Nvidia: laptop+ext. monitor: same output, differerent res

[klorenzo]

Hi,
I'm trying to configure a notebook (dell m3800, NVidia Quadro K1100M, Mint 17 Cinnamon) with an external monitor (samsung LS27B970DS).
I'd like to have the same output on both the notebook and the external monitor, where the notebook is 3200x1800 and the external is 2560x1440.

I need this because when I'm at home I use the netbook as desktop: I put it aside connected to a USB hub and to the external monitor, keyboard, etc. (much like a docking station). So I just do not care about the notebook output, it could also be just disabled. My only requirement is to be able to switch easily between the two configurations: notebook vs "fake desktop".

I installed the nvidia-331 drivers. Mint "Displays" app detects the external monitor, but the external monitor resolution is limited to 1920x1080. "Mirror displays" works fine but only a small area of the screen is visible on the external monitor. If I could enable some kind of scaling for the external monitor only (xrandr?) I'd be happy.

I tried the nvidia-setting but this does not detect the external monitor at all. If I run nvidia-xconfig but the generated xorg.conf disable the notebook screen and runs the external monitor with a very low resolution (800x600?).

I started to study twinview, xinerama and other options here:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/multihead

but I'm not sure which one is the correct one for my situation as none of the description matches my requirements.

What do you think?

[Dz27]

I have more or less the same problem so I was wondering whether you´ve managed to resolve this!?

I always use an external monitor (VGA, 1080) and want the exact same output on my TV (HDMI, 720) whenever I turn that on. On windows this was easily accomplished using the Duplicate desktop option, but there seems to be no easy way to do this in Linux.

I have a GeForce 540M and selecting the Mirror Display option in the Display settings reduces the resolution of both monitors to a very low resolution. Using the Nouveau driver btw.

Any help would be much appreciated!