Michel Bardiaux wrote:
> What is the road to using 2 screens on 1 station (Intel/Linux) so that
> they make one unified root window? (That is, any window may be
> drag-and-dropped to be partially on one screen and partially on
> another). From what searches I've done, I suspect it has to be done at
> the X driver level, but I would like confirmation. TIA.

If you use two video cards, you'll need to use xinerama. Google for
xorg.conf and xinerama. man xorg.conf.

If you use one dual-head card, you can use xinerama, but it is better
to use the card drivers function such as Radeon mergedFB, because xinerama
usually only does software rendering and is much slower. man radeon,
google for xorg.conf with mergedFB or twinview.

--
Russell Shaw, B.Eng, M.Eng(Research)

Russell Shaw wrote:
> Michel Bardiaux wrote:
>> What is the road to using 2 screens on 1 station (Intel/Linux) so that
>> they make one unified root window? (That is, any window may be
>> drag-and-dropped to be partially on one screen and partially on
>> another). From what searches I've done, I suspect it has to be done at
>> the X driver level, but I would like confirmation. TIA.
>
> If you use two video cards, you'll need to use xinerama. Google for
> xorg.conf and xinerama. man xorg.conf.

Thanks. We use debian/sarge and it uses package xserver-xfree86 which I
think is xfree4.5. In any case no xorg.conf file to be found. Should
xinerama also work then?

>
> If you use one dual-head card, you can use xinerama, but it is better
> to use the card drivers function such as Radeon mergedFB, because xinerama
> usually only does software rendering and is much slower. man radeon,
> google for xorg.conf with mergedFB or twinview.
>


--
Michel Bardiaux
R&D Director
T +32 [0] 2 790 29 41
F +32 [0] 2 790 29 02
E mailto:mbardiaux@mediaxim.be

Mediaxim NV/SA
Vorstlaan 191 Boulevard du Souverain
Brussel 1160 Bruxelles
http://www.mediaxim.com/

Michel Bardiaux wrote:
> Russell Shaw wrote:
>
>> Michel Bardiaux wrote:
>>
>>> What is the road to using 2 screens on 1 station (Intel/Linux) so
>>> that they make one unified root window? (That is, any window may be
>>> drag-and-dropped to be partially on one screen and partially on
>>> another). From what searches I've done, I suspect it has to be done
>>> at the X driver level, but I would like confirmation. TIA.
>>
>> If you use two video cards, you'll need to use xinerama. Google for
>> xorg.conf and xinerama. man xorg.conf.
>
> Thanks. We use debian/sarge and it uses package xserver-xfree86 which I
> think is xfree4.5. In any case no xorg.conf file to be found. Should
> xinerama also work then?

Yes it should work the same. You can google for XF86Config or XF86Config-4
files which are the same as xorg.conf files. Both go into /etc/X11.

man xf86config
man xf86config-4

>> If you use one dual-head card, you can use xinerama, but it is better
>> to use the card drivers function such as Radeon mergedFB, because
>> xinerama
>> usually only does software rendering and is much slower. man radeon,
>> google for xorg.conf with mergedFB or twinview.