Ubuntu Dual Monitor SetUp

visser · Post by **visser** » 20 Mar 2010, 15:33

I love my linux and I love having Compiz installed even more. The cube is so damned cool! I got the cube all set up and ive got an nvidia card so ive got all the drivers and all that set up I even have the "Nvidia X Server Settings" tool that allows me to manage my screen setup and adjust how i want things to be set up on this computer. Here is the problem tho, i get it all set up and the next time I restart my computer it doesnt have the second monitor set up on it.

Ive tried using the tool and hitting the save settings to xorg config file button but that always says it fails to parse the file. Ive chmoded that file to have full permisions and everything but still nothing.... Any pro tips?

hiper · Post by **hiper** » 22 Mar 2010, 04:42

the save fails becouse you have to change the read/write permisson on /etc/X11/xorg.conf

this how i whould do it.

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chown -hR name:name /etc/X11/xorg.conf

name=youre user name
configure the second screen save the config, then change back the permisson to root

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chown -hR root:root /etc/X11/xorg.conf

done GL HF

visser · Post by **visser** » 22 Mar 2010, 19:50

nope this doesnt work.... ive tried this just now and tried it before.

also now I have another buddy of mine who has been having this issue for a month now and has found no fix for it. He has seen a lot of people recommend that you just create a new file and then hit save but that didnt work either he said....

anybody know a fix for this....

Post by **Lundis** » 23 Mar 2010, 01:22

There might be a syntax error in the file. I don't have an nvidia card, but the ati config utility has failed me a couple of times when there were. You can check the log ( /var/log/Xorg.0.log ) and see if it says that the file is faulty.

visser · Post by **visser** » 25 Mar 2010, 09:49

welllll after looking into this i dug up some very interesting info.
Im very sad to say that there wasnt a list of the changes that were made in the switch between Ubuntu versions (7->8->9) which would have helped a lot of people in situations like these.

You see the problem that I have been having stems from the fact that Ubuntu does not use a persistant xorg.conf file when you install it. It just uses the default settings that it picks up from your installed hardware drivers. Most operating systems do this so its good to see that Ubuntu is keeping up to date but if you want to edit your xorg.conf file you have to create it first. so here is how I solved my problem:

open up a terminal and make it a virtual terminal (have no idea what this is just know what it looks like lol)
hit CRTL+ALT+F1
now youll have to resign in and all of this and your running nothing but command line, fun eh?

after you sign in you have to run a series of commands. not hard at all though!

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sudo service gdm stop
sudo xorg -configure
sudo mv ~/corg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf
sudo service gdm start

now that you have that done you have an xorg config file you can play with. Also I noticed that After a reboot i boot faster so that is exciting as well!

you can edit this xorg.conf file to what you see fit. But for my nvidia xserver settings i hit the save to x server config button again and this time it showed me what the file it was going to create looked like. I copy pasted this into my xorg.conf file manually because when you try to save the file it has a problem creating a backup type deal. no biggie tho.

anyways after a restart ive got my dual monitor setup no problem. Couldnt be happier