kde - can't change 2nd screen resolution [SOLVED] (sort of)

trawler · n00b Joined: 07 Jan 2007 Posts: 70

I have 2 screens connected to my nvidia video card.
The first screen is configured at a resolution of 1280x1024 and the 2nd one 800x600.
Yesterday I performed a global update ("emerge -uDN world") and ever since then I can't seem to be able to change my 2nd screen desktop resolution.
The xorg.conf file hasn't changed and the actual resolution for the screen is indeed 800x600, but the kde desktop seems to think it's 1280x1024 (same as the first screen).
When I go to "configure desktop" on my 2nd screen it shows the resolution as 1280x1024. When I try to change it, nothing happens.
If I open the dialogue again, it changes back to 1280x1024...

I also found that I can change my resolution on the 1st screen, and that it changes the resolution for the 2nd screen too....

Before the upgrade, I could change the resolution independently for each screen, and now it seems KDE ignores the fact that I have 2 screens....
One of the things I changed before upgrading was adding VIDEO_CARDS="nvidia" to my make.conf.

trawler · n00b Joined: 07 Jan 2007 Posts: 70

Addition:
I noticed there's a new tab under Display settings that's called "Multiple Monitors" that has options for multiple monitor support.
It only shows one desktop that's called "Display 1" with width of 1280 and height of 1024.
When I hit the button that says "Identify all Displays" it shows the number 1 on the screen, from which I opened the desktop configuration utility.
I.E. it can't recognize that I have 2 screens... Any idea how I can configure the 2nd screen in KDE?

trawler · n00b Joined: 07 Jan 2007 Posts: 70

For the sake of documentation, in case someone gets into the same problem here's what i did to put things back to normal again (only follow this if you have a separate X configuration:
1. Configure Desktop --> Multiple Monitors - disabled the "multiple monitor virtual desktop support"
2. Removed "VIDEO_CARDS="nvidia" from make.conf and emerge -uDN to recompile the related packages with the regular VESA support

After that, the 2nd screen behaved pretty much OK - maximized windows didn't exceed the given resolution borders, and kaffeine full screen was also the right resolution. Xine-ui, however still behaved as if my resolution was bigger than it was in full screen mode. To solve this:

3. I edited package.use and removed xinerama support from xine (echo "media-video/xine-ui -xinerama" >> /etc/portage/package.use)
4. re-emerged xine-ui.