Xfce Forum

D0Z

Member

Registered: 2012-01-15

Posts: 6

XFCE multi monitor improvement

Caconical has announced it will improve multi monitor support in the 12.04 Ubuntu release.
After setting up a dual monitor setup with XFCE 4.8 in Xubuntu 11.10, I can say there is plenty of room for improvement.

Just getting the screens lined up right was a horror, it still isn't quite right.
For example, I can move the mouse to the other screen, but I can't drag a folder or program from one to another!
The top panel won't stretch across the screens to make it like one big screen. It really are two seperate desktops.

What I first like to know is how to improve multi monitoring on my system, and second what is being done to improve this in a future XFCE release?

lifeinthegrey

Member

From: Seattle

Registered: 2012-01-17

Posts: 52

Re: XFCE multi monitor improvement

Well I've set up a dual monitor setup, and it is a pain, but it does work correctly. There are two steps to do this:

1. Install arandr

This is a very simple GUI application to change how the monitors are set up, as in are the clones or extensions, what each resolution is set at, etc. This will NOT change the default setting, but is a good way to add/remove monitors. If you have a two-monitor setup that you use frequently, step two is necessary.

2. Terminal entry to set default monitor setup

Using arandr you can see the names of the connections (LVDS1, VGA1, etc.). Determine which is which, and how you want your default setup to be. For example, if (like me) you have a laptop with a VGA output that you want to set up to be the secondary screen to the right of the primary laptop screen, the command to enter in a terminal as root is:

xrandr --output LVDS1 --auto --output VGA1 --auto --right-of LVDS1

But the general command setup is:

xrandr --output [Primary] --auto -- output [secondary] --auto --[direction]-of [Primary]

It should be the same for many-monitor setups, just keep adding to that command for defaults. This combo is brilliant for me; resolutions are accurate, the "span across desktops" feature for the panel works (as long as the monitors line up on the edge you have the panel spanning on), its really quite perfect.

Edit: I should also mention that arandr supports keybinding. It says that is just for Metacity, but I haven't tried it, so keyboard shortcuts could possibly work with xfwm4 as well.

Last edited by lifeinthegrey (2012-01-21 23:04:55)

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D0Z

Member

Registered: 2012-01-15

Posts: 6

Re: XFCE multi monitor improvement

Grandr, arandr and xrandr only sees one of the two monitors. I can see both in the NVIDIA settings panel.
This is the xrandr output:

D0Z@D0Z-pc:~$ xrandr
xrandr: Failed to get size of gamma for output default
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 240, current 1600 x 1200, maximum 1600 x 1200
default connected 1600x1200+0+0 0mm x 0mm
   1600x1200      50.0*    52.0  
   1024x768       51.0     67.0     68.0  
   1600x1024      53.0  
   1440x900       54.0  
   1400x1050      55.0     56.0     57.0  
   1360x768       58.0     59.0  
   1280x1024      60.0     61.0  
   1280x960       62.0  
   1152x864       63.0     64.0     65.0     66.0  
   960x600        69.0  
   960x540        70.0  
   896x672        71.0  
   840x525        72.0     73.0     74.0     75.0  
   832x624        76.0  
   800x600        77.0     78.0     79.0     80.0     81.0     82.0  
   800x512        83.0  
   720x450        84.0  
   680x384        85.0     86.0  
   640x512        87.0     88.0  
   640x480        89.0     90.0     91.0     92.0  
   576x432        93.0     94.0     95.0     96.0  
   512x384        97.0     98.0     99.0  
   416x312       100.0  
   400x300       101.0    102.0    103.0    104.0  
   320x240       105.0    106.0    107.0  

During setting up xrandr never showed two monitors?

jeromeg

Member

From: France

Registered: 2010-11-11

Posts: 131

Website

Re: XFCE multi monitor improvement

Nvidia's proprietary drivers don't implement XRandr 1.2 so you can't expect any of the free tools to work 100% with this driver. Complain to Nvidia, we can't do anything about it. Or use the nouveau driver.

D0Z

Member

Registered: 2012-01-15

Posts: 6

Re: XFCE multi monitor improvement

Do you think it will work with the nouveau driver? If so, I'll try that.

edit:

I uninstalled the NVIDIA driver.

Ran xrandr:

D0Z@D0Z-pc:~$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2624 x 1200, maximum 4096 x 4096
VGA-1 connected 1024x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
   1024x768       60.0* 
   800x600        60.3     56.2  
   848x480        60.0  
   640x480        59.9  
DVI-I-1 connected 1600x1200+1024+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 367mm x 275mm
   1600x1200      60.0*+
   1280x1024      75.0     60.0  
   1152x864       75.0  
   1024x768       75.1     60.0  
   800x600        75.0     60.3  
   640x480        75.0     60.0  
   720x400        70.1  
TV-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

So i used a command in xrandr to get the DVI-I-1 to the right of VGA-1.
But i can't get the resolution of VGA-1 higher than 1024, it should be 1600x1200.
How to do this?

Last edited by D0Z (2012-01-22 19:59:26)

D0Z

Member

Registered: 2012-01-15

Posts: 6

Re: XFCE multi monitor improvement

I finally solved it (with some help).

First, I made the following script to make xrandr configure everything properly.
VGA-1 1600x1200 and on the left of DVI-I-1 also 1600x1200.

#!/bin/sh
####################################
#
# This script fixes resolution nightmare.
#
####################################

#create mode
cvt 1600 1200

#utilize mode
xrandr --newmode "1600x1200_60.00"  161.00  1600 1712 1880 2160  1200 1203 1207 1245 -hsync +vsync

#bind mode to monitor
xrandr --addmode VGA-1 1600x1200

#set monitor resolution
xrandr --output VGA-1 --mode 1600x1200

#set monitor postition
xrandr --output VGA-1 --left-of DVI-I-1

#set monitor position 2
xrandr --output DVI-I-1 --right-of VGA-1

#set primary monitor
xrandr --output DVI-I-1 --primary

#set primary monitor 2
xrandr --output VGA-1 --primary

After booting, I ran

 sudo bash resofix.sh

and everything was right.
But to do this manually every time after logging in, was a pain.

To make it run automatically after booting, change the name of the script to: .xsessionrc and save it in the home dir.

nostradamnit

Member

Registered: 2012-01-25

Posts: 5

Re: XFCE multi monitor improvement

I confirm that the script above works for me as well.

My xrandr output is :

Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2560 x 1024, maximum 2560 x 2560
DFP1 connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 376mm x 301mm
   1280x1024      60.0*+   75.0  
   1280x960       60.0 +   75.0  
   1280x800       60.0 +   75.0  
   1152x864       60.0 +   75.0  
   1280x768       59.9 +   74.9  
   1280x720       60.0 +
   1152x648       60.0 +
   1024x768       75.0     70.1     60.0  
   800x600        72.2     75.0     70.0     60.3     56.2  
   720x480        60.0  
   640x480        75.0     72.8     60.0  
DFP2 connected 1280x1024+1280+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 376mm x 301mm
   1280x1024      60.0*+   75.0  
   1280x960       60.0 +   75.0  
   1280x800       60.0 +   75.0  
   1152x864       60.0 +   75.0  
   1280x768       59.9 +   74.9  
   1280x720       60.0 +
   1152x648       60.0 +
   1024x768       75.0     70.1     60.0  
   800x600        72.2     75.0     70.0     60.3     56.2  
   720x480        60.0  
   640x480        75.0     72.8     60.0  

and my script looks like this:

#!/bin/sh

xrandr --addmode DFP1 1280x1024
xrandr --output DFP1 --mode 1280x1024
xrandr --output DFP1 --left-of DFP2
xrandr --output DFP2 --right-of DFP1
xrandr --output DFP1 --primary
xrandr --output DFP2 --primary

I wasn't sure about a couple of the lines, so I omited them and it didn't appear to change anything...

Anyway, now when I reboot, I have my monitors setup correctly.

Also, with amdcccle, I had a seg fault when I closed it, which I assume was why the configuration wasn't sticking.