Xinerama or TwinView

[Audax321]

Hello,

I'm not exactly sure what the difference between Xinerama and TwinView is, but I'm hoping that if I post what I want to accomplish right now, someone can help me out.

I have two monitors (1 LCD and 1 CRT). The LCD is running at 1024x768 and the CRT is at 1152x864.

While using KDE I want to be able to treat both screens as one giant desktop and be able to drag windows, icons, etc. between them.

While playing games I want to be able to start Unreal Tournament, Unreal Tournament 2004, Medal of Honor Allied Assault, etc. only on Screen 2 (CRT). IMO LCDs suck for gaming

How can I achieve this.

Thanks.

[ideasman42]

Xinerama is a protocol so windows can be aware of both monitors,
twinView is a driver config methof as far as I know,


heres my xorg.conf




Section "Files"
RgbPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
ModulePath "/usr/X11R6/lib/modules"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/misc/"
#FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/TTF/"
#FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/Type1/"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/CID/"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/"

FontPath "/storage/fonts/ttf_def"
FontPath "/storage/fonts/ttf_bitstream"

EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse1"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "dbe"
Load "glx"
Load "extmod"
Load "type1"
Load "freetype"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "iiyama"
VendorName "iiyama"
ModelName "ProLite E481S"
HorizSync 31-79
VertRefresh 56-75
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "eizo"
VendorName "Eizo"
ModelName "L365"
HorizSync 31-60
VertRefresh 56-75
EndSection

Section "Modes"
Identifier "MyModes"
Modeline "1280x1024" 115.99 1280 1312 1752 1784 1024 1045 1055 1076
Modeline "1024x768" 85.52 1024 1056 1376 1408 768 782 792 807
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "card0"
VendorName "nVidia Corporation"
BoardName "NV25 [GeForce 4 Ti 4400]"
Driver "nvidia"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
#Option "NvAgp" "0" #disables AGP support
#Option "NvAgp" "1" #use NVAGP, if possible
#Option "NvAgp" "2" #use AGPGART, if possible
#Option "NvAGP" "3" #try to use AGPGART; if that fails, try NVAGP (default)
#Check AGP
#You can easily check the status of AGP by typing:
#Command:
#cat /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/status
# cat /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/host-bridge


Option "NvAGP" "2"
Option "ConnectedMonitor" "CRT-0,CRT-1"
Option "IgnoreDisplayDevices" "TV"
Option "TwinView" "true"
Option "SecondMonitorHorizSync" "31-70"
Option "SecondMonitorVertRefresh" "56-70"
Option "MetaModes" "CRT-0: 1280x1024, CRT-1: 1280x1024;"
Option "TwinViewOrientation" "RightOf"
Option "Xinerama" "on"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen AGP"
Device "card0"
Monitor "iiyama"
DefaultDepth 24
Subsection "Display"

Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024" ViewPort 0 0

EndSubsection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "AGP"
Screen "Screen AGP"
InputDevice "Mouse1" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

[Audax321]

Okay, I just got TwinView setup and it looks much better than traditional xinerama. But, how do I get a fullscreen game to run on one screen or the other. Right now, if I load up Unreal Tournament 2004, I get half of the game on one monitor and the other half on the other monitor.

[Audax321]

I went through the TwinView readme on nvidia's website and found out the solution. In case anyone else is wondering:

I had a metamode line as

Option "MetaModes" "CRT-0: 1024x768, CRT-1: 1024x768"

This basically means that both CRTs have to always be on. I changed this to:

Option "MetaModes" "CRT-0: 1024x768, CRT-1: 1024x768; CRT-0: NULL, CRT-1: 1024x768; CRT-0: 1024x768, CRT-1: NULL"

This allows one screen to go full screen and the other to just turn off or go into standby. That way fullscreen games remain on the monitor they were started. I tried playing some fullscreen movies in Kaffeine and they were unaffected by this so I can still watch movies on one monitor and browse the web on the other. (I'm using KDE btw.)

If you didn't specifiy the ConnectedMonitor option the lines above shouldn't have any reference to CRT-0 or CRT-1 or DFP-0 or DFP-1 or TV-0 or TV-1, etc... just list the resolutions with the proper commas/semicolons.

[blueworm]

How do you switch metamodes? IIRC is'nt it CNTL ALT plus/minus(on the numbers pad)
Is there any other way to switch metamode? my keyboard does not have numbers pad.

[Audax321]

hey blueworm,

LOL, I didn't even know you could change metamodes like that but thanks for the info. I tried looking for other keyboard combinations you could use for this but couldn't find anything.

What you could try though is if you are using KDE, go into Control Center > Regional and Accessibility > K Hot Keys.

There you might be able to set up an alternate key combination that will do the CNTRL+ALT+PLUS/MINUS for you without you doing that exact combination. I'm not so sure if that will work while you are playing games or doing something in full screen but it should work while you're just using your computer. Then the setting should stay set when you start the game.

BTW, I think you will have to type in the key combo for KDE to recognize it. Since you don't have plus/minus keys on your keyboard try to use an onscreen keyboard. I believe KDE Accessibility has one somewhere and use that to input the combination. You can then just bind that combination to CNTRL+ALT+G or CNTRL+ALT+H or something.

Good luck.

[boast]

Sorry for brining up an old thread, but the config's above worked for me.

The problem is my setup is : (left) CRT (right) main LCD

enemy-territory starts on my CRT and my LCD goes blank. Switching metamodes would work, but enemy-territory is still fullscreen on the CRT, and everything else switches to the CRT as the main screen.

Is there a way to set games to open on my LCD instead?

[JaXXoN]

Hi!

For full screen gaming, i recommend to start another X-Server
with a config file specific to your needs, i.e. using a script like this:

xauth add :1 . e35a4dd7ad107110869f6972fa832666
export __GL_FSAA_MODE=5
xinit /usr/bin/thegame -- :1 -xf86config xorg.conf-crt

xorg.conf-crt needs to be saved in /etc/X11

You can then switch between the game and the desktop
with CTRL+ALT+F7 and CTRL+ALT+F8.

regards

Bernhard