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View Full Version : Dual Monitors ROCK!!



ClientAlive
July 16th, 2011, 08:16 PM
Just wanted to share my excitement. I've never used a dual monitor setup before about 10 min ago and this is really really cool. I have my browser open on one screen and virtaul box open on the other. I can research my stuff about compiling a kernel in the browser on the one screen and run the terminal in vbox on the other for when I need to try something or find something out. I love it! It acts weird about a couple things but I'm sure I'll get that sorted out.

Anyhoo . . . Back to enjoying my new setup I guess. Thanks for reading and for sharing in my excitement. Have a great weekend guys.

NightwishFan
July 16th, 2011, 08:21 PM
Other than fullscreen games acting weird dual monitors do rock. :)

wolfen69
July 16th, 2011, 08:58 PM
Yay.

Phrea
July 16th, 2011, 09:22 PM
I've been rocking dual screens for at least 10 years. Another one in our midst !

Dustin2128
July 16th, 2011, 09:53 PM
I've been doing dual monitors for the past year, it's amazing the difference when swapping back. After having worked on my dual monitor desktop for a few hours, going single monitor for a game feels limiting.

Kromgol
July 16th, 2011, 10:07 PM
Aye.. Planning on getting a third monitor when i get my salary, but as my second monitor is currently at another resolution i might have to get two to have it working correctly lol

Dustin2128
July 16th, 2011, 10:14 PM
I would go tri-monitor, but I've only got a graphics card capable of 2 independent outputs. That, and the monitor that would be my third monitor is a CRT, so it'd be tricky to balance on my small desk. It used to be my secondary monitor, but I got a new LCD widescreen so I was able to relegate that one to diagnostic output.

Bandit
July 16th, 2011, 11:17 PM
Other than fullscreen games acting weird dual monitors do rock. :)

Indeed. If I had more room in this appartment I would have multiple displays set up again.

UltraNEO*
July 16th, 2011, 11:28 PM
Other than fullscreen games acting weird dual monitors do rock. :)

You should try triple displays... :P

http://img.skitch.com/20110717-fucq7ingbwcu2i4sdsaysfgaek.png

SavageWolf
July 16th, 2011, 11:34 PM
I tried dual screen once (though they were different sizes and not next to each other...) and I didn't like it much... I'm not sure if this still happens, but the fact that it functioned as a giant screen rather than different workstations really annoyed me... Though that's just me...

1clue
July 16th, 2011, 11:36 PM
Welcome to the club.

Seriously, with the big push for 1080p TV in the last few years, monitors of that resolution have really plummeted in price. You can get a really good monitor for really cheap, in fact my old LCD panel that cost over $1000USD back when I bought it was junk compared to the LED panel I'm using now, and the LED panel was under $200. The kid looked a bit cross-eyed when I told him I wanted 2 of them.

The only computer I use which does not have 2 monitors is my phone.

I find it especially helpful at some points if I turn one of them on its side and go "portrait" for long complicated code blocks. I rigged up a stand for one of them to handle the rotation, but you gotta select which orientation by hand.

I would love to go 3 monitors, but right now it's just not in the cards. 3 vertically-oriented 1080p monitors would kick butt, and I can seriously make a case for it considering my job.

Dustin2128
July 17th, 2011, 12:59 AM
I personally dislike the push for 1080p- not that I don't enjoy HD, but it's becoming quite difficult to find monitors with resolutions above 1920x1080, and there seems to be little to no push for higher.

UltraNEO*
July 17th, 2011, 01:40 AM
I never got the idea behind the concept.
Why making computer displays 16:9 instead of the older, more friendly 16:10 ratios??

Bandit
July 17th, 2011, 03:22 AM
I personally dislike the push for 1080p- not that I don't enjoy HD, but it's becoming quite difficult to find monitors with resolutions above 1920x1080, and there seems to be little to no push for higher.

I agree with you on this. 1920x1080 is great and all for HD movies, but we do more then just watch movies on our system..:frown:

vehemoth
July 17th, 2011, 03:24 AM
Yeah games really do suck with dual monitors, it's probably possible to make a shortcut on the desktop to quickly change things back. Some of the old crts had a higher horizontal resolution then these 16:9 monitors that they have now. I find that dual monitors aren't quite as necessary with workspaces but they are still great. Anyway welcome to the club :)

Bandit
July 17th, 2011, 03:30 AM
Yeah games really do suck with dual monitors, it's probably possible to make a shortcut on the desktop to quickly change things back. Some of the old crts had a higher horizontal resolution then these 16:9 monitors that they have now. I find that dual monitors aren't quite as necessary with workspaces but they are still great. Anyway welcome to the club :)

Dual monitors and games are not great, tri monitors are awesome with games made for them. Being able to look both left and right to the side without changing in game camera view realy helps in MMOs and First Person Shooters.

I have noticed that even with Win7, it has horrible multi monitor support. But Linux on the other hand works very very well.

Dragonbite
July 17th, 2011, 03:38 AM
At work I have dual monitors (effectively, one is the laptop's screen). I also use a remote session to my development machine so it is great to have one monitor dedicated to that machine, and one to my machine.

Bandit
July 17th, 2011, 03:40 AM
At work I have dual monitors (effectively, one is the laptop's screen). I also use a remote session to my development machine so it is great to have one monitor dedicated to that machine, and one to my machine.

Its nice to see you still around here. :) Not as many old faces around anymore.

Dustin2128
July 17th, 2011, 04:21 AM
Yeah games really do suck with dual monitors, it's probably possible to make a shortcut on the desktop to quickly change things back. Some of the old crts had a higher horizontal resolution then these 16:9 monitors that they have now. I find that dual monitors aren't quite as necessary with workspaces but they are still great. Anyway welcome to the club :)
Yup, got an old crt that can do 2560 horizontal. 16:10 is personally my favorite aspect ratio, 4:3 being second.

GSF1200S
July 17th, 2011, 05:16 AM
I tried dual screen once (though they were different sizes and not next to each other...) and I didn't like it much... I'm not sure if this still happens, but the fact that it functioned as a giant screen rather than different workstations really annoyed me... Though that's just me...

Thats because it was setup as Xinerama or Twinview; Separate X performs as two separate workstations.

Most people love the ability to drag windows between each screen, but while its cool I guess, I have my dual screen setup where I do specific tasks on each screen. Unfortunately, most desktop environments and even window managers suck at this. XFCE is the only solution that works, but luckily its awesome and is my favorite for other reasons..

Welcome aboard to the OP- the only crappy thing is that from now on, any time you get on a single monitor desktop, it will feel almost claustrophobic... you are corrupted for life ;)

Ctrl-Alt-F1
July 17th, 2011, 07:23 AM
I have two huge dell monitors at work. It's almost physically painful at home on my single small monitor. :(

mips
July 17th, 2011, 08:41 AM
I personally dislike the push for 1080p- not that I don't enjoy HD, but it's becoming quite difficult to find monitors with resolutions above 1920x1080, and there seems to be little to no push for higher.

+1 I prefer the 16:10 aspect ratio monitors.

There are still a few of them around just got to search, think Philips recently brought out a new model as well.

Dustin2128
July 17th, 2011, 09:45 AM
+1 I prefer the 16:10 aspect ratio monitors.

There are still a few of them around just got to search, think Philips recently brought out a new model as well.
I've still got a few 16:10s- mostly 1680x1050 though. Do have one 2560x1600, but it's painful to use at 20" :P

mips
July 17th, 2011, 10:16 AM
I've still got a few 16:10s- mostly 1680x1050 though.

I've got a 1680x1050 16:10 22" next to my 16:9 23" HD. The 16:10 aspect ratio is just so much more pleasing on the eye

Kromgol
July 17th, 2011, 11:50 AM
Thats because it was setup as Xinerama or Twinview; Separate X performs as two separate workstations.

Most people love the ability to drag windows between each screen, but while its cool I guess, I have my dual screen setup where I do specific tasks on each screen. Unfortunately, most desktop environments and even window managers suck at this. XFCE is the only solution that works, but luckily its awesome and is my favorite for other reasons..

Welcome aboard to the OP- the only crappy thing is that from now on, any time you get on a single monitor desktop, it will feel almost claustrophobic... you are corrupted for life ;)

I got TwinView enabled, but i still do have two separate workspaces. Maximized windows doesn't expand over both screens. I recall i had some problems with setting this up, but i eventually solved it somehow.

ClientAlive
July 17th, 2011, 03:47 PM
Thanks for the warm welcome guys. Yeah, I think I am hooked for life with this one. Just seems to make work so much easier. No more clicking back and forth to different windows (well not as much anyhow). Love it!


@UltraNEO*

Nice setup!

:D

1clue
July 17th, 2011, 04:26 PM
Thats because it was setup as Xinerama or Twinview; Separate X performs as two separate workstations.

Most people love the ability to drag windows between each screen, but while its cool I guess, I have my dual screen setup where I do specific tasks on each screen. Unfortunately, most desktop environments and even window managers suck at this. XFCE is the only solution that works, but luckily its awesome and is my favorite for other reasons..

Welcome aboard to the OP- the only crappy thing is that from now on, any time you get on a single monitor desktop, it will feel almost claustrophobic... you are corrupted for life ;)

I would think that FVWM might do pretty well with that sort of thing too. Back in the day (when FVWM2 was one of the newer WMs) I had it set up to do all sorts of things, placing the windows where I wanted them to the pixel. I haven't tried that wm for years, but recently saw a pretty spiffy configuration for it which made me start planning....

1clue
July 17th, 2011, 05:00 PM
I have two huge dell monitors at work. It's almost physically painful at home on my single small monitor. :(

Dude. Go shopping. It's not very expensive to get dual high resolution monitors going.

UltraNEO*
July 17th, 2011, 06:28 PM
Thats because it was setup as Xinerama or Twinview; Separate X performs as two separate workstations.

Most people love the ability to drag windows between each screen, but while its cool I guess, I have my dual screen setup where I do specific tasks on each screen. Unfortunately, most desktop environments and even window managers suck at this. XFCE is the only solution that works, but luckily its awesome and is my favorite for other reasons..

Welcome aboard to the OP- the only crappy thing is that from now on, any time you get on a single monitor desktop, it will feel almost claustrophobic... you are corrupted for life :wink:

Yep that's totally true!!!


I have two huge dell monitors at work. It's almost physically painful at home on my single small monitor. :(

Aww... I feel for you man... I bet you'll love my home setup!!

UltraNEO*
July 17th, 2011, 07:12 PM
Thanks for the warm welcome guys. Yeah, I think I am hooked for life with this one. Just seems to make work so much easier. No more clicking back and forth to different windows (well not as much anyhow). Love it!


@UltraNEO*

Nice setup!

:D

Thank dude.. That image has been cropped, worried I might recieve unwanted back lashes from the community because that's my home system. I felt for some reason if I show the entire system folks here will hate me cause I'm the noob on the site and all...

http://img.skitch.com/20110717-gk3x3442r8542xa8sjdm4m6fum.jpg
http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/207368_10150552346120524_834830523_18195381_704092 5_n.jpg

My awesome baby, basically comprised of three 30" panels (2560x1600 each) each of my panels does a slightly different task, they're all connected via two video cards with dual-link to a single MacPro powered by dual quad-core 3.2Ghz Xeon 5400 processors (OK, I understand it's not everyone's platform of choice but it's mine). There's a total of 24Gb ECC RAM, 256Gb Vortex2 SSD for MacOSX plus an additional 8Tb RAID6 scratch disk for work and temp storage. Essentially, this system allows me to render at 1080P @60fps in near real-time.

Dustin2128
July 17th, 2011, 11:58 PM
Sweet! Quad monitor setup here now! After I got the old pentium II working, I went ahead and put up the old CRT monitor permanently. Also recently swapped my old CRT TV for a flat screen monitor, which I'll hook up to my server for easier troubleshooting than a monitorless. Only two of them are in twinview, but the effect is impressive nonetheless. Much more so than my cramped dual-tower tri-monitor setup of the other month. Post a pic when I've got it all configured. Looks very very makeshift, but what are you going to do?

DoktorSeven
July 18th, 2011, 12:17 AM
Never cared for multimonitor. Tried it once and felt like it was just an excuse not to use already existing window management (overlapping or tiled windows) and multiple workspaces. Also love 16:9 because it gives me the space on a single monitor to do the above. Maximizing your browser or whatever with such a wide screen and just alt-tabbing between everything is a waste.

dh04000
July 18th, 2011, 02:50 AM
How is Compiz/Unity, KDE, and Gnome 3's support for multiple monitor setups?

Dustin2128
July 18th, 2011, 03:03 AM
I personally rather dislike GNOME 3's implementation of multi-monitor support. It basically ignores your second monitor, workspace-wise, and makes it tiresome to manage. KDE and almost every other WM/DE I've used is better.

ilovelinux33467
July 18th, 2011, 03:14 AM
I love my dual monitors on my desktop. KDE is working extremely well with it.

UltraNEO*
July 18th, 2011, 03:27 AM
Never cared for multimonitor. Tried it once and felt like it was just an excuse not to use already existing window management (overlapping or tiled windows) and multiple workspaces. Also love 16:9 because it gives me the space on a single monitor to do the above. Maximizing your browser or whatever with such a wide screen and just alt-tabbing between everything is a waste.

Weird guy.. You really think 16:9 has more space than a 16:10?
I think you've got that backwards.... For example, if you compare two 30" displays one being 16:9 and the other 16:10, you'll find the 16:10 actually has loads more pixels/space.

How does this work? Well...

30" 16:9 has 2560 x 1440 = 3,686,400px
30" 16:10 has 2560 x 1600 = 4,096.000px

4,096.000 - 3,686,400 = 409,600

Therefore, choosing a 16:9 panel over a 16:10 display means you'll have 409,600 LESS pixels.
So again, explain to me how is it by having less pixels equates to a bigger display?

1clue
July 18th, 2011, 03:48 AM
...
30" 16:9 has 2560 x 1440 = 3,686,400px
30" 16:10 has 2560 x 1600 = 4,096.000px

4,096.000 - 3,686,400 = 409,600

Therefore, choosing a 16:9 panel over a 16:10 display means you'll have 409,600 LESS pixels.
So again, explain to me how is it by having less pixels equates to a bigger display?

Come on guys! You're counting pixels? Seriously?

Different jobs need different tools, and different tools organize best in different spaces.

If I gave you a monitor with ten million pixels, organized a million by ten, would that automatically make a better monitor?

GSF1200S
July 18th, 2011, 07:23 AM
How is Compiz/Unity, KDE, and Gnome 3's support for multiple monitor setups?

**EDIT** Separate X- Compiz works perfect, XFCE works perfect, Fluxbox works (no systray second screen), Openbox (same as Flux), KDE 4 has issues with launching on the correct screen and other bugs (do a google search- many users have complained, but KDE doesnt have the developer with the setup to implement the features.) Gnome 3 (from what ive heard, i have not confirmed as I am not a Gnome fan) crashes on this setup.

Xinerama- Compiz doesnt work (no 3d rendering with xinerama), KDE, Gnome 3, XFCE, *boxes work. As far as I know, none support systray on second screen except XFCE (Which actually prolly just treats it as one systray applet and splits the programs to 2 portions of it).

Twinview- All works fine, except launching on KDE4 still launches on screen one. Not sure about Gnome 3.

Xrandr- I have no idea- have an Nvidia card myself..

Dustin2128
July 18th, 2011, 07:25 AM
Gnome 3 crashes from what ive heard (please check), KDE's plasma supports separate X but kwin and other components do not, and Compiz works perfect.

This is with Dual-Head Separate X session- twinview and xinerama supposedly work fine..

See my post- gnome 3 doesn't crash, but the way it implements multi-monitor support sucks.

GSF1200S
July 18th, 2011, 08:06 AM
See my post- gnome 3 doesn't crash, but the way it implements multi-monitor support sucks.

Sorry, changed my post to make myself more clear in terms of which setup I was referring to. Do you mean Gnome 3 doesnt crash on a Dual Head Separate X configuration?

I dont mean to give Gnome bad press; I said "figures" when I heard that, as XFCE is the only rig that seems to truly support the only actually supported dual head arrangement universal in Linux. Twinview works for most, but thats Nvidia only and ONLY WORKS if you have dual outputs out of 1 card- someone like me with a screen on each video card cant even use Twinview.

Dragonbite
July 18th, 2011, 01:48 PM
How is Compiz/Unity, KDE, and Gnome 3's support for multiple monitor setups?

Are laptop and desktop setups very different is support? I have used KDE with an external monitor for a while without too much issue.

I can't vouch for Ubuntu since 10.04's Intel issue but Fedora has kept giving me multi-monitor support without any problems. Only issue I don't like is it doesn't always remember the settings between dual-laptop-dual monitors setup.

ClientAlive
July 19th, 2011, 03:36 PM
Are laptop and desktop setups very different is support? I have used KDE with an external monitor for a while without too much issue.

I can't vouch for Ubuntu since 10.04's Intel issue but Fedora has kept giving me multi-monitor support without any problems. Only issue I don't like is it doesn't always remember the settings between dual-laptop-dual monitors setup.


The thing I did was on my laptop. It has a vga (bus? port) on the side and I just plugged in a monitor to it. I was surprised it was so easy. Didn't realize there was so much more you can configure though. :D

1clue
July 19th, 2011, 03:44 PM
It's all the same software. I've had varying degrees of success with dual monitors over the years. When I started I had to fight it every step of the way, but with 10.04+ Ubuntu, I just plug it in and it works. I think the most I ever had to do was use the proprietary driver but that's not even necessary anymore.

Hugh971
July 19th, 2011, 09:26 PM
I couldn't live without dual monitors. Got a 24" 1920 by 1080 and an old 17" 1280 by 1024.

I want to replace the 17" at some point though as it's wearing out so is a bit blury. The image on it looks awful compared to my 24".

Dustin2128
July 19th, 2011, 11:40 PM
Sorry, changed my post to make myself more clear in terms of which setup I was referring to. Do you mean Gnome 3 doesnt crash on a Dual Head Separate X configuration?

Sorry, have not tried that- seperate x has never worked for me period, so I use twinview. nVidia here, too. Can't try it anymore though, I've removed gnome from my system.

ThomasAdam
August 16th, 2011, 12:13 AM
I would think that FVWM might do pretty well with that sort of thing too. Back in the day (when FVWM2 was one of the newer WMs) I had it set up to do all sorts of things, placing the windows where I wanted them to the pixel. I haven't tried that wm for years, but recently saw a pretty spiffy configuration for it which made me start planning....

It hasn't changed.

-- Thomas Adam

coolbrook
August 17th, 2011, 04:25 AM
One of my monitors is a back up TV. I prefer 16:9. 16:10 distorts the image from my cable box. I'm accustomed to using my laptop so much that I don't need a second monitor for my destkop (at the moment.)

Thewhistlingwind
August 17th, 2011, 04:30 AM
I just use a wide-screen TV. Solves issues like "only having one monitor port."

Introduces new ones like "The interfaces don't output right at that resolution.

Kromgol
August 17th, 2011, 11:56 AM
Got my new computer setup and three 21.5" monitors some weeks ago, it's cool, but not as awesome as UltraNEO*s setup :P

schievelbein
September 19th, 2011, 03:35 AM
UltraNEO*, your system really interests me.
Forgive my misuse of some of these terms, but what interface are you using, Unity, Gnome XFCE or what?
What version of Ubuntu are you using, and I am assuming 64bit?
What are those video cards you are using?
Is your desktop continuous or is it separate Xwindows sessions?
Would you be willing to share your xorg.conf?

I bow down to your computer:

Here is my little desktop
Gigabyte X58A-UD5 w/985EE @4GHZ w/24GB RAM
240GB SSD bootdrive
Raid0 600GB VelocaRaptors for working data
Raid5 (4*2TB) = 6TB data drive
Dual GTX460 video cards
Dell 30" + dual Viewsonic 24" monitors = (4720x1600/1920) screen area.

IWantFroyo
September 19th, 2011, 03:43 AM
*sigh* The only thing worse than widescreens. Multiple screens.

Just kidding. I don't like widescreens, but since each monitor acts pretty much independently, it would be pretty cool to do it with square monitors. Editing two documents at once, hehe.

I'll dig out the second square monitor I have and set that one up next weekend. :)

By the way, do you need two VGA ports for this? Or is it some kind of special cable?

ClientAlive
September 19th, 2011, 05:47 AM
*sigh* The only thing worse than widescreens. Multiple screens.

Just kidding. I don't like widescreens, but since each monitor acts pretty much independently, it would be pretty cool to do it with square monitors. Editing two documents at once, hehe.

I'll dig out the second square monitor I have and set that one up next weekend. :)

By the way, do you need two VGA ports for this? Or is it some kind of special cable?


I don't know a whole lot about it but yeah, I think you do need two ports to plug into. My desktop has an on board vga port and I've been wondering lately if I can just plug a graphics card in and use one port from the graphics card and the one that's on board.

When I did do it that one time I plugged a monitor into the vga port on my laptop. I then had the extra monitor plus the regular laptop screen going. Aside from that it's just software. Ubuntu has it already (well 10.04 and above does that I know for sure). In classic gnome it's: System > Preferences > Monitors.

mips
September 19th, 2011, 09:01 AM
*sigh* The only thing worse than widescreens. Multiple screens.

Just kidding. I don't like widescreens, but since each monitor acts pretty much independently, it would be pretty cool to do it with square monitors. Editing two documents at once, hehe.


Screens with a 16:10 aspect ratio are pretty cool though, much easier to work with than 16:9. Only problem is they are not as common as 16:9 screens.

cprofitt
September 19th, 2011, 05:03 PM
I gave up dual monitors about two years ago... I only really ever found them useful for programming... but using multiple desktops in Linux made up for the loss of multiple monitors.

fatality_uk
September 19th, 2011, 05:30 PM
They would have to prise my 3rd and 4th monitor from my dead, lifeless hand :D

NightwishFan
September 19th, 2011, 05:56 PM
I find only a second one useful, usually to watch a video and chat at the same time.