Two Places to Set Display Attributes in Fedora 11

[eldonz]

Why does Fedora 11 Gnome have two places to set display attributes, one under System -> Preferences -> Display and the other under System -> Administration -> Display?

[Dies]

Because one is personal setting that would only affect you, requires no password to change.

The other is a system wide setting that would affect every user, requires root password to change.

[eldonz]

OK, that makes sense. But the monitor types that show up correctly in the Preferences version don't appear in the Administrator version and monitor types set in the Administrator version aren't saved. The /etc/X11/xorg.conf file has a new date but is missing the monitor types. I have a Samsung SyncMaster 225BW (Digital) as my primary display and a Samsung SynCMaster 760V TFT as a secondary display. FWIW, the xorg.conf file is attached.

I'd like to have the dual displays work as Independent Desktops under Fedora 11 as they did under F9.

[Dies]

You might want to try again. Unless I'm missing something, there is no attachment.

[Gödel]

System -> Administration -> Display is the deprecated system-config-display utility, it relies on Xorg and adds settings to /etc/X11/xorg.conf

System -> Preferences -> Display is the new gnome-display-properties utility, which uses xrandr and adds settings to ~/.config/monitors.xml, it is the much preferred method in Fedora now (provided xrandr works properly, it may not detect available resolutions for example.)

If you have the nvidia driver then use the nvidia display config in Applications -> System Tools

[eldonz]

Copies of xorg.conf and monitors.xml (renamed monitors.xml.txt) are attached. With F9 the larger DVI monitor and the smaller analog monitor were set up as Independent Desktops so the the DVI monitor could be used as the primary desktop and the analog as the secondary. Physically, the DVI monitor is straight in front of me while the analog is to the left. It appears that the left monitor always shows up as the primary, which doesn't work for me. In order to have the DVI as the primary desktop, I had to set up the screens with the analog logically to the right of the DVI even though physically it's to the left. This means the mouse has to be moved to the right to show up on the left screen. Not a desirable solution.

[Dies]

I see the driver in use is 'nv', what model graphics card are you using?

Is it not supported by the official Nvidia drivers? or do you just prefer not to install those?


Also, can you attach the output from 'lspci'

[eldonz]

It's a GeForce 9400 GT. I'd prefer to stay with the Fedora distribution driver to avoid having to reinstall the NVIDIA driver when the kernel changes.

lspciout.txt is attached.

[Dies]

Originally Posted by eldonz

It's a GeForce 9400 GT. I'd prefer to stay with the Fedora distribution driver to avoid having to reinstall the NVIDIA driver when the kernel changes.

Sticking with the drivers Fedora ships while using a 9400GT is... well, just a waste really.

Unless you're a "Free Software" zealot, there's no sense in depriving yourself of the increased performance and convenience the official drivers offer. Kernel updates are a non-issue if you use the rpmfusion provided drivers.

Please see this thread --> http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=204752

After installing the Nvidia drivers, you'll find a configuration utility in your menu, use it to set up your monitors then if/once it works they way you want it to, choose to save the file and move it to /etc/X11/xorg.conf.


In any case, here's a "sample" config that may or not be valid for your setup, remember if X fails you can always just delete the file and let it auto-detect for you. If it does work and you decide to install the Nvidia drivers you should be able to just change 'nv' to 'nvidia'.

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

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "Unknown"
    HorizSync    31.5 - 48.0
    VertRefresh  56.0 - 65.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor1"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "Unknown"
    HorizSync    31.5 - 48.0
    VertRefresh  56.0 - 65.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nv"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce 9400 GT"
    BusID          "PCI:2:0:0"
    Screen          0
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device1"
    Driver         "nv"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce 9400 GT"
    BusID          "PCI:2:0:0"
    Screen          1
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen1"
    Device         "Device1"
    Monitor        "Monitor1"
    DefaultDepth    24
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

[eldonz]

I took your advice and installed the NVIDIA driver. That got the two monitors working as independent desktops again.

So, the answer to two Display menu items was to have three!

Many thanks.