Troble getting 2 monitors to run

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Dieselrider
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Troble getting 2 monitors to run

#1 Post by Dieselrider »

One of the things that intrigued me about MX 17 was the manual stating I could possibly run 2 monitors. I though that sounded great. However, I have not had any luck with this and have come looking for help. I have switched drivers to Nvidia and that still doesn't help. I am using a Ge Force GT 218 Graphics card and it has one each VGA, HDMI and DVI ports. I have 2 Dell monitors and both are VGA. I have an adapter to go from the VGA cable to the HDMI port at the back of the computer for the second monitor. My primary monitor is a 19 inch and the second is a 17 inch. Should that matter?

When I plug the cable for the second monitor into the HDMI port, the main monitor just goes to a to a light colored blank screen and the second shows nothing at all. Still in sleep stage. I have not done anything different in the bios. Should I? Obviously with the monitors going blank, I cannot set anything up the way the manual says to. I have tried to restart the box with both monitors connected and both monitors remain blank and dark. Is this Graphics card just not able to handle 2monitors? Is there something else I can try?

Other than this hitch, I am very impressed with the ease and smoothness this OS has worked. Thank you to the developers.
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Jerry3904
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Re: Troble getting 2 monitors to run

#2 Post by Jerry3904 »

Don't have dual monitors to test, but a couple of resources:

This thread from a few weeks ago that was solved:

viewtopic.php?f=107&t=43478&hilit=dual+monitor

The search results on the Xfce Forum, where this comes up a lot:

https://forum.xfce.org/search.php?search_id=1973926694
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Dieselrider
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Re: Troble getting 2 monitors to run

#3 Post by Dieselrider »

Jerry3904 wrote:Don't have dual monitors to test, but a couple of resources:

This thread from a few weeks ago that was solved:

viewtopic.php?f=107&t=43478&hilit=dual+monitor

The search results on the Xfce Forum, where this comes up a lot:

https://forum.xfce.org/search.php?search_id=1973926694
Thanks Jerry. The 1st link I have read that thread. Sounds like he was able to see and get to the setup menu and just having trouble with switching the monitors around the way he wanted. I am not getting anything close to that here. As soon as I connect the second monitor, things fall flat. Nothing on either screen.The second link took me to a search not found page at xfce. But I did a search there and found several threads on dual monitor issues. I will spend some time there in awhile . Thanks again
Always try to be the best but, never think you are the best.

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Dieselrider
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Re: Troble getting 2 monitors to run

#4 Post by Dieselrider »

Okay, I switched graphics cards and now have two monitors working. ( a bit of disclose here though is that in connecting and disconnecting things I discovered that one of the monitors has a DVI port in the back and after connecting that port to the DVI port in the new card with a DVI cable, things worked.)

However, I am running a Dell 17 inch monitor that is VGA and the Display setup is calling #1 (even though it is the second monitor I connected)nand a Dell 19 inch monitor that is DVI and the Display setup is calling #2 even though it was connected first. My current issue is that the VGA 17 inch monitor sets to my left with the 19 inch DVI connected is in front of me. When I am in Display setup, the configuration wants to make the 17 inch monitor on my left #1 and the 19 inch in front of me as the #2 monitor. All sounds good so far. Except that I want to make the 19 inch monitor in front of me as my Primary monitor and use the 17 inch monitor to my left as a secondary monitor. That is doable in the Display settings if I drag the 19 inch to the left of the 17 inch on the Display setup screen and drop it there. However, then when scrolling with the mouse between monitors, I must go right to get to the left monitor and left to get to the right monitor. I have been trying to play with this for awhile now and have not gotten anywhere. Is there any way to change the number one and two designations or any way to overcome this?

I am sure it is simple and I have just overlooked something but, I am just not seeing it.

I have selected monitor number 2 as the primary monitor but, it wants to make number 1 my primary in that my wall papers and main controls are on #1. I hope I am explaining this well.


Also, can you set up a different wall paper on thesecondary monitor other than a blue screen with a black mouse? Thanks
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Richard
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Re: Troble getting 2 monitors to run

#5 Post by Richard »

Also, can you set up a different wall paper on monitor other than a blue screen with a black mouse?
menú >Configuración >Desktop
Un check:. Apply to all work areas
And
after moving Desktop app window to the other monitor,
in the Directory tab, change to backgrounds.
Last edited by Richard on Tue Jan 16, 2018 12:40 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Richard
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Re: Troble getting 2 monitors to run

#6 Post by Richard »

just having trouble with switching the monitors around the way he wanted
I have this problem as well with Lenovo T430 with 14 inch connected to Toshiba Matsushita 19" LCD monitor.

I'm getting used to mousing to the right to get to the monitor above and to the left. There must be a better way to config but neither the Display option nor xrandr nor lxrandr have been able to get it to work as expected.

Mirrored works for mouse, but only gives a duplicate screen and bottom panel will not pop up.

Running MX17x64 on the laptop.
I suspect that my left vertical and bottom horizontal panels are conflicting in some manner?

I've observed that screens are only correctly identified when placing laptop left of the monitor,
even though laptop is physically below and offset to right of monitor.

But the usual tools don't seem to sort it out.

More info will come when I get inxi info from laptop to phone.

Code: Select all

System:    Host: T430 Kernel: 4.13.0-1-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 gcc: 6.3.0 Desktop: Xfce 4.12.3 (Gtk 2.24.31)
           Distro: MX-17_x64 Horizon December 15, 2017
Machine:   Device: laptop System: LENOVO product: 2347AY1 v: ThinkPad T430 serial: N/A
           Mobo: LENOVO model: 2347AY1 v: NO DPK serial: N/A
           UEFI [Legacy]: LENOVO v: G1ET73WW (2.09 ) date: 10/19/2012
Battery    BAT0: charge: 18.7 Wh 99.9% condition: 18.7/56.2 Wh (33%) model: SANYO 45N1001 status: Full
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core i5-3320M (-MT-MCP-) arch: Ivy Bridge rev.9 cache: 3072 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 10377
           clock speeds: max: 3300 MHz 1: 2594 MHz 2: 2594 MHz 3: 2594 MHz 4: 2594 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Intel 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller bus-ID: 00:02.0
           Display Server: x11 (X.Org 1.19.2 ) drivers: modesetting (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
           Resolution: 1600x900@59.98hz, 1440x900@59.89hz
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Ivybridge Mobile version: 3.3 Mesa 13.0.6 Direct Render: Yes
Audio:     Card Intel 7 Series/C216 Family High Definition Audio Controller
Thinkpad T430 & Dell Latitude E7450, both with MX-21.3.1
kernal 5.10.0-26-amd64 x86_64; Xfce-4.18.0; 8 GB RAM
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Dieselrider
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Re: Troble getting 2 monitors to run

#7 Post by Dieselrider »

Thanks Richard. I did finally figure out the Wallpaper thing after playing around with it a bit. I just didn't get back here to state that. I have been thinking that I would switch the monitors around. Not my first choice but, if I can't find a solution trough the programs.....My desk is set up for my right handed life so, moving things around might mess with that.
Always try to be the best but, never think you are the best.

MX-19 64 bit
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Jerry3904
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Re: Troble getting 2 monitors to run

#8 Post by Jerry3904 »

How hard did you look at the search results on the Xfce Forum? I have a strong impression of seeing this very topic raised.
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Richard
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Re: Troble getting 2 monitors to run

#9 Post by Richard »

Not too much. A search for "Xfce4 trouble with switching the monitors around" brought a couple that may provide a solution for this problem.

https://unix.stackexchange.com/question ... eft/290350

https://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=6440


I'll see how It goes with my system..
Xfce4 considers the monitor on the left as the primary, and moves menú and xfce4 panels to it.
Thinkpad T430 & Dell Latitude E7450, both with MX-21.3.1
kernal 5.10.0-26-amd64 x86_64; Xfce-4.18.0; 8 GB RAM
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Dieselrider
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Re: Troble getting 2 monitors to run

#10 Post by Dieselrider »

Richard wrote:Not too much. A search for "Xfce4 trouble with switching the monitors around" brought a couple that may provide a solution for this problem.

https://unix.stackexchange.com/question ... eft/290350

https://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=6440


I'll see how It goes with my system..
Xfce4 considers the monitor on the left as the primary, and moves menú and xfce4 panels to it.
Had not searched for switching the monitors yet. had been reading several threads on Double monitors. Thank you for the lead. As you state, the monitor on the left becomes the primary if I use the commands in the first thread you pointed to. Not sure why primary must be given to the left monitor but,if that is the way they will insist on doing it, I will just rearrange my desk.

I will check out the other thread a bit later. Thank you I must brave the cold for now.
Always try to be the best but, never think you are the best.

MX-19 64 bit
Asus M4A79XTD EVO Mobo,
AMD Phenom II X4 965 CPU,
Corsair 8GB DDR3 RAM,
Seagate 1TB HDD,
Ultra LSP550 550W Power Supply

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