Dual-Head & Xinerama Question [SOLVED]

Bob P · Last edited by Bob P on Fri Dec 10, 2004 11:30 pm; edited 1 time in total

I've been beating on my new Gentoo install to get dual monitor support working. (This involved alot of beating my head against the wall because the i810 chipset driver will not coexist peacefully with other video drivers, but that's another story.)

Now that I have the dual-head system up and running in X11 with KDE 3.3.x, there are some odd behaviors that I want to ask about.

1. I'm getting a taskbar at the bottom of both displays. Each taskbar has its own Start menu, and interestingly, the "Most Used Applications" section of the menu is different for each screen. Each screen maintains its own list of the most commonly used apps that have been deployed in that screen, instead of sharing a common list. Is this normal? If so, see #4 below.

2. I cannot drag an open window from one screen to the other. When I try to drag a window from one monitor to the other, instead of traversing the displays, the window wraps around on one display. Interestingly, the mouse moves back and forth with no problems. Is this normal?

3. When I am opening a program, I get the bouncing cursor replicated in the same position on both screens. Obviously, the ghost cursor is not normal.

4. Taskbar items can exist on one display, but not on the other. For example, the "Screen Resize and Rotate" icon will only exist on one of the taskbars. Even if I attempt to open the program on the other display via the start menu, it won't go to that display's taskbar. Is there any way to get the taskbar icons to appear on both screens?

thanks.
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Infamy · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 26 Nov 2003 Posts: 92

1. yep, this is normal. I find that it is actually handy since I use each screen differently

2. Yes, this is normal, and sounds just like my setup. Sounds like your xinerama is not enabled/functioning.

3. This is a bug, at least in my mind. I believe there are bug reports (http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=71779) that say it is resolved, but they may need to be resubmitted. Matter of fact, I believe I put one in myself a while back, I will check. This is not normal, and it is annoying.

4. It is quite possible to have different icons on each screen. For example, here are screens of my left screen:
http://pubpages.unh.edu/~gbabbin/Orangeblocks.png

and my right screen:
http://pubpages.unh.edu/~gbabbin/rightscreen.png

I do notice that when I start an app on the second screen, that there are entries on each task bar, but then the entry on the first screen disappears and the final result is desirable.

Bob P · Posted: Wed Dec 08, 2004 9:30 pm Post subject:

thanks for the reply! :wink:

1. having two separate taskbars is actually pretty useful at times. i have to admit, is very different from the dual-head setups i've used in the past (win), where you have one taskbar in the primary display and no taskbar on the other displays. the X implementation of a taskbar on each screen actually is a bit more convenient, in that you don't have to move so far with the mouse to get to the taskbar. i still think it would be more convenient, though, to have one universal startup menu on both screens. i wish that i knew of a way to make that happen.

2. xinerama. i'm not sure how xinerama is supposed to function. i understand that its supposed to keep a maximized window from sprawling out across two screens. in that respect, its working, as when i maximize its keeping the window limited to a single monitor.

i don't know how its supposed to function with regard to dragging a window from one screen to another. shouldn't you be able to move a window from one screen to the next (as you can in Windows dual head setups), or is this something that's NOT supposed to happen? i have to admit, there are some times when one display gets a bit crowded and it would be very handy to be able to move an app from one screen to the other while keeping it open.

when i try to move an app from the monitor on the right to the monitor on the left, i don't really like to see the app disappear from the left edge of the right monitor, only to reappear on the right edge of the right monitor, instead of moving to the right edge of the left monitor. i really wish that i knew of a way to change this behavior.

BTW, where does Xinerama come from? i coudn't find it in portage, and i don't know if its part of X11 or some other package.

4. i understand that its possible to have different icons on each screen. that can actually be pretty useful. but is it possible to have the same icons on both screens at the same time? i'd really like to be able to have a resolution adjusting icon in the system tray on both displays, as that is a function that i need to use frequently. as it is now, i can get it to appear on my left screen, but i can never make it appear on my right screen. i can't even execute the resolution changing program from the Start menu on the right screen -- after a couple seconds of the bouncing icon, the program seemingly collapses as the icon automatically disappears. when i want to resize the right screen's resolution, i have to jump through a bunch of hoops by going through the start menu and the Control Center, navigating through a bunch of menus and submenus. this is a real PITA.

Infamy · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 26 Nov 2003 Posts: 92

1. To save hassle trying to edit both menus, you can look in ~/.kde3.3/share/config. I have two config files there, one for each kicker. They are kickerrc, and kicker-screen-1rc. If you want the exact same thing on both screens, (though I have not done this myself) it would seem that you would be able to copy one over the other. If you just want the same K-menu, you can copy the appropriate section from the correct config file and put it in the other.

2.1xinerama allows you to copy a window from screen 0 to screen 1. It would be desirable if it prevented one window from stretching across the entire desktop, but there have been exceptions. Personally, the thought of it seem like a waste of resources to me. I have not ever been in dire need of moving a window from the left screen to the right

.

2.2 Xinerama provides this function. I think over time you will get used to have certain things on certain screens, and on top of that, fully utilizing your virtual desktops.

2.3 To stop that desktop window wrapping, try this; KDE Control Center->Desktop->Window behaviour->"Focus" tab-> uncheck desktop navigation wraps around.

Also see the advanced tab about active window borders.

2.4 Xinerama is part of xorg-x11/XFree86. Check in the 'x' section in the following link for xinerama.

http://www.gentoo.org/dyn/use-index.xml

If it is something that you want, I suggest adding it to your make.conf.

3. .....Looks like we are skipping to 4

4. Check your xorg.conf to be sure that you have a variety of resolutions set for the second screen. If you don't have them, you will see it switch to the same res. You can also use the keyboard shortcut - ctrl+alt+ + or ctrl+alt+ -

5. I have never used xinerama, so I am going to make take a stab in the dark about it. I don't think that you have xinerama enabled, so it could be possible that once it is enabled, the identify button will actually tell you useful information.

Maybe someone else will see this post and know

Bob P · Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2004 12:50 pm Post subject:

Bob P · Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2004 2:05 pm Post subject:

Infamy · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 26 Nov 2003 Posts: 92

ls -a will show everything.

kickerrc is for the primary display. If you are confused, you can look inside and see that the various icons in your kicker match within the file. This is a shot in the dark, but you could probably move kicker-screen-1rc to another location, and in it's place, put a symlink to kickerrc.

jschellhaass · Guru Joined: 20 Jan 2004 Posts: 341

There are two different modes for dual head.

The traditional way treats each display as seperate. This allows for things like independent color depths, screen savers etc. on each display. It does not allow for dragging windows between displays. If you are using a dual head system like this and have compiled with the xinerama USE flag I would recommend changing USE flags to -xinerama and do an emerge --newuse world. This will recompile qt and some of the kde apps without xinerama support.

If you are using a dual head setup with xinerama and have not compiled with the xinerama USE flag I would recommend changing USE flags to +xinerama and doing an emerge --newuse world. Again this compiles apps to take advantage of xinerama support.

jeff

Bob P · Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2004 4:15 pm Post subject:

thanks, guys. my system is the "traditional way" as mentioned above.

just so that i'm sure that i'm on the right page -- i do not see that xinerama is in the portage tree. is xinerama something that i have to install/emerge separately, or is it something that i merely enable by recompiling with a new USE flag?
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jschellhaass · Guru Joined: 20 Jan 2004 Posts: 341

xinerama is a USE flag. Disabled by default.

jeff

Bob P · Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2004 5:22 pm Post subject:

thanks. i checked on that, and the "emerge --newuse world" is gonna completely recompile kde-base, thunderbird, and a couple of other fat apps. that's gonna take a while...

so tell me, do i have to take down the X server to do this, or can i get away with doing this in a root console window?
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jschellhaass · Guru Joined: 20 Jan 2004 Posts: 341

If you are using dual head with separate xsessions (the more traditional way as mentioned in my previous post) you DO NOT want to recompile with xinerama USE flag.

That said, you should be able to compile in a root console. Restart X when it's complete.

jeff

Bob P · Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2004 6:36 pm Post subject:

thanks. i'm currently using the traditional setup, but i want to try the non-traditional setup, so i've added "xinerama" to my USE flags and i'll go ahead and recompile. if i don't like it, i can always remove the USE flag and recomile again to go back.
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Bob P · Posted: Fri Dec 10, 2004 3:26 pm Post subject:

jub0r · Posted: Fri Dec 10, 2004 7:00 pm Post subject:

the option you're looking for is in your /etc/X11/xorg.conf (or XF86Config)

In your ServerFlags section, you need:

Bob P · Posted: Fri Dec 10, 2004 11:30 pm Post subject:

[SOLVED!]

if anyone's found this thread while searching for help, consider the following:

"emerge --newuse world -p" will list a number of programs that will be recompiled, but "emerge --newuse world" may miss some dependencies.

some have recommended "emerge --newuse world -vaD"

"equery h xinerama" revealed some additional programs that needed to be recompiled to be xinerama compliant. equery is part of the gentoolkit.

Thanks everyone!
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