I have 2 graphics cards install ad nvidia 450 and a 210. I am running 3 monitors with 3 separate X screens.

My desktop effects wont work. I have tried changing the compositing type from OpenGL to Xrender but that totally crashes my system.

I have tried both of the available nvidia drivers from jockey-kde but they seem to work the same.

Has anyone got 3 monitors to work with desktop effects?

After experimenting I have found that if I turn off Xinerama all three screens load with desktop effects. However now I cant drag windows onto either of my other two screens.

I also tried adding a panel to one of the other screens to launch an app on that screen but it still seems to launch everything on my "main" screen.

If I can find a way to move windows to my other screens, this would be good enough from me to limp along.

I have found that when booting with 3 separate X screens, I am able to run an application on each X screen as long as it is not running in a different screen.

With this I am able to get the general setup I want, with desktop effects turned on, web browser on one, editor on the second, debugger on the third.

The main annoyance I have found is that I cant seem to open konsole on a different Xscreen, If I have it on my second monitor already, and I try to open it on my first or third, it will open on my second.

Firefox, and my debugger I can handle just having one instance, but there are situations where I like to have many konsole windows open on multiple screens.

Does anyone know how this might be possible without installing a different terminal?

Looks like my only option if I want to have terminal's on the other monitors is to use a different terminal emulator. With firefox you can hack around it and use a different profile for each X screen. Konsole does not have multi monitor support, Dolphin on the other hand does which is nice.

Using a different terminal emulator then the one I have configured and am used to is kind of lame, but it will suffice. The only thing that I haven't been able to figure out is the desktop pager. It only works on my primary X screen. When I try to add the pager widget to panels on the other X screens it doesn't apply. It could be that the multi desktop has the same limitation as Konsole where only one process is allowed to be run.

Also, in case anyone else has similar issues, I found that the best way to set up the panels on my other two monitors is to add the panel, add the application launcher, add the quick launch icons I want, and then add the task manager. If I do it in a different order the icons end up too small or I cant add them. If I need to add another quick launch icon I delete the panel and repeat the steps, this is tedious but its what worked for me.

rossg wrote:Looks like my only option if I want to have terminal's on the other monitors is to use a different terminal emulator. With firefox you can hack around it and use a different profile for each X screen. Konsole does not have multi monitor support, Dolphin on the other hand does which is nice.

Using a different terminal emulator then the one I have configured and am used to is kind of lame, but it will suffice. The only thing that I haven't been able to figure out is the desktop pager. It only works on my primary X screen. When I try to add the pager widget to panels on the other X screens it doesn't apply. It could be that the multi desktop has the same limitation as Konsole where only one process is allowed to be run.

Also, in case anyone else has similar issues, I found that the best way to set up the panels on my other two monitors is to add the panel, add the application launcher, add the quick launch icons I want, and then add the task manager. If I do it in a different order the icons end up too small or I cant add them. If I need to add another quick launch icon I delete the panel and repeat the steps, this is tedious but its what worked for me.

I am also, at least till recently a 3 monitor user, the best setup with effects that I was able to accomplish was the first 2 in twinview and the 3 a separate X, now I have to mention that the third X failed or was un-usable in every OS but Debian. Mint failed Ubuntu Failed etc. The apps would not have a window manager or you couldn't type into them, always something. Debian however stayed completely stable. Now this is KDE or Gnome on Debian 6.02 and 6.03, I have nvidia 9800 GT and upgraded to the latest proprietary from nvidia 285.05.09. I just lost a video slot and now am down to 2 monitors ;( but I liked this set up just fine I could open stuff in the separate X and interact with it, I just couldn't drag between them.

Hope this helps

--jerry

I am using Ubuntu 11.10 with kubuntu-desktop installed with kde 4.7.2

I tried twinview with 2 monitors + 1 separate x screen. It worked decent, but it had some problems. Particularly, the panel on the bottom stretched across both screens and windows opened "between" the two monitors.

I have learned to work pretty well with 3 x screens, I just wish I could find a way to get the desktop pager to work on more than one of them.

Yes the windows in the middle can be a drag but I actually like the full desktop because I like to open apps across both screens, as far as the pager I don't have a problem with that in Debian, this goes to that 2nd X stability that I was talking about, I can set the effects independently in each X with compiz, different workspaces , amount etc. Right now because I lost my 3rd monitor I actually have a post up here because I would like to turn off KDE Multi-monitor support and just use Twinview, it wasn't enabled when I had the 3 monitors, now I can't turn it off. I want just the one panel so if you know how to do that I would be appreciative. I know you are already set with Ubuntu and I don't know what Video cards you use but once I loaded the latest NVidia the graphics where just as good. Frankly I like the stability and compiz puts a strain on that ( but I gotta have it). I hope you find out what you need.

--jerry