Use VGA AND DVI outputs??

[simon303]

Hi,
Whilst trying to work out how to set up dual monitor (no longer needed as the 2nd monitor did come to uni with me as my desk is too small) I am sure I stumbled upon something that meant I could use both the VGA and DVI output on my graphics card but connected to the VGA and DVI inputs on the same monitor. The name "crossheading" sounds familiar.
I was wondering if this is possible and what the advantages and disadvantages are of such a setup.
Thanks,
Simon

[simon303]

bump

[simon303]

bump,
it is beginning to get obvious that no one really know anything about this

[tuatha1337]

I'm confused as to what exactly you're asking. Are you saying using only 1 monitor but use both the VGA and the DVI to connect to both VGA/DVI ports on your graphics card? Or two computers to one monitor using 1 on vga and another on dvi? Or two monitors to one computer similarly?

[lazyart]

I guess it could be useful if you did this for separate X displays, but it's not likely that the video card will recognize both inputs are connected at the same time (the monitor might only "talk" on one at a time).

Pushing the input button on the monitor to switch displays would get old quickly.

[mcduck]

That is simply a question of wether your monitor supports switching between inputs or not.

From the computer's/operating system's point of view that's just a normal multi-display setup.

Compared to using the virtual desktops pretty much every Linux desktop environment gives you that kind of setup wouldn't really be useful, as you'd need to use the display's switch to change between desktops.

[simon303]

I have tried (succesfuly) connecting my one monitor to my computer using both output on my graphics card and both inputs on my monitor.
As far as the computer is concerned I have two identical monitors connected so I even managed to get xinerama working.
However as pointed out above it does get very annoying very quickly having to use the source button on my monitor to change to the other half of the display every time my mouse wonders over that way. As a result I am no longer using it like that and have gone back to the single output/input and just using it normally. It would be useful to find someway of getting the monitor to change source depending on where the mouse was, but it takes time to change source so I doubt it would be worth it even if it were possible.

[JoshuaRL]

That's what virtual displays are for. Using the monitor like you did just tries to do the same thing, but poorly as you've seen.

If you were running XP or some other OS that didn't have virtual desktops, I could see doing that. But even then it would get annoying quick.