Need TwinView Help with NVidia

Question

Hello all,

I am trying to set up dual monitors on ubuntu 8.10 and am having a lot of difficulty. I have tried going through many tutorials with no luck so I figure I will try here as well.

For some reason my computer does not detect my Dell S199WFP monitor. It only lets me run it at maximum 640x480 resolution. The optimum resolution for the monitor is 1440x900. This is weird because it detects my s2309w fine and this is the newer model. I have been fiddling around with my xorg.conf to try to get the settings right and I keep just messing everything up. I was wondering if anyone could give me a hand getting the proper resolution to work.

Here is my current xorg.conf.

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

Section "Files"
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"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "CRT-0"
    HorizSync       28.0 - 33.0
    VertRefresh     43.0 - 72.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce 6800"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "TwinView" "1"
    Option         "TwinViewXineramaInfoOrder" "CRT-1"
    Option         "metamodes" "CRT-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+0, CRT-1: 1920x1080 +640+0"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Thanks so much in advance!

Answer 1

Change your MetaModes option to read something like this:

Option "MetaModes" "1440x900,1600x1200"

The first value "1440x900" is the primary monitor and the second is the secondary monitor. You can change them to meet your needs.

Answer 2

Actually, instead of:

Option         "metamodes" "CRT-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+0, CRT-1: 1920x1080 +640+0"

use:

Option         "metamodes" "CRT-0: 1440x900 +0+0, CRT-1: 1280x1024 +1440+0"

I too use an Ubuntu 8.10 installation with an nvidia card, and that works for me.

Skizz