One of the few things that Linux hasn't done well is allowing the user to add or change monitors.
It looks like this is changing with the new utility xrandr.
I haven't fine tuned this yet (or even tested it much) but I do have a dual head display - with the virtual screen spanning two displays.
I'll come back and document this properly - but for now here's what I did.
First I created this xorg.conf file.
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "dual head configuration"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "gb"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "intel"
Option "monitor-VGA" "vga"
Option "monitor-LVDS" "lvds"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "lvds"
Option "Position" "2560 0"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "vga"
Option "RightOf" "lvds"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
DefaultDepth 16
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 16
Modes "2560x1600"
Virtual 5120 1600
EndSubSection
EndSectionThen I restarted my X-windows session and at the console (as a normal user) I ran:
xrandr --output LVDS --mode 1440x900
xrandr --output LVDS --left-of VGAAnd now it works :-)
Comments
Sweeet! I have an inspirion
Sweeet!
I have an inspirion and have been trying to do this with ubuntu but was unable to firgure it out. In the official ubuntu forums there's rhumors that it may not be possible at all.... Maybe you should go there and show them how to do it :)
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