Separate X sessions on dual screens for KDE4

RE: Separate X sessions on dual screens for KDE4

Tue Feb 03, 2009 5:46 am

I have a somewhat related problem. If anyone can shed some light on this, I'd appreciate it. In what follows, I'll try to keep things as distro-agnostic as possible. Should it be important, I run an up-to-date Arch system with vanilla kde packages.

My xorg.conf is as follows (I've excluded the Files section):

Code: Select all

Section "ServerLayout"                 
        Identifier      "My Server Layout"
        Screen  0       "My Screen"     0       0
EndSection                                       

Section "Module"
        Load            "ddc"
        Load            "dbe"
        Load            "extmod"
        Load            "glx"   
        Load            "bitmap"
        Load            "freetype"
EndSection                       

Section "ServerFlags"
        Option          "AllowMouseOpenFail"            "true"
        Option          "Xinerama"                      "false"
EndSection                                                     

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier      "My Monitor"
        VendorName      "Acer"     
        ModelName       "Acer P223WA"
        HorizSync       31.0 - 84.0 
        VertRefresh     56.0 - 77.0 
        Option          "DPMS"                          "true"
EndSection

Section "Device"
        Identifier      "My Video Card"
        Driver          "nvidia"
        VendorName      "NVIDIA Corporation"
        BoardName       "GeForce 9800 GT"
        Option          "Logo"                          "false"
        Option          "DPI"                           "72 x 72"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier      "My Screen"
        Device          "My Video Card"
        Monitor         "My Monitor"
        DefaultDepth    24
        Option          "TwinView"                      "true"
        Option          "metamodes"                     "DFP-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+0, DFP-1: nvidia-auto-select +1680+0"
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth       24
        EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
        Option          "Composite"                     "Enable"
EndSection


As you can see, the setup is a dual monitor with auto-detected resolution on both monitors and things work great. However, DFP-1 is my projector. I'd love to set up two metamodes - one with only DFP-0 active and the second with the projector active. This is because although the projector is connected and on standby at all times, I only turn it on when I watch movies. I want to use krandrtray to switch between the two modes. For reference, the only change I need to make is to change the metamodes line from this:

Code: Select all

Option          "metamodes"                     "DFP-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+0, DFP-1: nvidia-auto-select +1680+0"

to this:

Code: Select all

Option          "metamodes"                     "DFP-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+0, DFP-1: NULL; DFP-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+0, DFP-1: nvidia-auto-select +1680+0"

However two things break if I make this simple change and I'd like to know if it's a KDE 4.2 thing.

1) At login, on the KDE login screen, I get a panning display on DFP-0 which is as wide as the two screen put together. DFP-1 stays disabled. The panning screen disappears when I login (I get a properly sized screen only on DFP-0).

2) When I switch to the second metamode, the second screen becomes active (as it should), but stays black. I can drag a window to it, but when I maximize it, it maximizes on the first screen. This completely defeats the purpose of activating the second mode (to fullscreen a movie on the projector screen). ( As an aside, I can't right click on the second screen to set a wallpaper there as well. Should I add an activity for this?)

Does anyone else have similar issues with dual-head setups? Will this be fixed in KDE 4.3 (if it's a 4.2 issue) or is it nvidia's fault and I should basically wait for the latest drivers from them?

If you need more info, I'll gladly help.

Thanks

[bcooksley]

RE: Separate X sessions on dual screens for KDE4

Tue Feb 03, 2009 9:00 am

The meta modes could be confusing the problem. If the NVidia drivers have XRandR 1.2 support, then it is a KDE bug ( please report ) otherwise you will need to wait for NVidia to implement XRandR version 1.2.

RE: Separate X sessions on dual screens for KDE4

Sun Apr 26, 2009 3:23 pm

Are there any news on fixing the support for multiple X sessions on kde4?

[Zarin]

RE: Separate X sessions on dual screens for KDE4

Mon Apr 27, 2009 2:52 am

No developer; no fix.

Last edited by Zarin on Mon Apr 27, 2009 2:52 am, edited 1 time in total.

RE: Separate X sessions on dual screens for KDE4

Mon May 11, 2009 11:36 am

I understand the fact that KDE4 not implement le dual desktop at this time, but is it possible to start in the second screen an other window manager (like xfce) on the second X session ?
If yes, how ?

[Zarin]

RE: Separate X sessions on dual screens for KDE4

Mon May 11, 2009 12:05 pm

http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/X.Org/Du ... in_KDE_4.2

RE: Separate X sessions on dual screens for KDE4

Mon May 11, 2009 5:06 pm

It's exactly what I need ! and it's work !

thanks thanks thanks !!!!!

RE: Separate X sessions on dual screens for KDE4

Tue May 12, 2009 5:49 pm

I know it's really the good place to talk about this problem but I try.... when I start the icewm manager in my second screen (KDE 4.2 on the first screen) the font of application launch in icewm are really little, unreadable...
If icewm is launch as primary wm all is Ok... it's only when I use kde4 + icewm ....
Have you any idea about this ?

RE: Separate X sessions on dual screens for KDE4

Wed May 13, 2009 11:36 am

You're talking about "separate x screens"?

[Zarin]

RE: Separate X sessions on dual screens for KDE4

Wed May 13, 2009 11:49 am

You're talking about "separate x screens"?

Yes, this is multi-monitor by using multiple X "screens".

Last edited by Zarin on Wed May 13, 2009 11:50 am, edited 1 time in total.

RE: Separate X sessions on dual screens for KDE4

Wed May 13, 2009 12:10 pm

sorry and thank you, I replied the wrong thread.....

RE: Separate X sessions on dual screens for KDE4

Wed Jun 10, 2009 1:13 pm

http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/X.Org/Du ... in_KDE_4.2

This is exactly what I am looking for!

Now the only problem is that I have 1680x1050 LCD as my main display and 1920x1080 TV as the secondary display. Now the plasma on my main display somehow thinks that the display is 1920x1080 (see pic: http://kuvaton.com/k/hwt.png ) and puts the main panel "under" the display. Any ideas?

[bcooksley]

RE: Separate X sessions on dual screens for KDE4

Wed Jun 10, 2009 9:20 pm

That is probably a bug. Can you reproduce on Trunk?

RE: Separate X sessions on dual screens for KDE4

Fri Jun 12, 2009 1:44 pm

I updated my test environment to kde 4.3 beta2 (http://www.kubuntu.org/news/kde-4.2.90) and the behaviour is the same.

I have nvidia as the the display driver (and using nvidia-settings to set up the displays).

[bcooksley]

RE: Separate X sessions on dual screens for KDE4

Fri Jun 12, 2009 11:12 pm

There have been no changes as far as I am aware with regards to Multi Head at this time. Only Xinerama, MergedFB, et. al are supported currently since other modes are unmaintained.