Start 2 X servers on 2 different Screens
 

Hi all
I would like to run X on my television from the X server I use on my monitor
In fact, I would like to be able to use my computer (web, ...) when I watch a movie at the TV
Is it possible ? how can I do it ?


PS : I don't want to use twinview mode like clone, leftof, ...

I got 2 monitos plgged up to my linux machine with a nvidia card. Go to this website. It showed me how to configure my computer.

http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Xinerama-HOWTO/

This is explained in the README file that comes with the driver (near the end).

thanks, I look at it ;)

if it's with xinerama, I didn't undestand what they said

(app-r) APPENDIX R: CONFIGURING MULTIPLE X SCREENS ON ONE CARD
__________________________________________________ ________________________

Graphics chips that support TwinView (see (app-i) APPENDIX I: CONFIGURING
TWINVIEW) can also be configured to treat each connected display device
as a separate X screen.

While there are several disadvantages to this approach as compared to
TwinView (eg: windows cannot be dragged between X screens, hardware
accelerated OpenGL cannot span the two X screens), it does offer several
advantages over TwinView:

o If each display device is a separate X screen, then properties
that may vary between X screens may vary between displays (eg:
depth, root window size, etc).

o Hardware that can only be used on one display at a time (eg:
video overlays, hardware accelerated RGB overlays), and which
consequently cannot be used at all when in TwinView, can be
exposed on the first X screen when each display is a separate
X screen.

o The 1-to-1 association of display devices to X screens is
more historically in line with X.

To configure two separate X screens to share one graphics chip, here is
what you will need to do:

First, create two separate Device sections, each listing the BusID of
the graphics card to be shared, each listing the driver as "nvidia",
and assign each a separate screen:


Section "Device"
Identifier "nvidia0"
Driver "nvidia"
# Edit the BusID with the location of your graphics card
BusID "PCI:2:0:0"
Screen 0
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "nvidia1"
Driver "nvidia"
# Edit the BusID with the location of your graphics card
BusId "PCI:2:0:0"
Screen 1
EndSection


Then, create two Screen sections, each using one of the Device sections:


Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "nvidia0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1600x1200" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubsection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen1"
Device "nvidia1"
Monitor "Monitor1"
DefaultDepth 24
Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1600x1200" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubsection
EndSection


(note: you'll also need to create a second Monitor section)

Finally, update the ServerLayout section to use and position both Screen
sections:


Section "ServerLayout"
...
Screen 0 "Screen0"
Screen 1 "Screen1" leftOf "Screen0"
...
EndSection


For further details, please refer to the XF86Config manpage.

No, it is in the APPENDIX R that eliu posted.

yes, thanks
I try it and it is nearly what I need
the only problem is I have no keyboard and no mouse on the second screen

I try with twinview with rightof, and in fact, it's not so bad
but I can't have 1024 on my monitor and 800x600 on my tv at the same time : monitor go into 800x600 too :/

You can do things like this from a console window on the first screen:

DISPLAY=:0.1 mplayer filename.mpg

by typing DISPLAY=:0.1 in front of a command it will run on your second screen.
(it is also possible to type:
export DISPLAY=:0.1
and then all commands that you run in that console window will run on the second screen)

Many X windowmanagers will automatically see that you have two screens and put the mouse menus on both screens. E.g. fvwm and kwm (KDE) do this (I have seen it).
Apparently your windowmanager does not do this, or needs extra help.

wahou, that's interesting :afro2:
I didn't know that
Maybe I'll try it, but for the moment, I use twinview with rightof since yesterday (I just watch a film at TV while I browse internet)
and it does all I need except a little thing : I didn't succeed in setting my monitor to 1024x768 while my tv is in 800x600 (my monitor go automatically to 800x600 :/ )
it's the only problem I have :)

You have to use "MetaModes"


Section "Device"
Identifier "device1"
VendorName "nVidia Corporation"
BoardName "NVIDIA GeForce2 DDR (generic)"
Driver "nvidia"
Option "DPMS"
Option "TwinView" "True"
Option "TwinViewOrientation" "Clone"
Option "TVStandard" "NTSC-M"
Option "MetaModes" "1024x768,640x480; 640x480,640x480"
EndSection

The BIG disadvantage (in my opinion making it unusable) of twinview is that it disables hardware video overlays. Both on the first and on the second screen.

So, when you view video on you primary monitor, it cannot be overlaid (and scaled) in hardware but this must be done in software.
This eats 50% of my P4/2533 :-(

Unfortunately even with 2 X screens there are no video overlays on the second screen.
So, when you view a movie on the second screen, it is scaled to the selected video resolution and copied to the video memory in software.

This is especially bad since the resolution in TV mode is not freely programmable, so it cannot be set to match the movie resolution.
I think it may also be responsible for the lack of synchronization between the vertical refresh on the TV and the updates of the frame memory. So, when you watch a movie with a lot of movement (especially horizontal, as in quick panning), you will see artifacts of the swapping of the frame while the TV is scanning it.

All in all, after using the tv-out videocard in my system for a couple of weeks, I am getting more and more convinced that it is unusable for the purpose of watching movies on a TV screen. The fact that nVidia cannot get the "underscan" under control is not helping either.

I now have a "Dream multimedia DM-7000s" which is a DVB settopbox with ethernet interface, that runs Linux as the embedded OS. It can play MPEG-TS streams and some other formats as well, retrieving the file data from the PC using NFS or some forms of streaming.
This looks much more promising. I have a fullscreen picture, of broadcast quality. It is also much more practical as you can put it near the TV and connect using ethernet.
It only needs some clever scripts to do on-the-fly conversion of movies it cannot play (e.g. DIVX) into formats it can play. Working on that...