Mint 17.3 Dual Monitor Advice (before I do try it)

[henderson63]

Okay

I have at present a successful Mint 17.3 with Cinnamon with the Nvidia driver for my GTX650.

I have a spare monitor and a spare nvidia card GTX240 which I am thinking about using
on this machine.

Will it be as simple as plugging in and turning on or will it prove troublesome because of different nvidia
driver requirements (I'm guessing, but think so).

Is it worth doing?

I don't want to a working system in a mess.

[SandJ]

tl;dr: it will work.

I am typing this on a PC with a motherboard monitor output with a 19" monitor attached and a whizzy nVidia graphics card with a 24" monitor attached. Every Ubuntu-based Linux I have used this past few years (Mint, Ubuntu, Xubuntu and others) has recognised the setup and simply worked. When installing a new Linux version (and sometimes after an upgrade) I need to swap the virtual monitors left to right and make the 24" the primary monitor.

I have two netbooks (one for home and one for travelling) and use them with the netbook screen on and a monitor plugged in. It just works. The only thing that needs doing is to use the distro's display management software to arrange the virtual monitors the same way as the physical ones otherwise I get very confused. (That is, make the external monitor the primary and have the little screen arranged beneath the big one.) On these netbooks which have a shortcut key to toggle between little screen only / mirror screens / external only / extend desktop, it works fine. They also know not to use the external monitor when powering on if it is not there.

The only Linux that does not work automagically is LXDE which is heavily cut-down so I'm not surprised. On that one you have to tell it how the monitors are arranged every time you disconnect / reconnect one. But that's not Mint so it is off-topic and irrelevant here.

[SandJ]

Sorry, I forgot your second question: is it worth doing?

Having multiple monitors is like going from a manual to an automatic gearbox or buying an A3 colour duplexing printer: once you have done it you will never want to go back. Having to work on a single monitor is like trying to work while sitting on one hand: it will be frustrating and non-sensical. You will find the idea of having new windows open up over the window you were just looking at utterly ridiculous, a hideous design flaw. You will never want to go back.

[henderson63]

Thank you for the reply.

By the way I know the advantage of dual monitors I just didn't want to break my system
Again though thank you for the reply.

I'm going to do it.