Ubuntu
xserver-xorg-video-nv package

Laptop and External Monitor (Dual Monitors)

Asked by jimbob80

I am constantly wishing to move from Windows to Ubuntu (Linux) for a while now. But I always end up coming back to Windows. This is a shame as I do wish to make the change permanent.

This is my problem:

I have a Dell XPS i7 laptop and have an LG Flatron W2253TQ monitor connected via HDMI. I cannot get dual displays working on my laptop screen and external monitor.

I have played with the settings and the Nvidia settings and best I have got is both screens looking glitchy with graphics and unreadable.

The older version of Ubuntu worked better, but could not run software in full screen. Also once disconnected, I had to change settings again.

Any advise would be appreciated. Is there any plan to make this process easier?

My work demands that I use multiple screens.

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Chris (fabricator4) said : 		#1

Hi, Yes dual screen support got rather nasty with the introduction of gnome 3 and Unity if you wanted to do it to expand your desktop space. If you really need this then the best thing would be to stay with 10.04 LTS for now which should work quite well.

The good news is that I've heard they're are working on proper multi screen support for the next LTS - 12.04 due out in April. You might try 12.04 then and see how well they've done. I'm expecting lots of good things from the next LTS, not the least of which is that it will have 5 year support - until 2017! :-)

http://www.reviewlinux.com/unity-5-2-released-with-multi-monitor-support-ubuntu-12-04-precise-pangolin-3160.html

You could probably try upgrading to Unity 5.2 now but I wouldn't advise it unless you really know how to fix problems that are sure to come up with a backport. An alternative until the April release might be to try some other DEs (desktop environments) like KDE, Xfce, and Lxde to see they work better for you. To get these, install KDE, Xfce, or Lxde from the repositories then switch to them from the login screen, or alternately install the native Ubuntu releases for these DEs: Kubuntu, Xubuntu and Lubuntu.

Chris

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jimbob80 (jimbob80) said : 		#2

Hi Chris,

Thank you for the information! Greatly appreciate the heads up on the upcoming release.
It would be fantastic to have proper multi screen support, as this is the only problem I have with Ubuntu... Shame that it is a vital issue that effects my work.

After reading the link which you provided, this has left me very excited indeed. I am now officially hanging out for that release.

Thanks again!

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