Setting
up dual screen in Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Desktop
nVidia
By
Michael Richards
It
took me a wile figure out how to do it but now that i'v done it its
awesome. To start with you have to go into 'System >
Administration > Hardware Drivers' and enable the 'Proprietary
drivers' for the graphics card. You will most likely have to do a
restart in order for the settings to take effect.
Once
you've done that you'll want to download and install the 'NVIDIA X
Server Settings' app. To do this just go to 'Applications >
Add/Remove...' then just do a search for 'nvidia' in the list of
resualts selec 'NVIDIA X Server Settings' and check the box next to
it.
Click
'Apply Changes' and restart if need be. Then we want to configure the
screens to do this go to 'System > Administration > Nvidia X
Server Settings'. A small box will come up and you will need to
select 'X Server Display Configuration'. The small box will get
bigger and look somewhat like the windows nvidia control panel. One
of your moniters will be disabled (probably the one on DVI) click on
it in the window and click 'Configure'. Once you get to this point
there will be two options for dual screen.
Separate
X screen
TwinView
'TwinView'
is only really any good if you have two or more identical screens
because it spans the display over all screens. Were as 'Separate X
screen' is better for multiple screens of varying resolutions and
sizes. It will basically allow you to have two separate 'Desktops'
allowing you to split up your screens into two different 'computers'
for lack of a better word.
TwinView
setting
up 'TwinView' is a sinch just check the box and apply it
Separate
X screen
Setting
up 'Separate X screen' can be more difficult to set up first you want
to select that instead of the other.
You
will then want to set its location. For mine it was fine the way it
is by default but you may need to change it. Once you have all your
settings the way you like it you will need to 'Save to X
Configuration File' if this fails you will have to take the following
steps if not skip ahead to 'Restarting X'.
Navigate
to '/etc/x11/' and select the file 'xorg.conf' copy it and then past
it to the same directory calling it something like
'xorg.conf_backup'.
You
will then need go into terminal ('Applications > Accessories >
Terminal') and type following command:
#:
sudo gedit /etc/x11/xorg.conf
You
will probably be promoted for a password, enter it and continue on.
A
test editor will popup with a hole heap of stuff in it delete the
lot and go back to the 'NVIDIA X Server Settings dialog and click
'Save to X Configuration File' then 'Show Preview.
Copy
the lot and then past it into the file you opened step 3. save and
close the file
Restarting
X
now
restarting 'X' is easy, all you have to do is press 'Ctrl + Alt +
Backspace'. BE WARNED it is nearly the same as restarting your
computer but a lot faster so make sure you save documents and
bookmark web pages before doing it.
THE
END
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