temporary dual monitor setup

pkaplan1 at comcast.net pkaplan1 at comcast.net
Thu Aug 24 01:13:22 UTC 2006


 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Greg Madden <gomadtroll at gci.net>
> On Wed, 23 Aug 2006 13:20:03 +0200
> Marco <marco.mandl at gmx.at> wrote:
> 
> > Hello,
> > 
> > I have a large external flat panel for my laptop. I use a dual screen
> > setup with Xinerama in my xorg.conf. That works fine but I want two
> > improvements.
> > 
> > Can I assign KDE virtual desktops to the screens? That way I could
> > switch desktops on the large screen and have the small screen
> > permanent to monitor something or watch TV or whatever.
> > 
> > How can I assign key shortcuts to switch to another display setup? If
> > I am on the road I need to switch the setup to only use the laptop
> > display. This is even more important as the KDE panel is only
> > displayed on the external Monitor.
> > 
> > It would be great if I could do it without a reboot. But a the moment
> > I don't know how to do it at all. The settings are in xorg.conf. Can
> > I define different profiles there? How could I switch them?
> 
> You shouldn't need to reboot, except to change a kernel. You can restart
> services in /etc/init.d at a command line of choice,by using something
> like '/etc/init.d/kdm restart' or if that doesn't do what you
> want 'ctrl+alt+backspace' will restart X. You could have two xorg.conf
> files, name one xorg.conf.road & xorg.conf.home and rename the one
> you want to use to xorg.conf.
> 
A related way to do this is to place two server layout stanzas in your xorg.conf file.  Make the first one for the configuration that you use most.  Make the second one for the other config and give it a unique name.  I use "default" and "single".  Xorg will load the first layout by default, but you can call the second by "startx -- -layout <layout_name>".  When I'm on the road I Alt+N from the kdm login screen to give me a consle login and then login and issue the above command to start X on a single screen.

I've asked before and I'll ask again...Is there a way for the system to detect the presence of the external monitor and then use one or another xorg.conf file based on the hardware configuration?

Paul




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