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    #1

    [SOLVED] dual monitor setup driving me nuts!

    My wife's computer was running a dual monitor setup, with a Dell 1703FP monitor on the DVI output of an nvidia geforce 8400 GS. Everything worked perfectly, except she never used the second monitor. Today I unplugged her second monitor, and hooked it up to my computer which has an nvidia geforce 5200 fx.
    The nvidia X server config is the latest version available, and it shows both monitors (NEC LCD1700M on CRT-0, DELL 1703FP on DFP-0, both on GPU-0). The thing is, the Dell monitor is stuck in power save mode.

    I've tried pressing the button on the monitor to make sure it's in digital mode, not analog. I've tried unplugging the NEC monitor. I switched the Dell monitor to a VGA connector, and that works fine. I searched Google and most of the answers I could find are specific to Windows, although I did find one that involved burning an ISO to a CD and booting from that to fix some problem with Dell monitors. I tried this "fix" 3 times, and it has done nothing.

    Both computers are running 10.04, 64-bit.

    It's almost 4am, my 2nd monitor STILL doesn't work, and I'm completely stumped. Can anyone help?
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    #2
    Re: dual monitor setup driving me nuts!

    Have you run "nvidia-settings" to see if it's configured the monitor or if it shows there?

    I suggest: shut down your system, connect the monitor, boot up, log in and open a terminal window and type kdesudo nvidia-settings This will open nvidia-settings with root permissions if you want to save your new settings.

    You should see DFP-0 and DFP-1 listed and DFP-1 will likely show it's grayed out.

    Please Read Me
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      #3
      Re: dual monitor setup driving me nuts!

      Perhaps I was unclear in my 4am ramblings:
      Attached Files
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        #4
        Re: dual monitor setup driving me nuts!

        No, you were clear enough - I was low on morning coffee!

        Open a terminal and type xrandr -q and post the output.

        Do you have a file called /etc/X11/xorg.conf? If you do, make a backup copy of it and (with both monitors plugged in and on) type sudo Xorg -configure in a terminal and restart X to see what that does.

        Please Read Me
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          #5
          Re: dual monitor setup driving me nuts!

          Code:
          will@keta:~$ xrandr -q
Screen 0: minimum 2560 x 1024, current 2560 x 1024, maximum 2560 x 1024
default connected 2560x1024+0+0 0mm x 0mm
  2560x1024   50.0*
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            #6
            Re: dual monitor setup driving me nuts!

            Originally posted by oshunluvr
            Do you have a file called /etc/X11/xorg.conf? If you do, make a backup copy of it and (with both monitors plugged in and on) type sudo Xorg -configure in a terminal and restart X to see what that does.
            Results: On restarting X/computer, NEC monitor came out of power save mode, but was entirely blank. The Dell monitor stayed in power save mode; basically no change from before.

            And now I have an additional problem - I restored /etc/X11/xorg.conf from the backup I'd just made and rebooted the computer. All I get is a CLI (I've checked Alt+F1, F2, F3, etc). According to ps, kdm is up and running. How do I get my GUI back!?
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              #7
              Re: dual monitor setup driving me nuts!

              Oops - I broke it! :P Odd, that you can't even get it back to previous state.

              Since you're in terminal mode, type:

              sudo service kdm restart

              This will attempt to restart graphics mode. If it fails again (seems likely) you should get some error messages. Post any you get. I would suspect either (EE) No Screen(s) Found or Could not load driver.

              Also, read through /var/log/Xorg.0.log and take note of and post any warnings (WW) and errors (EE). To read the log file one screen page at a time the command is:

              cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log |more

              Then once you've done that. Navigate to /etc/X11 and be sure you've actually restored the previous xorg.conf and not another. Assuming you have in fact used the previous xorg.conf, rename it to something else (so you have no file named xorg.conf) and then restart kdm again.

              At this point I have to believe 1 of 2 things:

              Since the Dell worked on your wife's computer and not this one, the monitor and cable must be OK. Therefore, your video card second port is not sending a signal. Either the port is bad or xorg is turning off the second port - which makes the results of xrandr very odd because that output looks very much like it would if you had two monitors configured using twinview. Configuring twinview properly with a CRT and a DFP is not the easiest thing in the world, but it's do-able.

              If you can, post a copy of your xorg.conf too. I realize you're likely using your wife's computer to post so that may not be easy for you at this stage.

              Some other notes: save time and where and tear on your computer and as you're editing xorg.conf, restart kdm rather than a total reboot - happens much faster. The only time your really need to reboot is when you update the kernel/video driver - so if you install a new driver version, reboot. If you change xorg.cong, restart kdm.

              Out of curiosity, what happens when you boot to the live CD?


              Please Read Me
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                #8
                Re: dual monitor setup driving me nuts!

                So apparently my computer "lost" the nvidia module somewhere. After reading the Xorg log, I rm'd xorg.conf and re-ran the nvidia install script, now KDE works again

                On Monday or so, I'm going to try moving monitors around to see what happens. I have a 3rd computer that has the AGP version of the same graphics card I'm using. Should be interesting to see what happens there.

                For some reason, the forum will not let me post my xorg.conf. Every time I try, I get my connection reset.
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                  #9
                  Re: dual monitor setup driving me nuts!

                  Odd, are you attaching it as a file or cut-n-paste?

                  Please Read Me
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                    #10
                    Re: dual monitor setup driving me nuts!

                    Also note that in KFN:

                    Allowed file types: txt, doc, pdf, jpg, gif, mpg, png
                    Maximum attachment size allowed: 128 KB
                    Windows no longer obstructs my view.
                    Using Kubuntu Linux since March 23, 2007.
                    "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data." - Sherlock Holmes​
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                      #11
                      Re: dual monitor setup driving me nuts!

                      Originally posted by oshunluvr
                      Odd, are you attaching it as a file or cut-n-paste?
                      I was trying to cut and paste. Let me try attaching...

                      Attached Files
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                        #12
                        Re: dual monitor setup driving me nuts!

                        OMG! I finally got it working! I won't bore you with the whole story, so here's the end result:

                        My computer's video card had a dual link DVI-I connector, but when you looked at the card itself, there was a tiny little sticker that, in tiny little print, indicated the output was DVI-A. So the computer was only putting out an analog signal, the monitors will only accept a digital signal, thus nothing worked. I swapped video cards between 2 computers, and everything's copacetic now.

                        I found this site to be incredibly helpful in explaining the differences:
                        http://www.datapro.net/techinfo/dvi_info.html#Page06
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                          #13
                          Re: [SOLVED] dual monitor setup driving me nuts!

                          Very cool. Nice job.
                          Windows no longer obstructs my view.
                          Using Kubuntu Linux since March 23, 2007.
                          "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data." - Sherlock Holmes​
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                            #14
                            Re: [SOLVED] dual monitor setup driving me nuts!

                            That was a tricky one

                            Please Read Me
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