setting up my xorg.conf to work with my two monitors and ignore KDE's stupidity

[DeathKitten]

I've had some problems with KDE and xorg.conf not getting along. UnicornRider has been awesome, and provided much help in figuring out how to get at the xorg.conf file from the Live CD I'm running at the moment, and made a suggestion on what might get xserver to be willing to launch again. (See thread here: http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/index.php?topic=3084755 )

I figured since I'd been having other problems with KDE, my monitors and desktops, I might as well just fix xorg.conf completely while I was here, however I don't have a ruttin' clue what to do with it. From what I've been able to read, it looks like my xorg.conf file doesn't actually reference my second monitor at all, other than to say it's to the left of my first one.

I've got two video cards, two 17" CRT monitors. The primary is a SiS 6326 which is hooked up to a Vibrant VS-7D monitor (box says 30-70 horizontal and 50-120 vertical refresh rate), the secondary is a NVIDIA GeForce4 hooked up to a Packard Bell 1712SL (which KDE detects as 30-65 horizontal and 50-80 vertical refresh rate). The NVIDIA is the secondary card because I eventually plan to replace the Packard Bell monitor with a flatpanel monitor (when funds are available to do so) and my motherboard likes the SiS card better for some reason, though it could just be I haven't tried changing BIOS settings to fix that. *shrugs*

My current xorg.conf file is this:

# X Server Configuration file generated by kX Generator 0.3.7
# (c) 2006 Tomasz Salacinski

 Section "ServerLayout"
   Identifier  "Default Layout"
screen 0 "Default Screen"
screen 1 "screen1" leftof "Default Screen " 0 0
screen 1 "
   InputDevice  "Generic Keyboard"
   InputDevice  "Configured Mouse"
   InputDevice  "stylus" "SendCoreEvents"
   InputDevice  "cursor" "SendCoreEvents"
   InputDevice  "eraser" "SendCoreEvents"
 EndSection

 Section "ServerFlags"
option "Xinerama" "true"
   Option    "DefaultServerLayout" "Default Layout"
 EndSection

 Section "Files"
   FontPath   "/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc"
   FontPath   "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi:unscaled"
   FontPath   "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi:unscaled"
   FontPath   "/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1"
   FontPath   "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
   FontPath   "/usr/local/share/fonts"
 EndSection

 Section "Module"
   Load     "i2c"
   Load     "bitmap"
   Load     "ddc"
   Load     "extmod"
   Load     "freetype"
   Load     "int10"
   Load     "vbe"
load "glx"
load "GLcore"
load "v4l"
 EndSection

 Section "InputDevice"
   Identifier  "Generic Keyboard"
   Driver    "kbd"
option "CoreKeyboard"
option "XkbRules" "xorg"
option "XkbModel" "pc105"
option "XkbLayout" "us"
 EndSection

 Section "InputDevice"
   Identifier  "Configured Mouse"
   Driver    "mouse"
option "CorePointer"
option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
 EndSection

 Section "InputDevice"
   Driver    "wacom"
   Identifier  "stylus"
option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
option "Type" "stylus"
option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"
 EndSection

 Section "InputDevice"
   Driver    "wacom"
   Identifier  "eraser"
option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
option "Type" "eraser"
option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"
 EndSection

 Section "InputDevice"
   Driver    "wacom"
   Identifier  "cursor"
option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
option "Type" "cursor"
option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"
 EndSection

 Section "Device"
identifier "Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 86C326 5598/6326"
boardname "sis"
busid "PCI:0:13:0"
driver "sis"
screen 0
 EndSection

 Section "Monitor"
identifier "Generic Monitor"
modelname "Custom 1"
modeline "640x480@60" 25.2 640 656 752 800 480 490 492 525 -vsync -hsync
modeline "800x600@56" 36.0 800 824 896 1024 600 601 603 625 +hsync +vsync
modeline "800x600@60" 40.0 800 840 968 1056 600 601 605 628 +hsync +vsync
modeline "1024x768@60" 65.0 1024 1048 1184 1344 768 771 777 806 -vsync -hsync
gamma 1.0
 EndSection

 Section "Screen"
   Identifier  "Default Screen"
   Device    "Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 86C326 5598/6326"
   Monitor    "Generic Monitor"
   DefaultDepth 24

    SubSection "Display"
depth 24
modes "1024x768@60" "800x600@60" "800x600@56" "640x480@60"
    EndSubSection
 EndSection

Before the x server just finally decided to not let me in anymore, the second monitor was scrolling because when I tried to set the monitor at 1024x768 it decided it only wanted to work at 800x600 but the monitor & display module wouldn't let me back in to change anything anymore. I would like to get both monitors working at 1024x768, as I'm pretty sure both are capable of. The secondary display should be to the left.

Any suggestions, help, or guidance either on what to do or on where I can read up on this myself would be greatly appreciated. I have tried looking at http://xorg.freedesktop.org/archive/...rg.conf.5.html but my eyes went cross eyed as I don't know enough already to make heads or tails of it.

[DeathKitten]

Re: setting up my xorg.conf to work with my two monitors and ignore KDE's stupid

As I started looking further into trying to fix this myself, I found there were a few other older versions of xorg.conf in /etc/X11/ and I gave one of them a try because I was started to get frustrated with the options on the live CD (so going to have to customize a live CD for future recovery needs) and it seems to be working fine now.

I'm still hopeful someone will have suggestions or tips on what I can do to make it better, and I'll post the currently used version of xorg if anyone wants to see it, but for now I'm going to see if I can make heads or tails of what's there so I can get any idea of what needs to be corrected to make things better. I still have the annoying scrolling problem on the second display, but that's better than the x server just not starting.

[penguin.ch]

Re: setting up my xorg.conf to work with my two monitors and ignore KDE's stupid

# X Server Configuration file generated by kX Generator 0.3.7

What ever happened to your xorg.conf - it is not KDE to blame :P

Therefore, you may want to give KDE's own configuration module, to be accessed via KDE's original Control Center, a fair change (at least ...): [Alt][F2] kcontrol >> Peripherals > Monitor & Display

Although this may look as if it were the same module Kubuntu's "System Settings" are making use of (which may or may not be the case), the outcome could (and hopefully will) be different.

Be that as it may - forced to work with merely one "half-dead" 19 inch flatscreen, I'm lacking the ability to provide useful in-depth knowledge ... therefore, "Plan B" is just another piece of guesswork: grab a copy of Knoppix, boot into this live system, therein configure both displays to your liking - and copy this xorg.conf to a usb stick, for later reference ...

[DeathKitten]

Re: setting up my xorg.conf to work with my two monitors and ignore KDE's stupid

The reason I assumed it was KDE's Monitor & Display module that was at least partly to blame is that it worked the first couple times I tried to change anything right after my last fresh install, and now it just doesn't load up at all. I can't use it until the gorram bug fix the bug tracker claims has been submitted actually hits the repositories. There seems to be some stupid problem with it when one has a dual monitor set up.