Messed up taskbar / Multi-monitor issues

[graffy]

Hello,

I just installed Mint 14 (64-bit) using Cinnamon 1.6. My system runs two Nvidia cards (550TI and 430). The 550 has two monitors attached, the 430 only one. The 430's monitor is protrait-oriented.

So, the issue is, I can get multi-monitor support working fine across both cards, but I can't get portrait mode working on the 430.

I've edited my xorg.conf correctly (following Nvidia's instructions, anyway) by adding the line:

Code: Select all

Option "Rotate" left"

in either the "Screen" or "Device" section for the 430.

When I do that, the 430 gives me a white screen, though when I reboot, as the buffers clear, I see the Mint 14 wallpaper briefly display, so I know it's generally functional...

I have left the Xcinerama option turned off, as Nvidia indicates it'll override the RandR / Rotate feature.

I have not tried using the "RandRRotation" option.

Nvidia also indicated that the ability to rotate a screen should be available in the X Server GUI, but I don't see the option. Given that I'm running the experimental NVidia driver and the latest version of the Nvidia server, I presume that means it's somehow not available?

In any case, I'm at a loss. What's worse, every time I reboot, my task bar duplicates itself. I currently have six blank task bars stacked on top of the first one, and the first task bar has seven instances of the notification area and the menu / desktop buttons on it. I've seen a couple people mention that problem, but of the solutions I've seen none seem to apply to Linux Mint...

[catweazel]

What's worse, every time I reboot, my task bar duplicates itself. I currently have six blank task bars stacked on top of the first one...

I run AMD cards so I can't be specific enough to give you the steps to fix that, however the same problem happened to me with the AMD proprietary driver on Mint 14 Cinnamon. The solution was to completely uninstall the default xorg drivers before installing the proprietary drivers. It appears that the xorg drivers are not deleted when you install replacement drivers.

Now that you've got the clue, perhaps someone who knows about nVidia drivers can give you the names of the packages to uninstal.

[passerby]

I don't have any experience toying with rotation, Xcinerama and such, but the taskbar duplicating issue is one I've had many times before.
The taskbar issue has only presented for me when the kernel I'm using doesn't support the nvidia driver properly.
eg. When installing kernel 3.7+ with an older driver.

I recommend completely removing nvidia, removing xorg.conf, then installing a nvidia version compatible with your kernel.
eg.

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get purge nvidia*
sudo rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf
sudo apt-get install nvidia-experimental-310*
sudo nvidia-xconfig

[catweazel]

I recommend completely removing nvidia, removing xorg.conf, then installing a nvidia version compatible with your kernel.

Thanks for topping up my reply.

Cheers.

[mtrudel]

Hey guys, this is like my fourth day with linux and I'm sorry for Hijacking the thread but I'm having a similar problem with the task bar and I was hoping somebody could help me

Ok so I'm trying to set up my 3 monitors that run off of my two graphics cards. I have two monitors running off my ATI RADEON 6570 and one monitor running off my ATI RADEON 5670. I created a xorg.conf file (posted below) and I managed to get all monitors working, however when the ATI RADEON 5670 card is working with my setup the taskbar on my main monitor does the same duplicate thingy. I tried changing the drivers in the xorg file from fglrx to ati and radeon on the 5670 and the monitor fails, however when I do that the taskbar on my main monitor is fixed. I read the post about unistalling the drivers, but I'm new to this and I was hoping you could go into a little bit more detail for me so I could figure out how to fix this. Thanks

Here's my Xorg.conf file:

Code: Select all

Section "ServerLayout"
	Identifier     "amdcccle Layout"
	Screen      0  "amdcccle-Screen[1]-0" 0 0
	Screen	    1  "amdcccle-Screen[6]-0" Rightof "amdcccle-Screen[1]-0"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier   "0-DFP1"
	Option	    "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
	Option	    "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
	Option	    "DPMS" "true"
	Option	    "PreferredMode" "1680x1050"
	Option	    "TargetRefresh" "24"
	Option	    "Position" "0 0"
	Option	    "Rotate" "normal"
	Option	    "Disable" "false"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier   "0-DFP2"
	Option	    "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
	Option	    "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
	Option	    "DPMS" "true"
	Option	    "PreferredMode" "1680x1050"
	Option	    "TargetRefresh" "60"
	Option	    "Position" "0 0"
	Option	    "Rotate" "normal"
	Option	    "Disable" "false"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier   "1-Default monitor"
	Option	    "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
	Option	    "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
	Option	    "DPMS" "true"
	Option	    "PreferredMode" "640x480"
	Option	    "TargetRefresh" "60"
	Option	    "Position" "0 0"
	Option	    "Rotate" "normal"
	Option	    "Disable" "false"
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier  "amdcccle-Device[1]-0"
	Driver      "fglrx"
	Option	    "Monitor-DFP1" "0-DFP1"
	Option	    "Monitor-DFP2" "0-DFP2"
	BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier  "amdcccle-Device[6]-0"
	Driver      "fglrx"
	BusID       "PCI:6:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier "amdcccle-Screen[1]-0"
	Device     "amdcccle-Device[1]-0"
	DefaultDepth     24
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     24
	EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier "amdcccle-Screen[6]-0"
	Device     "amdcccle-Device[6]-0"
	DefaultDepth     24
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     24
	EndSubSection
EndSection

[RnR]

I don't have any experience toying with rotation, Xcinerama and such, but the taskbar duplicating issue is one I've had many times before.
The taskbar issue has only presented for me when the kernel I'm using doesn't support the nvidia driver properly.
eg. When installing kernel 3.7+ with an older driver.

I recommend completely removing nvidia, removing xorg.conf, then installing a nvidia version compatible with your kernel.
eg.

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get purge nvidia*
sudo rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf
sudo apt-get install nvidia-experimental-310*
sudo nvidia-xconfig

Hello, I tried te steps you recommended to solve the messed up taskbar but it didn't solve it... Please help me out with any other solution...