[SOLVED] nvidia dual screens

I am running Mandriva One 2009.0 using KDE4. As such the nvidia driver is 177.80 (I'll check on my Mandriva partition tomorrow).

The problem is that whenever I try to use a dual screen it ends up being a black background with a cross for the mouse icon whenever I hover over it.

This is more of an inconvenience than a reason to change distro but it would be nice to have both screens.

I'll post my xorg.conf when I get back to my linux box

It is 177.80 and below me is xorg.conf

# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings
# nvidia-settings:  version 1.0  (buildmeister@builder63)  Wed Oct  1 15:10:25 PDT 2008

# File generated by XFdrake (rev 247269)

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 1680 0
    Screen      1  "Screen1" LeftOf "Screen0"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/default/Type1"
EndSection

Section "Module"
    Load           "dbe"
    Load           "extmod"
    Load           "type1"
    Load           "freetype"
    Load           "glx"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
    Option         "Xinerama" "0"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
    Option         "XkbModel" "pc105"
    Option         "XkbLayout" "gb"
    Option         "XkbOptions" "compose:rwin"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"

    # HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
    Identifier     "Monitor1"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "LG M228WA"
    HorizSync       28.0 - 83.0
    VertRefresh     56.0 - 75.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"

    # HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "Samsung SyncMaster"
    HorizSync       30.0 - 81.0
    VertRefresh     56.0 - 75.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce 8500 GT"
    BusID          "PCI:1:0:0"
    Screen          0
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device1"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce 8500 GT"
    BusID          "PCI:1:0:0"
    Screen          1
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen1"
    Device         "Device1"
    Monitor        "Monitor1"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "TwinView" "0"
    Option         "metamodes" "DFP: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"

# Removed Option "metamodes" "CRT: 1440x900 +0+0"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "TwinView" "0"
    Option         "metamodes" "CRT: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

I'm not sure (I haven't used a dual NVIDIA setup for ages), but - how did you install 177.80? From /backports , or from upstream?

I found it in the repositories so it would have been from /backports (I did enable it)

Ah. I'm not really sure, in that case :(. Sorry. One thing you can try is to read the NVIDIA driver docs - which are really good - and then set up xorg.conf by hand. That's how I used to do it when I had a dual-screen NVIDIA setup (although that was mainly because nvidia-settings didn't exist at that time).

You should be able to run nvidia-settings as root. Set the screens how you like and then click Apply and Save to Xorg File

bartos said: You should be able to run nvidia-settings as root. Set the screens how you like and then click Apply and Save to Xorg File

+1 This is how I setup dual screen on my Dell desktop when I ran Mandriva2009 on it (gnome). I didn't have to manually install anything; Mandriva installed the needed drivers during install. Once I booted into the system I ran nvidia-settings (as root) and enabled my secondary monitor.

I tried that but it either gave me a blank screen with a black X on or the resolutions don't match. Full screen video isn't working which is a pre-requisite =/

I forgot to ask if you went to System -Preferences -Screen Resolutiions and put a check mark in Mirror Screens. Do this first and then setup twinview in nvidia-settings as root.

Cheers but I don't want Twinview since they're two different monitors. Separate X screens is a must

SuperSonic4 said: Cheers but I don't want Twinview since they're two different monitors. Separate X screens is a must

Then set it to separate x sessions in nvidia-settings, but still start by checking mirror screens to get nvidia-settings to recognize both monitors.

I use twin view as i like to move things between monitors. Separate x sessions gives you duplicate screens with menu panels but you can't get a notification area in second monitor. So when you minimize something to tray on second monitor, it is lost unless you have short cut key to unminimize it again.

Only thing with twinview is I can't get compiz to load but it is only for showing off to people for me anyways.(some people object to having there name written in fire) LOL.