Problem running dual monitors with 2 Xservers (no Xinerama).

Trifid · 3 Nov 2008 at 11:44

I had this setup in Fedora C9, but I have now migrated over to Ubuntu 8.10. Basically, I want 2 X server sessions, one for each monitor, so I can load individual programs on each and and have them full screen. Basically, I end up with 2 'non interactive with each other' Desktops on 2 monitors that are differently sized (19" and 24").

OK, all well and good, sudo nvidia-settings, setup twin view and resolutions. Save to X, close and restart X. I come back to my desktop to get the 19" working, and the 24" half way there. I end up with a desktop 1440x900 in the top left corner which I can move applications from my desktop around and black border around the rest which I can only move my mouse cursor on. As soon as I interact with the menu bar X crashes.

So now I am stuck and need some help.

Thanks for the help.

yashiro · 3 Nov 2008 at 19:34

Make sure Compiz is turned off. (Desktop Effects, none)
Or just type metacity --replace.

F9 was still using the old Xserver. Ub8.1 is using the new HAL dependent Xorg along with nvidias new wonky drivers. Best of luck getting this to work.

craptakular · 4 Nov 2008 at 07:12

I had this working when I had an nvidia card, it worked automagically with nvidia-settings

Tony Williams · 4 Nov 2008 at 18:58

How do you go about setting up two separate screens like this? Could I have one display for my Kaffeine player and the other for normal desktop apps. both with different resolution? Running Mandriva 2008.1 and nVidia.

Trifid · 4 Nov 2008 at 21:33

I have resolved the issue (Not sure how though but when I came back after work it was working correctly). Annoyingly I have now broken Sound, and may or may not have broken it more trying to fix it...

When playing the test sound I get:

audiotestsrc wave=sine freq=512 ! audioconvert ! audioresample ! gconfaudiosink: Could not open audio device for playback.

And in a attempt at fixing it I get "No volume control GStreamer plugins and/or devices found." When double clicking on the sound icon.

I have been using this guide: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/OpenSound and had it working before a restart. I didn't try sound again until the above restart.

Having 2 Xservers results in effectively having 2 Computers controlled by 1 mouse. I run (or will do) a music player and 2 VMware machines on the secondary and use the primary for general use. I run different resolutions and don't have a problem now. You can't drag applications between screens. Xinerama allows you to, but full screen apps do not work correctly.

Edit: After a restart I now have this error when playing the test tone: "gconfaudiosrc ! audioconvert ! audioresample ! gconfaudiosink profile=chat: Could not open audio device for playback. Device is being used by another application."