Nvidia - dual-screen setup almost impossible

[Nathan J. Brauer]

Using nvidia-settings, I enabled both monitors (both are ViewSonic VX2250WM-LED - one is plugged in via HDMI and the other via DVI-dual) and hit "Apply" -- Both screens are enabled but image is extremely distorted plus the image displays the same on both monitors and at about 70% down the screen (the top 70% is black).

After it auto-reset, I tried saving the settings to the config file instead and rebooted.

Upon login, both screens worked as expected except for three things:
1. this error message came up:
none of the selected modes were compatible with the possible modes:
Trying modes for CRTC 354
CRTC 354: trying mode 3840x1080@50Hz with output at 1920x1080@50Hz (pass 0)
CRTC 354: trying mode 3840x1080@50Hz with output at 1920x1080@50Hz (pass 1)

2. The window appearance part of my theme was not applied (I'm using stock Unity on Oneiric) UNTIL I clicked "OK" on the previous error message. And even then, it only applied to the Unity bars and not to windows like nautilus (unless I type in "nautilus -q" first)

3. Clicking on one of the applets (time, me, message, etc) on a first screen works fine, but when I click one on the other screen it shows then instantly goes away (unless I hold down the mouse). (My guess is this is unrelated to #1 & #2.)

I'll attach my xconfig file and respond with any other information you need.

lspci below:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub to ESI Port (rev 13)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev 13)
00:02.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub PCI Express Root Port 2 (rev 13)
00:03.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub PCI Express Root Port 3 (rev 13)
00:07.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub PCI Express Root Port 7 (rev 13)
00:14.0 PIC: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub System Management Registers (rev 13)
00:14.1 PIC: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub GPIO and Scratch Pad Registers (rev 13)
00:14.2 PIC: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub Control Status and RAS Registers (rev 13)
00:14.3 PIC: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub Throttle Registers (rev 13)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4
00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5
00:1a.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6
00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) HD Audio Controller
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) PCI Express Root Port 1
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) PCI Express Root Port 5
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 90)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JIR (ICH10R) LPC Interface Controller
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) SATA AHCI Controller
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) SMBus Controller
01:00.0 IDE interface: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. Device 91a3 (rev 11)
02:00.0 USB Controller: NEC Corporation uPD720200 USB 3.0 Host Controller (rev 03)
03:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GF108 [GeForce GT 430] (rev a1)
03:00.1 Audio device: nVidia Corporation GF108 High Definition Audio Controller (rev a1)
05:00.0 SATA controller: JMicron Technology Corp. JMB362 AHCI Controller (rev 10)
07:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR922X Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)
07:01.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8110SC/8169SC Gigabit Ethernet (rev 10)
07:02.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6306/7/8 [Fire II(M)] IEEE 1394 OHCI Controller (rev c0)
ff:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5500/Core i7 QuickPath Architecture Generic Non-Core Registers (rev 05)
ff:00.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5500/Core i7 QuickPath Architecture System Address Decoder (rev 05)
ff:02.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5500/Core i7 QPI Link 0 (rev 05)
ff:02.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5500/Core i7 QPI Physical 0 (rev 05)
ff:03.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5500/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller (rev 05)
ff:03.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5500/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller Target Address Decoder (rev 05)
ff:03.4 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5500/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller Test Registers (rev 05)
ff:04.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5500/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller Channel 0 Control Registers (rev 05)
ff:04.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5500/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller Channel 0 Address Registers (rev 05)
ff:04.2 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5500/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller Channel 0 Rank Registers (rev 05)
ff:04.3 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5500/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller Channel 0 Thermal Control Registers (rev 05)
ff:05.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5500/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller Channel 1 Control Registers (rev 05)
ff:05.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5500/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller Channel 1 Address Registers (rev 05)
ff:05.2 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5500/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller Channel 1 Rank Registers (rev 05)
ff:05.3 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5500/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller Channel 1 Thermal Control Registers (rev 05)
ff:06.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5500/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller Channel 2 Control Registers (rev 05)
ff:06.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5500/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller Channel 2 Address Registers (rev 05)
ff:06.2 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5500/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller Channel 2 Rank Registers (rev 05)
ff:06.3 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5500/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller Channel 2 Thermal Control Registers (rev 05)

[Nathan J. Brauer (nathanbrauer)]

Here's my xorg.conf

[Casper Bang (casper-bang)]

I am experiencing the exact same problem. I've been running multi-monitor setup via the nvidia driver for a number of years, but with 11.10 things are trickier than usual to get working. Here is the relevant section of my xorg.conf file:

Section "Monitor"
    # HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
    Identifier "Monitor0"
    VendorName "Unknown"
    ModelName "DELL 2408WFP"
    HorizSync 30.0 - 83.0
    VertRefresh 56.0 - 76.0
    Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier "Device0"
    Driver "nvidia"
    VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName "GeForce GTX 460"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen0"
    Device "Device0"
    Monitor "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth 24
    Option "TwinView" "1"
    Option "TwinViewXineramaInfoOrder" "DFP-0"
    Option "metamodes" "DFP-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+0, DFP-2: nvidia-auto-select +1920+0"
    SubSection "Display"
        Depth 24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Nathan J. Brauer (nathanbrauer)]

Note that while debugging an unrelated bug, I created a new user and the issue is NOT present when logging into that new user.

[Nathan J. Brauer (nathanbrauer)]

PS: That new user was given Admin privileges, not a Standard User

[Casper Bang (casper-bang)]

To add to Nathan's previous description regarding auto-reset, it is *sometimes* possible to enable/disable multiple monitors without a reboot, but it requires one to try to perform the change (hitting Apply) twice. Occasionally the composition manager will crash entirely though, removing window decorations and generally leaving the UI unresponsive.

Oddly enough, I *was* able to enable TwinView without the above issues, when using Gnome 3, so the issue must somehow be related to Unity.

[gugli (gugli100)]

I fixed it removing the ~/.config/monitors.xml file

then logout and login again

[Nathan J. Brauer (nathanbrauer)]

That seemed to work for me. Can you please mark this as "Affects me" (you got it working but it affected you at one point). This shouldn't be happening.

[Casper Bang (casper-bang)]

Worked for me as well. Changing monitor resolution is still a long-lasting and indeterministic task, but at least it no longer crashes the window composition manager.