kde4 dual head - both desktops on single screen

[ehjay]

Binary package hint: kde4-core

http://ajbarber.redmartian.org/kde4-small.jpg

OS: kubuntu/gutsy
Machine: dell inspiron E1705
Gfx: ati x1400
Driver: ati fglrx 8.455
Laptop display: 1920x1200
External display: 1280x1024 dvi

Xserver set up for two independent displays (no xinerama), with the laptop display being screen 0. Under kde3 this worked fine. Under kde4, both desktops appear on screen0, with the smaller desktop overlaying the larger. The kde panel only appears on the smaller desktop. see link for screen capture. The external display is blank, but will display windows managed with the kde window manager when launched to display :0.1.

[ehjay (ajbarber)]

Looks like it might be related to this kde bug http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=153581

[Joe-rutledge (joe-rutledge)]

Version: (using KDE 4.0.2)
Installed from: Ubuntu Packages
OS: Linux

I run a current Kubuntu system with a dual head NVidia card and the proprietary NVidia drivers. For various reasons I have to run the dual head as two X servers. My current X config runs fine with KDE3, when running KDE4 however both heads desktops are drawn on top of one another on only one of my displays, the other display is inaccessible. Additionally the desktop config tool under KDE3 correctly identifies the two displays but under KDE4 it sees only one the displays. I enquired about this problem on the Kubuntu-kde4 IRC channel where another user reported the same issue, but no known fix.

xorg.conf:

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

Section "Files"
    RgbPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
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"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    # HorizSync source: twinview, VertRefresh source: twinview
    Identifier "Monitor1"
    VendorName "Unknown"
    ModelName "ViewSonic VX715"
    HorizSync 31.5 - 80.0
    VertRefresh 60.0
    Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    # HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
    Identifier "Monitor0"
    VendorName "Unknown"
    ModelName "ViewSonic VX2235wm"
    HorizSync 30.0 - 82.0
    VertRefresh 50.0 - 75.0
    Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier "Videocard0"
    Driver "nvidia"
    VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName "GeForce 7600 GT"
    BusID "PCI:2:0:0"
    Screen 0
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier "Videocard1"
    Driver "nvidia"
    VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName "GeForce 7600 GT"
    BusID "PCI:2:0:0"
    Screen 1
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen1"
    Device "Videocard0"
    Monitor "Monitor1"
    DefaultDepth 24
    Option "metamodes" "DFP-1: 1280x1024 +0+0; DFP-1: 1024x768 +0+0"
    SubSection "Display"
        Depth 16
        Modes "1600x1200" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"

        Depth 24
        Modes "1600x1200" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"

        Depth 32
        Modes "1600x1200" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "S...

[Lydia Pintscher (lydia-pintscher)]

added upstream bug

[Crakie (baloedebruinebeer)]

I can confirm this bug. The interesting bit I have to add, is that my second screen is not connected through the same videocard, but from the Hauppauge 350 tv-card's tv out (using the ivtvfb module). The results are exactly the same as described above.

[Mnijph (mnijph)]

Remove your metamode entries and see if that helps.

[Alex Merry (randomguy3)]

Joe: do you get the same problem with the metamode option lines removed (as per Jonathan's comment)?

[Joe-rutledge (joe-rutledge)]

Sorry for the slow reponse, it's a work machine and it's difficult to get chance to fiddle with it that much!

I'm now using KDE 4.1, whatever Ubuntu feeds me from deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/kubuntu-members-kde4/ubuntu hardy main

Removing meta-modes has made no difference :-(

However if I go away from the two X server approach to use TwinView (not my preference) I do get both displays rendered correctly. I then get a different bug where using the Display System Setting applet the primary screen shuts down (probably out of range/res etc for that display) and the sceondary screen is left, with little use (moving mouse pointer no right click menu). I'm assuming I should file this as a separate bug but I've also included the info here in case it's of any interest to solving this issue?

Interestingly it appears to be picking the smaller display as the primary and the larger display as secondary, the inverse of how it appears under KDE3.

[Jonathan Thomas (echidnaman)]

Confirming due to confirmed upstream report.

[Pavel Novak (pavel-innuendo)]

Kubuntu 8.10 alpha 6 is still unusefull for me. See the screenshot.

[otakuj462 (otakuj462)]

Confirmed here as well.

[Pavel Novak (pavel-innuendo)]

In Kubuntu 8.10. that's ok for me. When I set resolution manually in control center, it looks fine.

[aseigo (aseigo)]

*** Bug 174160 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[aseigo (aseigo)]

*** Bug 166174 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Marco Martin (notmart)]

can this thing be reproduced with 4.2 beta2 or better recent trunk?
i can't reproduce it at all.

[arndt (arndtt)]

Marco: Yes (See also duplicate bug 166174). My setup is Kubuntu 8.10 with Kde 4.2 beta2 from the launchpad repos (4.1.85-0ubuntu1~intrepid1~ppa1), proprietary amd fglrx driver (8.561) and dual head setup. Under KDE4 the second screen stays blank. Amdcccle (amd graphical config tool) can identify second screen (displays identification number on second screen) and I can move the cursor over but it will have a different shape (X) on the second screen. On first screen panel is not visible (maybe because screen size is taken from 2nd display which has 1600x1200 instead of 1st displays 1400x1050??). Good old Windowmaker works perfectly fine with an otherwise unchanged setup. Under Kubuntu 8.04 with KDE 3.5.10 and same fglrx version dual head setup also works (although 3.5.10 has introduced another dual head Bug 170465).

[aseigo (aseigo)]

Marco: this is about multihead (multiple X servers running at once, one per physical screen), not xinerama/mergefb/twinview/etc (one X server across all physical screens)

[Trebor (trebor-x)]

*** This bug has been confirmed by popular vote. ***

[arndt (arndtt)]

Reconfirmed for 4.2 RC1.

[Jonathan Thomas (echidnaman)]

*** Bug 181349 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Jussi Schultink (jussi01)]

I also have the issue that Multihead is not supported by KDE. I have briefly reported a bug on LP (https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-common/+bug/329466) also. My setup is as follows: 1 Nvidia 9500 GT graphics card, with 3 outputs - DVI, HDMI and VGA. I have 3 screens, 2x 22" (1680x1050) and 1x 26" (1920x1200). Now because separate x screens are not supported, there is no way to make all of this hardware work together nicely.

At the moment I can use twinview, with any combination of the screens, and any combination of the outputs.

I am on Kubuntu Jaunty. (KDE 4.2.1)

[beer (jonas-vejlin)]

I can still confirm this running kde 4.2.2 from a kubuntu 9.04 live CD. Wonder if this bug will be fixed

[Martin Dige (mdige)]

I can also confirm this bug.

[aseigo (aseigo)]

*** Bug 169887 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Asraniel (asraniel)]

Those blogposts might be interesting for people that reported that bug:
http://aseigo.blogspot.com/2009/07/multihead.html
http://aseigo.blogspot.com/2009/07/43-rc1-tasks-widget-crashiness-multi.html

[Asraniel (asraniel)]

could somebody with multihead comment on this bug?

[beer (jonas-vejlin)]

I will retest when kde 4.3.1 hits debian unstable.

[Asraniel (asraniel)]

since there where some positive reports about kde on multihead (i'm not talking about little bugs etc), i'm closing this now

[Jonathan Thomas (echidnaman)]

Is this still an issue in Kubuntu 9.10?

[Alexandre Maciel (amaciel81)]

Hi,

I can confirm it's still ocurring in Kubuntu 9.10. I have a Acer notebook with a Intel GM965 Integrated Graphics Controller and, while I can set a dual-monitor configuration with "xrandr" tool, I can't do this with KRandR: it just doesn't show the controls to set the secondary screen in left/right/top/botton of the primary screen, I can just clone the screen.

Thanks,
Alexandre

[HinzundKunz (martin-tlustos)]

Problem seems to be solved with kde 4.6 (I thin even 4.5) which added the dual screen setup ability to its configuration dialogue. You can even decide yourself which screen is the primary one...

[Harald Sitter (apachelogger)]

Closing in favor of upstream report.

[ehjay (ajbarber)]

So, 3 1/2 years later does it work in Kubuntu? I don't know, I switched to Gnome.

[Myriam Schweingruber (myriam)]

Closing correctly.