Hello there,
I've been using a dual-screen setup for agres. I don't mean Twinview or such, I mean two separate X servers (screens) in parallel.

I've something like:

Code: Select all

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    Screen      1  "Screen1" RightOf "Screen0"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard" 
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"     
EndSection 

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "TwinView" "0"
    Option         "metamodes" "DFP: nvidia-auto-select"
    Option "UseDisplayDevice" "DFP"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    #Virtual        1280 1100
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen1"
    Device         "Device1"
    Monitor        "Monitor1"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "TwinView" "0"
    Option         "metamodes" "CRT: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection



in my xorg.conf. This works perfectly for KDE 3.5, but is not working in KDE 4 anymore. I sadly heard KDE 4 doesn't support this anymore (which _really_ sucks), but there is not even a workaround?

I don't care about a desktop environment on screen 1. Since I attached my TV there through CRT I just want an instance of X where I can start vlc or such. But all I get is a black screen (seeíng my mouse moving around). Ok, I can live with that, as soon as I find out how I'd start X11 programs there (there is no $DISPLAY for that thing?)

But the *real* strange thing is, that my plasma menu (or that thing, that the 3.5 kicker now oughts to be) disappears on screen 0 as soon as I start X with Screen1 enabled, the rest of the desktop seems ok. I guess kwin4 gets confused by the second screen. Is there a way to ignore this second screen for kwin?
If I add - for example - a "Virtual XXXXxYYYYY" section to my x.org-screen configuration which is bigger than my physical resolution it appears correctly (however using this full virtual screen size). Is there a way to workaround this?

Or even better: is there a solution for my problem with the second screen (e.g. start a second kwin instance, or any other X window manager)

I don't want to use Xinerama or such things, since I don't want one big desktop over two screens, as I said the second is for the TV only, and not even on the most time.

The Gentoo wiki has some instructions on how to run another WM on the second screen. Running two instances of KWin will not work.

It seems that KWin will run on both automatically in KDE 4.3 but that is purely by accident, nobody is maintaining dualhead mode so there is no guarantee it will continue to work. Plasma is what's causing the black screen, it too doesn't have dualhead support so you won't have a desktop unless you run another WM that provides one (OpenBox for example).

If you want to start an application on the second screen from the other you can just type "DISPLAY=:0.1 dolphin &" into a terminal or KRunner.

Well, then this accident in KDE 4.3 should probably considered as a feature.
But whats with my menu issue? If dualhead is not supported by plasma, why does it care whether or not a second screen does exist?

As you suggested, I can run a second window manager on screen 1, this is o.k. as workaround, but I don't think this will fix my problem on the other screen, where no menu appears, as soon as a second screen starts. Do you have any ideas there?

foo-bar wrote:Well, then this accident in KDE 4.3 should probably considered as a feature.
But whats with my menu issue? If dualhead is not supported by plasma, why does it care whether or not a second screen does exist?

As you suggested, I can run a second window manager on screen 1, this is o.k. as workaround, but I don't think this will fix my problem on the other screen, where no menu appears, as soon as a second screen starts. Do you have any ideas there?

I'm having the same issue.. I'm almost giving up on KDE. KDE 4 was the most disappointing thing since KDE 2. Maybe I should switch to gnome or other wm util a decent KDE (5?!) comes out.

KDE 3 was perfect, plasma sux and it just destroyed KDE. Good work!

:-@:-@:-@:-@:-@:-@:-@:-@

"All of KDE sucks because one feature doesn't work!" is hardly a fair consideration. If KDE 3 was perfect, then you go ahead and enjoy KDE 3.

Preliminary support for this kind of dual screen has been added to Plasma recently in KDE SVN, so it might appear in KDE 4.4.

I just run icewm on the second screen - I find having it start before kde works fine, and then you have KDE on one screen and icewm on the other. I have the kde screen rotated so that it is the size of a page. This cannot be done in twinview.

This allows you to have different backgrounds on each screen, which is nice and cannot be done with kde alone.

@einar: Thanks for the update.

@madman: Nice take on fungos position

@fungos: I, too, am pained to watch KDE go through such growth struggles. It's not easy watching something you truly care about make such progress and yet have so many regressions all at the same time. It's tough, I know; I have kids. But stay the course, my friend; KDE will arrive in it's due time. Until then, make use of the other window managers to achieve the results you need. And update KDE as often as you can; there's always something new coming along...