[ubuntu-uk] setting up dual screen with a dual head graphics card

[Rob Beard]

Farran wrote:
> On Wed, 2008-03-05 at 20:34 +0000, Adam Bagnall wrote:
>> Farran wrote:
>> > Hi all, especially Rob cos I saw he mentioned this...
>> >
>> > how do I get my nVidia GT8600 to do dual screen? There's a DVI port 
>> > and a VGA port, but only one of them will give an image at a time when 
>> > two monitors are plugged in - the DVI. Why is this? The screen setup 
>> > doesn't detect the second screen.
>> > As far as I know, i have not installed twinview or anything else 
>> > manually: don't know if it comes pre-installed...
>> >
>> > Thanks in advance if anyone can help :D
>> >
>> > ===============================
>> > Farran Lee
>> > I'm only 15 :-P
>> >
>> I recently set up dual head on Ubuntu for a friend using an nvidia card, 
>> I can't remember the exact details but I'll see if I can help.
>>
>> 1. run "gksudo nvidia-settings" either from a terminal or by pressing 
>> alt+F2.
>> 2. Go to the "x server display configuration" section and click the 
>> "detect displays" button
>> Here's where I can't remember exactly because I don't have dual displays 
>> but:
>> 3. Set display mode to twinview
>> 4. Tick the "enable xinerama" checkbox
>> 5. Click the "save to x configuration file" button and merge changes 
>> when prompted.
>> 6. Restart your Xserver and hope. (If you've got nothing important open 
>> then just hit ctrl+alt+backspace)
>> 7. ???
>> 8. Profit!
>>
>> Regards,
>>     Adam.
>>
> ok, thanks, that looks good. have found the control panel and the detect 
> displays, but i never did it with both screens in. the next step for the 
> programmery people is to integrate that into the screens and graphics 
> window. I had to hunt for the nvidia panel, and that was only because i 
> knew there should've been one...
> I'll try it soon :D
> 

I've given up on ATI for the day and tried an NVidia Geforce 7200GS 
256MB card (20 quid from SVP.co.uk).  Works a treat in Twinview with 
independent screen resolutions on my monitor and TV.  The only issue 
I've found is that I get a very slight flicker (it's like a horizontal 
line where the image is being drawn) in fact action videos.  Not sure if 
it's the card or the CPU not up to the job.

Still seems to work.

I did find I had to run nvidia-settings from a terminal window as there 
wasn't an icon for it by default.

Rob