Ubuntu
yelp package

Split screens

Asked by Aussieroo

Okay guys be nice to me, I am not only new to Linux but also to this forum. :-)
Can I firstly say that I have been using windows since DOS and been through every version since. Never ventured into Linux and never seen the need. Having said that I have been persuaded to have a look at the latest version of Ubuntu. If it is the developers idea to get more of us Windows users to migrate across can I say you haven't made it easy. I consider myself pretty well versed on computers and do installs and repairs and one to one training where the opportunity arises. So if I am having difficulties I doubt the majority of "Plug anf play" users will migrate across anytime soon. Please I am not running the product down merely saying it isn't really user friendly to install and configure.

Now I have searched the help files that came with the program, searched everywhere I know to look in the program and then had a look around here in the Q.&A's But nowhere can I see how to set up my 2 lcd screens. When it first started I had them cloned but wanted them as one desktop as I have in XP but try as I might not only can't I find it now I just have one screen working and can't get the second one back up. Even though I have "cloned" ticked it doesn't start it up. I am using a dual screen video card Nvidea 8600GT. I can't see anywhere I get the options for 2 screens. Do I need to re-install motherboard drivers etc and video card drivers? If I do, how come the import side of Ubuntu was able to migrate across my XP settings still installed on the C drive but not the video setting?

My apologies for being long winded, I would like to persevere with this but am slowly getting to the point of just going back to XP. Any suggestions are appreciated

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Bensin (lejmer) said : 		#1

As you write "any suggestion..." I offer you a peek at what works for me. If I understand you correctly, you don't want to clone your screen ("Clone mode") but you want TwinView (aka "Span mode") (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TwinView)

Before anything, take a backup of your xorg.conf file in directory /etc/X11 so that you can restore it if something goes wrong. Open a terminal window, go to the correct directory and type:

$ sudo cp xorg.conf xorg.conf.backup080615

then open the file xorg.conf for editing

$ sudo gedit xorg.conf

The two sections "Monitor" and "Device" are of interest. Remove my comments that start with "<--":

Section "Monitor"
 Identifier "Configured Monitor"
 Horizsync 30-70 <--- Check what is the correct value for your monitor 1
 Vertrefresh 50-150 <--- Check what is the correct value for your monitor 1
EndSection

Section "Device"
 Identifier "Configured Video Device"
 Driver "nvidia"
 Option "NoLogo" "True"
 Option "TwinView" "true"
 Option "TwinViewOrientation" "RightOf"
 Option "TVOutFormat" "COMPOSITE" <--- Because my TV is my monitor 2
 Option "TVStandard" "PAL-B" <--- Because my TV is my monitor 2
 Option "SecondMonitorHorizSync" "30-50" <--- Check what is the correct value for your monitor 2
 Option "SecondMonitorVertRefresh" "60" <--- Check what is the correct value for your monitor 2
 Option "MetaModes" "1024x768,640x480" <--- 1024x768 is the resolution on my monitor 1, 640x480 is the resolution on my monitor 2
EndSection

Hope this helps some. If it doesn't, go back to your directory /etc/X11 and restore the xorg.conf file to its original state:

$ sudo cp xorg.conf.backup080615 xorg.conf

Can you help with this problem?

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