Mandrake (one of the enlightenment developers) runs 3 video cards (all
the same I think) and has a wrap around type of setup (check out
http://www.mandrake.net/ for some recent office pictures). But when I
was investigating it before we got the Matrox G450 card, the docs said
you can use different video cards. Basically it is a new X server for
each card.
So with that in mind, you can run X on one monitor/video card, and a
shell on another. Or you can run 1 X session across both with
Xinerama support (I think there is another way - x2x?). In the matrox
forums, someone mentioned they were playing Quake in one monitor,
while the other monitor was open to the normal window manager so they
can see when mail comes in, etc. :)
I'm curious if you can run 1 window manager on one monitor, and a
different window manager on the other. I would be hell on the
resources, but it might be a fun attempt.
The Matrox dual headed cards are pretty easy to set up, but it does
require agpgart support in the kernel (either insmod it or
re-compile), plus DRI support in the kernel (I think this is
optional), and it requires X4. You tell X that display 0 uses this
card and this monitor, and display 1 uses the other. Then you specify
where you want each display in relation to the other -- 0 left of 1,
or 1 on top of 0, etc. (exact terminology varies :)
-Rob
> On 20010514.1947, Timothy L. Bolz said ...
>
> Has anyone got Dual monitors going? I'd like to try it sometime and had
> some questions.
>
> Can you use two different supported cards and monitors?
>
> How would you configure both?
>
> Can You have X windows open in one and a shell in another?
>
> How many monitors would XFree 4 support?
>
> If someone has more that 2 going maybe this would be a good demonstration
> at the Linux Demo day. I know MetroX supports up to 16 monitors. I
> believe 4 without contacting them.
>
> Ok this is for Cory and others who use laptops.
> Could you plug a monitor into your laptop and have a different screen than
> what on the laptop? I guess it would be like dual monitors. If it can be
> different can windows do this? I don't know that much about laptops just
> that you can plug a monitor, keyboard and mouse and use it like a desktop.
> ~
> Tim
>
>
