Setup Xinerama

scott8711 · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 25 Oct 2002 Posts: 145

Could someone tell me how to set up xinerama.

I found a few bits an pieces on the net and was able to get both monitors working but now I need to know how to split them. Right now they both display the same thing. Can Xinerama handel three monitors?

Thanks
Scott

polin8 · Posted: Sun Nov 24, 2002 9:34 pm Post subject:

in your XFree86 Config setup both monitors and graphics cards as their own sections, make sure they work as configured (I have about 4 XF86Configs, 0ne for each monitor, one for xinerama, one for dri).

What actually sets up dual head is in the server section at the bottom of XF86Config.

scott8711 · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 25 Oct 2002 Posts: 145

Ok I made the chages to my XF86Config file, however, both moitors still display the same thing. The only thing I did not chage was the Identifier. I left it as "Anaconda configured"

What is the next step.

Scott

polin8 · Posted: Sun Nov 24, 2002 11:47 pm Post subject:

hmmm, maybe post your config as an attatchment?

what card setup are you using? I'm using a dualhead matrox, but I got xinerama running with 2 TNT2 cards before this one.
are you screens using different device setups?

i have:

scott8711 · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 25 Oct 2002 Posts: 145

How do you post a file in this forum?

Scott[/list][/code]

polin8 · Posted: Mon Nov 25, 2002 12:14 am Post subject:

heh, guess you can't, can you put it on a website?

scott8711 · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 25 Oct 2002 Posts: 145

I have posted the monitor sections and the server section

scott8711 · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 25 Oct 2002 Posts: 145

OK, I got xinerama and my dual head up and running with the Matrox PowerDesk utility. Is there a way that I can get the background picture to be displayed separatly on both monitors instead of being split between the two?

Scott

polin8 · Posted: Tue Nov 26, 2002 6:01 am Post subject:

Nice!

Its a feature of the window manager how it lays out your background, using Esetroot from the command line will let you specify which display to have which bg.
Esetroot -display :0.0 foo1.jpg
Esetroot -display :0.1 foo2.jpg

scott8711 · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 25 Oct 2002 Posts: 145

I am getting an "unable to load image file" error when I use Esetroot

I usedthe command as follows:

Esetroot -display 0.0: /usr/share/Windowmaker/Themes/LeetWM-blue.themed/LeetWM-blue1.png

and

I did a cd into LeetWM-blue.themed and used;

Esetroot -display 0.0: LeetWM-blue1.png

Both gave me the same error

Scott

dioxmat · Posted: Wed Nov 27, 2002 3:58 pm Post subject:

try using another program. wmsetbg doesnt support png files afaik, and I wouldnt be surprised that Esetroot doesnt either.

scott8711 · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 25 Oct 2002 Posts: 145

I could convert the file to .gif but I am not sure if WindowMaker supports it. Is there a cofig file for WindowMaker where I could tell it to use a .gif file?

Scott

tortoise · n00b Joined: 07 Jun 2002 Posts: 32 Location: Iowa, USA

anyone have any general recommendations for a good X setup for xinerama? I tried it with Gnome2/metacity and wasn't that impressed, lots of windows opening on the seam, apps opening up all over the place, etc etc. Is there a windowmanager that's really pushing to make xinerama really smooth?

It'd be nice to able to configure things like prefered monitor to open up into on an app by app basis, never open on the seam, allow a little say 10 pixel tall "catch" on the upper right corner of the left monitor and upper left corner of the right monitor to keep the mouse from going to the other monitor if not desired. Stuff like that.

With a little ingenuity xinerama could kick ass. Maybe when I'm good enough I'll start hacking a WM myself

RagManX · Posted: Wed Nov 27, 2002 4:52 pm Post subject:

I asked the same question. When I was using icewm, I got split windows, and the control bar at the bottom split across both displays. The suggestions I got mostly said try xfce/xfwm. It handles multi-head displays beautifully. The only thing xfce is missing that I'd like is a window bar so I can more easily switch active tasks when something I want is covered by another window.

RagManX
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martinianakiev · n00b Joined: 04 Sep 2002 Posts: 15

get fluxbox and use the remember position patch
works very nice. Also fluxbox handles multi displays much better than gnome

tyler · Posted: Wed Nov 27, 2002 11:08 pm Post subject: Re: xinerama and wm

kenobi · n00b Joined: 27 Nov 2002 Posts: 10

I would like to use my system without that xinerama thingie, but unfortunately kde applications don't work on the second screen and additionally the K menu / Kpanel is quite different. Any idea how to get it to work ?

polin8 · Posted: Mon Dec 02, 2002 11:48 pm Post subject:

so far I've found sawfish to be the smartest at handling xinerama. sawfish by itself, no gnome. apparently the newest beta of gnome2 has improved xinerama support but I haven't tried it yet

bhun · n00b Joined: 01 Dec 2002 Posts: 70

war · n00b Joined: 27 Apr 2002 Posts: 13

I've heard that Enlightenment has very good xinerama support...

KeithReuters · Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2003 3:41 pm Post subject:

Nuh huh....

Okay, the reason why both screens displayed the same thing is that in the ServerLayout section, you declared them both...
To clarify, you did this :
Screen "Screen1"
Screen "Screen2"
Screen "Screen1" LeftOf "Screen2"

In fact you only need to declare one screen, preferably the one that is configured by default in your BIOS (that's what I was told, I don't really know why though).
As to having both screen display the same thing... I'm using the Gimp with a 2048x768 file and I just copy/paste my wallpapers in it.