problems with my multi montior setup

[jayjay]

Hello,

i have got two problems with my multi monitor setup.

the graphics card is a mobility radeon hd 4650 and the second monitor is connected by hdmi.

as you can see in the attatched picture, the two monitors have a different resolution. the big one is 1920x1200 and the laptop display is 1366x768.

my first problem is, that the red marked area seems to be active but not visible. i want that the red area is blocked and that there cant be any windows, desktop symbols or even the cursor.

the blue marked area in the picture is my second problem. there are about 5-10 pixels from the 1366x768 monitor in my big monitor.

thank you for helping me and please excuse my bad english.

jay

[jayjay]

hello again,

now i am a little step further i think.

i installed the right graphics card drivers from amd.com and managed to switch my primary display to the big monitor via xrandr.

now i have full 3d hw acc.

but the two problems, described in the first posting still remain with the new driver.

[dawgdoc]

It would seem that your graphics drivers is trying to treat both monitors as if they are the same size.

Rather than using the Monitor Settings applications, you should now have a Catalyst Control Center Application entry in your menu. Actually you should have two, one is set to open as root/administrator. See if the new interface allows you to adjust the monitors independently.

Otherwise, see if the installation of the amd driver created an xorg.conf file.

Code: Select all

cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf

If so please paste the contents back here.

THIS page discusses using xrandr and randr and

It provides automatic discovery of modes (resolutions, refresh rates, ...) together with the ability to configure outputs dynamically (resize, rotate, move, ...).

But first try the Catalyst Control Center.

[jayjay]

hello,

i tried the ati ccc and i could change the same as i could with the gnome monitor settings. the small screen still has a "virtual" height of 1200.

my xorg.conf looks like this:

Code: Select all

Section "ServerLayout"
        Identifier     "aticonfig Layout"
        Screen      0  "aticonfig-Screen[0]-0" 0 0
EndSection

Section "Module"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier   "aticonfig-Monitor[0]-0"
        Option      "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
        Option      "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
        Option      "DPMS" "true"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier   "0-LVDS"
        Option      "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
        Option      "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
        Option      "DPMS" "true"
        Option      "PreferredMode" "1366x768"
        Option      "TargetRefresh" "60"
        Option      "Position" "0 432"
        Option      "Rotate" "normal"
        Option      "Disable" "false"
        Option      "Primary" "false"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier   "0-DFP2"
        Option      "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
        Option      "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
        Option      "DPMS" "true"
        Option      "PreferredMode" "1920x1200"
        Option      "TargetRefresh" "60"
        Option      "Position" "1366 0"
        Option      "Rotate" "normal"
        Option      "Disable" "false"
        Option      "Primary" "true"
EndSection

Section "Device"
        Identifier  "aticonfig-Device[0]-0"
        Driver      "fglrx"
        Option      "Monitor-DFP2" "0-DFP2"
        Option      "Monitor-LVDS" "0-LVDS"
        BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier "aticonfig-Screen[0]-0"
        Device     "aticonfig-Device[0]-0"
        DefaultDepth     24
        SubSection "Display"
                Viewport   0 0
                Virtual   3286 1920
                Depth     24
        EndSubSection
EndSection

the primary option doesnt seem to apply, i must still execute this command to set the big screen as primary

xrandr --output DFP2 --primary

thank you for helping

jay

[dawgdoc]

Before you go any further I would recommend backing up your xorg.conf

Code: Select all

sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.bkp1

Change the name of the backup to suite you.

(Is the small screen a laptop internal panel? That is indicated by LVDS in the xorg.conf)

Next, in case I am overlooking something, can you paste the output of

Code: Select all

inxi -G

My 8 y/o desktop with an ati card is defunct, so I haven't seen a Catalyst Control Center in months, but it should give you more options than the Monitor Settings applet. Especially since you should be using the one for the administrator/root.

Continuing to search and read, I found on a Gentoo site

# In big desktop mode (with a single frame buffer), the two screens will be put into the same resolution, or as close to it as the driver can manage (eg 1440x900 and 1156x864)
# In the 8.28.8 driver, you can use PairMode (Option "PairMode" "WxH+WxH") instead of Mode2 to request a different resolution for the second screen

* It will still come up in whatever mode it fancies, but you can use xrandr to switch
* You can only have one pairmode for now
* You will need to use a Virtual line in your screen if the second screen is larger in any dimension than the first

The page was last modified July 2010, but I do not know how out of date this part is.

I am going to suggest a couple of changes. BUT I recommend you do one at a time and do several reboots to insure that each is persistent before you make another change. AND any time you successfully and persistently improve the configuration make a new backup of the xorg.conf

Let me give you the links to what I have been reading, so you are not dependent on me making suggestions.

Randr/Xrandr http://wiki.debian.org/XStrikeForce/HowToRandR12
man fglrx (ati proprietary driver) http://debian.wgdd.de/temp/fglrx_man/fglrx.4x.html
X.Org/Dual Monitors http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/X.Org/Dual_Monitors
X.Org/Dual Monitors/ATI http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/X.Org/Dual_Monitors/ATI

First -- recheck what the ATI Catalyst Control Center will do, especially after reading the 2nd and 4th of those links.

If the Catalyst Control Center gives some improvement, but does not get you all the way to where you want to be, then post back here the new situation. If Catalyst Control Center gives no improved results, then the

Second -- I would do would be to change this line Virtual 3286 1920 in the xorg.conf screen section to Virtual 3286 1200 I do not think that will improve the first monitor. But it will eliminate some confusion. The second number is height and your largest monitor setting you inquired about is 1200 in height. With it being set to 1920 it could be confused with the height of the largest monitor. I do not see this causing any harm, but I guess there is the off chance it could make either the top or bottom of the small screen off of the page. This is where you could restore your backup of the xorg.conf from a liveCD or from booting into a console.

Code: Select all

sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf.bkp1 /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Now -- If you still have the space above the small screen change this line Option "Position" "0 432" in the section to this Option "Position" "0 0" I am thinking the 432 is causing the added space because when you add it to the 768 vertical pixels, you are at 1200 pixels, which is how the monitor is acting.

If you are able to get this part straight, let me know and we will work on the overlap, if it is still present.

[jayjay]

hello,

the small screen is a laptop internal panel, thats right.

inxi -N gave me only network card details, so i post you the output from inxi -v5

Code: Select all

mint Desktop # inxi -v5
System:    Host mint Kernel 2.6.32-5-amd64 x86_64 (64 bit) Distro Linux Mint Debian Edition
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core2 Duo P8700 (-MCP-) cache 3072 KB flags (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 ssse3 vmx)
           Clock Speeds: (1) 800.00 MHz (2) 800.00 MHz
Graphics:  Card ATI M96 [Mobility Radeon HD 4650] tty res: 153x36 Gfx Data: N/A for root user
Audio:     Card-1 ATI RV710/730 driver HDA Intel
           Card-2 Intel 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controllerdriver HDA Intel
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Version 1.0.21
Network:   Card-1 Realtek RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller driver r8169
           Card-2 Intel WiFi Link 5100 driver iwlagn
Disks:     HDD Total Size: 910.2GB (34.7% used) 1: /dev/sda ST9160821AS 160.0GB
           2: USB /dev/sdb Elements_1023 750.2GB
Partition: ID:/ size: 32G used: 4.4G (15%) fs: ext4 ID:/home size: 115G used: 20G (18%) fs: ext4
           ID:/boot size: 124M used: 17M (15%) fs: ext2 ID:swap-1 size: 1.07GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap
Info:      Processes 176 Uptime 1:16 Memory 860.2/3933.8MB Client Shell inxi 1.4.12

i went through the 4 links and i must admit that i cannot follow your intention. i dont think that the ati ccc will help me with this. when i change the graphics driver from fglrx to radeonhd i have the same problems (and no 3d acc. at all ). the changes in xorg.conf had not any effect.

i think there is a user controlled 'gnome' display configuration, because i can change the display arrangement in an user login with the gnome monitor applet without superuser rights and the xorg.conf changes had only effect in the login screen of gdm (in example the primary option)

[dawgdoc]

Sorry I meant inxi -G (I changed it in the original post.) This was just to confirm what driver the computer was recognizing.

What I was intending was:

1. backup xorg.conf - some there is always a somewhat workable configuration to drop back to

2. decrease virtual screen size to 3286x1200, the minimum which will hold both of your monitors by editing xorg.conf

Code: Select all

gksudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

and changing Virtual 3286 1920 to Virtual 3286 1200

3. check to see if vertical position of small screen is causing active desktop out of viewable range by continuing to edit xorg.conf, changing Option "Position" "0 432" to Option "Position" "0 0" because I have not seen a sample xorg.conf in other threads where the bottom of one screen is elevated above another.
3.a. If the issue of space above the small screen is resolved great.
3.b. If there are negative changes to configuration of small screen, then revert to last good saved xorg.conf and try other options.
3.c. If the problem is not worsened but not resolved, then investigate other options from the cited pages based on graphics driver in use.

4. One additional possibility is the PairMode as noted in the quote from the Gentoo site.

5. The Randr page in the Debian wiki discusses multiple monitors and positioning and sizing of them.

Remember, any changes you do without being superuser will have to be redone with each boot/login.

[jayjay]

hello,

1. done
2. done
3. done, now the "bad area" is below the lvd panel
all xorg.conf settings that do something with my displays don't apply to the user desktop. they only apply to the login screen - at the desktop i can change this behavior (screen positioning) only with the gnome monitor applet.

3abc 45. i think that i must first solve the issue, that the configuration dont apply to the desktop.

thx for helping

[jayjay]

problem solved... it was so easy

in the ati CCC i changed the display behavior to single display desktop (multi-desktop) and then i could enable xinerama.

thats it - everything is working as it should and even my 3d games are running flawlessly

isn't linux fun

[dawgdoc]

I'm glad that worked. I think one of the Gentoo pages said the AMD/ATI driver had it's own version of xinerama which it automatically used. Apparently it does not automatically use it. Glad you checked again.