6800 GT”
Driver “nvidia”
Identifier “Device[1]”
BusId “1:0:0”
Screen 1
VendorName “NVIDIA”
EndSection

Section “ServerLayout”
Identifier “Layout[all]”
InputDevice “Keyboard[0]” “CoreKeyboard”
InputDevice “Mouse[1]” “CorePointer”
Option “Clone” “off”
Option “Xinerama” “off”
Screen “Screen[0]”
Screen “Screen[1]” RightOf “Screen[0]”
EndSection

5

I don’t have dual monitors myself, but I saw this while investigating mouse configuration:
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=483554

They say

To configure a second monitor, use one of the specialized tools: gnome-display-properties (GNOME), krandrtray (KDE), or xrandr.

6

On Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:06:01 +0000, dwestf wrote:

> Dual Desktop is not working in 11.2. Left screen has desktop right
> screen is back. X has configured it because you can move the mouse to
> the right sceen a see an X for the cursor. Multiple Monitors in
> personal settings still says that I not configured for multiple
> monitors. Last working version of openSUSE was 10.3. I do not want
> TwinView or Xinerma. For me I prefer dual servers. For the simulators
> we build, we need seperate servers (4 video cards, 8 displays, 4
> displays rotated).

Try with “xrandr”:

http://en.opensuse.org/
Multiple_Displays_Using_XRandR#Configure_The_Screens_Dynamically

If that neither works, open a Bugzilla, because you are using the
suggested tools (desktop tools and xrandr) and cannot get the job done.

Greetings,

–
Camaleón

7

He uses NVIDIA. He wants to rotate some of the screens. He can’t use xrandr because NVIDIA does not support it. It’s not a bug but a matter of NVIDIA not keeping its promises.

8

Thanks for the replys. Did some searching on google again. KDE fourm is saying that multi head dose not work, no one has steped up to work on it. One thread says that it should be in 4.4.

9

In KDE-4.4 ? You will have to educate me in terminology. I confess I only boot with one display, but I can quickly switch ON a second.

Take a look at: Laptop External Monitor Support - openSUSE Forums

Where with KDE-4.3.2 it offered me the CRT1 screen above the LCD screen:
http://thumbnails12.imagebam.com/5550/4f243555496873.gif](ImageBam)
and it works.

This is with openSUSE-11.1 with the proprietary ATI graphic driver on KDE-4.3.2 and an ATI Radeon 3450 HD graphics.

IMHO this is more likely a nVidia driver issue.

10

Your system is trying to configure with twinview (Nvidia) or with Xinerama (X Windows), these create one X server with one instance of KDE running.

11

Yes, I saw your post on the other thread explaining.

On that thread I asked what is the advantage of the multihead mode you are trying to achieve (with separate x server and start menu’s) ? I’m asking to learn, not to criticise ( … I probably did not have to say that … but many users are sensitive , especially when things are not working as they should ).

12

I’m not sure how much this helps, but I’m all about the openSUSE project, and want to find some light on this… What I’m trying to do is specifically a dual desktop / extended desktop on GNOME in 11.2…

I have a desktop with a 8600 Nvidia… Was struggling with dual desktop… No longer is any monitor configuration under Yast. (Also, I notice that kernel is “desktop” and not “default” ?)

KDE worked fine for dual desktop - but then of course if you like KDE, you must have an understanding of where to go when there are too many places to set everything… I toyed with it for a bit, then had to go back to my fav - GNOME.

I was pleasantly surprised by default after loading my home profile into GNOME that WITHOUT nVidia drivers, it defaulted to a dual desktop. Never seen that before, right on… However, no special effects, which is something I require for my setup.

So obviously, I needed to install the nVidia drivers, reboot… Came back… No dual desktop, went to look in usual place - YAST & Control Center… In fact, couldn’t even see second monitor. Finally had a thought that this new version may be trying to be clever and have an app associated. Sure enough, inside applications is the nVidia Control Panel.

I wrestled with settings here and tried many reboots… What finally works for me (for now), is that this has to be done in a live session. I can’t find a way to save a startup config in this. If you hover over “Quit”, it says it saves to your home dir nVidia config file. However upon editing, I don’t see this being saved. A reboot confirms that it reverts to a single monitor setting. I also tried hitting “Save to X Configuration File”… Everytime I try that the window freezes and I must kill it (tried after several reboots).

So moral of the story as far as I can see for now:

  • You must set your settings manually after a reboot (can’t find a way to make persistent, if anyone knows, please explain!)
  • Goto Applcations → NVIDIA X Server Settings
  • Click 2nd down on left “X Server Display Config”
  • Adjust your layout as necessary, make sure to choose “TwinView” under the “Configure…” button
  • Hit “Apply.” For me, this creates the screens I want. I can click “Quit” and go about my business and everything looks great…
  • Caveat - after reboot, all of this is gone and reset - nothing saved. Just have to set this up again!

I hope within nVidia’s next update they understand this issue and can fix. For now, simply replaying this config after a restart (which shouldn’t be too often for a linux system) will work for me…

MORE than happy to hear any other solutions to this, please explain if any insight!

Thanks,
-=peNgUiN

13

See my reply in your other thread, and please don’t double-post, especially not identical, cut-and-paste messages…
In short: “sudo nvidia-settings”. It needs to be run as root or won’t save xorg.conf.