Talk:Multihead

Outdated info?

Multihead#Full_screen_games says Just as you can switch between text consoles with Alt+Ctrl+F1 and back to X with Alt+Ctrl+F7, the new display will sit on Alt+Ctrl+F8. Is this still true? Is it true only for some setups? Can somebody please update it? -- Karol (talk) 04:27, 11 January 2014 (UTC)

No surprise, its parent section is marked as out of date...

Now seriously, it's certainly very specific to the setup - on my system the main X session starts on tty1, so tty7 is free. Plus this can be configured by the vtXX argument passed to Xorg.

-- Lahwaacz (talk) 14:39, 31 January 2014 (UTC)

Anyone have more information on separate screens?

If you do, please expand that section.

I have one card (ATI 720, using the xorg server) with multiple outputs -

DisplayPort-0 HDMI-0 DVI-0 DVI-1

is it even possible to have multiple xorg screens in this situation, and if so, how? I'm not finding it yet.

I run several virtualboxes and using "full screen" or "seamless" is just completely unwieldy, especially as the monitors are different sizes / resolutions. The virtualbox guest system seems to flip between the resolution of either monitor. Distracting to say the least.

I got one of the monitors to use in portrait mode to read documents in; the 2nd monitor's for normal landscape mode use.

Sanjeev K Sharma (talk) 00:10, 13 May 2017 (UTC)

arandr is easier and quicker than xrandr

been using .profile to load it for years. it reliably runs at login time and fixes my screen setup.

if there is a better option, name it. until then this works, and should remain.

—This unsigned comment is by Klevn (talk) 13:27, 23 February 2019‎. Please sign your posts with ~~~~!

~/.profile is not loaded e.g. if ~/.bash_profile exists, see Bash#Configuration files. Moreover, running graphical things from it does not make sense when users log into the console. See Autostarting for alternatives. -- Lahwaacz (talk) 13:36, 23 February 2019 (UTC)

Not true. I have .bash_profile and it is not as reliable as .profile for loading every time I log in.

If you don't use X windows that is true, but then what are you using multiple monitors for?

and considering this is literally a tool for xwindows we can assume they will in fact be executing .profile and not .bash_profile until they open a terminal window explicitly. -- Klevn (talk) 13:57, 23 February 2019 (UTC)

Obviously if you do source ~/.profile somewhere on your system, then it will be loaded, but that is not the case for everybody. And using the console from time to time may be necessary even on a system with multiple monitors (or all monitors may not be there all the time). -- Lahwaacz (talk) 14:04, 23 February 2019 (UTC)

I did not explicity add source ~/.profile anywhere, on any machine.

I use lxdm, lxde, openbox .. used the same setup on ubuntu machines, and crunchbang. what you say i haven't seen in practice. and your alternative of

using ~/.bash_profile ONLY works if you don't use lxdm or other graphical login manager.

The only time not to use .profile is another method is used like xorg.conf. Some window managers have their own methods (I have not gone to deeply into it) but cinnanom uses alterative that crashes if used. Mint has its own (works very well!).Klevn (talk) 16:12, 23 February 2019 (UTC)

Simple is Missing

Two different resolution screens over and under (e.g. 1920x1080 and 1920x1200 for one 1920x2280 desktop, or 2560x1440 and 2560x1080 for one 2560x2520 desktop), on one card with two outputs, would clarify some things obfuscated by virtually every example on the web using side-by-side and/or NVidia's proprietary options and/or combining multiple cards with multiple outputs. ServerLayout has been deemed mandatory for certain options to work with multiple displays, such as DisplaySize, which is the only way to configure DPI when not using an NVidia proprietary driver.Mrmazda (talk) 23:24, 8 May 2019 (UTC)

Draft: minimal multihead configuration

Stuff to be corrected or clarified goes in comments. Could possibly be merged with the original multihead setup sections. None of those worked for me, you absolutely need to have a ServerLayout and Screen section in your config or Xorg will not do anything as far as I can see.

It also handles HiDPI but this single option shouldnt be relevant.

Example: minimal dualhead configuration with HiDPI

/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-monitor.conf

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier "Main Layout"
    Screen     0 "HDMI-A-0"
    Screen     1 "HDMI-A-1" LeftOf "HDMI-A-0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
  Identifier "HDMI-A-0"
  Monitor    "HDMI-A-0"
  SubSection "Display"
      Modes  "3840x2160_120"
  EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
  Identifier "HDMI-A-1"
  Monitor    "HDMI-A-1"
  SubSection "Display"
      Modes  "3840x2160_120"
  EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier        "HDMI-A-0"
    Option            "Primary" "true" # does this matter if this monitor is Screen 0?
    Option            "Enable" "true" # need to test out if this is really required or not
    Modeline          "3840x2160_120"  1188.00  3840 4016 4104 4400  2160 2168 2178 2250 +hsync +vsync
    Option            "PreferredMode" "3840x2160_120" # does this matter if Modes in the Display section above is set?
    DisplaySize       597 336    # In millimeters
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
    Identifier        "HDMI-A-1"
    Option            "Enable" "true"
    Modeline          "3840x2160_120"  1188.00  3840 4016 4104 4400  2160 2168 2178 2250 +hsync +vsync
    Option            "PreferredMode" "3840x2160_120"
    DisplaySize       597 336    # In millimeters
    Option            "LeftOf" "HDMI-A-0" # does this actually matter? i feel like only the ServerLayout matters and this option is ignored.
EndSection

NetSysFire (talk) 17:27, 23 July 2026 (UTC)