Desktop resolution question

[Miki800]

I have 2 monitors - one LCD screen and the other one - a TV.
In XP I have set up the displays at a resolution of 1680x1050 cloning each other and it worked perfectly.

In my current kde ubuntu desktop, after installing the ati drivers for linux
I could set my screen to the above desired resolution but I could not set the TV to the same resolution,
which I find wierd because in XP I was able to have the same resolution set for my TV without any problems at all.

So I tried forcing that resolution for my TV by editing the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file and restarting my system
but after the restart was completed I turned on my TV and it displayed this error message:
"Not compatible
with this signal"


my hope is to read some explanation to this issue here and solve it.

[Miki800]

the closest resolution to the one I actually want that I can set for my TV
via KDE's "System Settings->Display and Monitor->Size & Orientation"
is 1776x1000, compared to 1680x1050.

What happens if I do that, I can not use 'Unify outputs' but I can manually put them on-top each other.
That way my actual desktop's size is 1776x1000, while the size I still want for the desktop (not the monitors) is 1680x1050.
that way my desktop fills entirely into my TV
and the screen misses parts of the width of the desktop and also adds a thick black row below the desktop.

I want this to be the other way around - I want the TV to miss part of the desktop and the screen to fit entirely into the desktop.

so I tried changing the Primary output to the screen and also change the screen position to Absolute instead of cloning
but it didn't change the fact that the resolution tends to fill my TV instead of my screen.

If not "Primary output", how else could I decide for myself which monitor will get the desktop size when there is only one desktop and both monitors are on-top each other instead of Unified/Cloning?
My only guess is that KDE's code does this decision on it's own, and it decides which monitor gets the complete desktop
by the one that has the larger width. If that is the case I would like this feature to be controllable by the user,
or more preferably (only seems reasonable) be attached to the value of "Primary output".
If its already the case - then its not working.

Another thing - when I open up the options for "Position" in the TV output I can only select "Absolute" as there are no other options,
but for the screen there are the following options: "Absolute", "Clone of", "Left of", "Right of", "Above", "Below".
Why is that?

[rossdv8]

Do you use your computer for gaming?
I find that every time I install the ATI drivers from 'Additional Drivers' option, it installs Catalyst.
Every time I get Catalyst, it screws up my dual monitor system which is similar to yours.
The only way I can fix it is to reinstall, because for some reason once catalyst is installed I can never remove it, even though it says it is gone.

I am lucky. I don't use my computer for graphics intensive gaming. I use it for graphics and video manipulation though. I have had the problem often enough on a couple of AMD/ATI systems now to just steer clear of the ATI option in 'Additional Drivers'.

So I now stick with the basic install. If you play graphic intensive games, you wil have to dig deeper into the mystery.

[Miki800]

Do you use your computer for gaming?
I find that every time I install the ATI drivers from 'Additional Drivers' option, it installs Catalyst.
Every time I get Catalyst, it screws up my dual monitor system which is similar to yours.
The only way I can fix it is to reinstall, because for some reason once catalyst is installed I can never remove it, even though it says it is gone.

I am lucky. I don't use my computer for graphics intensive gaming. I use it for graphics and video manipulation though. I have had the problem often enough on a couple of AMD/ATI systems now to just steer clear of the ATI option in 'Additional Drivers'.

So I now stick with the basic install. If you play graphic intensive games, you wil have to dig deeper into the mystery.

yeah, I play diablo 3 most of the time and its running smooth, I've come to realize and accept that the resolution my ATI driver was able to see as possible ones in XP will never be available in Linux
because Linux+ATI = failure, probably more because of ATI's lazy ass' fault

and that's just the way it is and there is nothing I can do about it.

although I do remember sometimes in the far past fixing this by playing with Xorg.conf, don't feel like digging that up again anymore...

[rossdv8]

I no longer use a computer for any sort of games, but I have in the past built flight simulators for people. If you have a spare slot, perhaps think about swapping in a reasonable Nvidea card. Drivers for Nvidea seem to work more reliaby, but of course, check forums or ask here for advice.
I have no idea what is available since I got out of the computer industry, but GeForce used to be an affordable option.
There are heaps of cards to to choose from other than ATI.
Maybe keep an eye out for one with VGA and DVI outputs so you can run a TV and a monitor from one card. I have DVI running a Samsung TV and VGA running the Compaq monitor, sadly both from an ATI.

I should add, that as much as I hate ATI. I am writing this on a system running Kubuntu 13.10 Alpha, with two monitors, and the one I am typing into has an mp4 video movie running smoothly as the wallpaper. Firefox is open over it, and translucency is set so when focus is not on firefox, the movie shows through.

This is without using the ATI Catalyst driver. If I install 'Additional Drivers', I lost the ability to run this.

[Miki800]

I no longer use a computer for any sort of games, but I have in the past built flight simulators for people. If you have a spare slot, perhaps think about swapping in a reasonable Nvidea card. Drivers for Nvidea seem to work more reliaby, but of course, check forums or ask here for advice.
I have no idea what is available since I got out of the computer industry, but GeForce used to be an affordable option.
There are heaps of cards to to choose from other than ATI.
Maybe keep an eye out for one with VGA and DVI outputs so you can run a TV and a monitor from one card. I have DVI running a Samsung TV and VGA running the Compaq monitor, sadly both from an ATI.

I should add, that as much as I hate ATI. I am writing this on a system running Kubuntu 13.10 Alpha, with two monitors, and the one I am typing into has an mp4 video movie running smoothly as the wallpaper. Firefox is open over it, and translucency is set so when focus is not on firefox, the movie shows through.

This is without using the ATI Catalyst driver. If I install 'Additional Drivers', I lost the ability to run this.

well, my ati card has HDMI for my TV (so it pass through sound as well)
and DVI for my computer screen.

and I use the latest LTS Ubuntu with KDE and I use google chrome.

you have an animated wallpaper? thats nice, I suppose I could do that too but I wouldn't wanna try something that puts any stress on my resources if I don't need it, unless its stuff like kwin which I really like

[rossdv8]

Running a movie as wallpaper is one of those completely useless things. But I use it to try to break the system when I am trying out a new release. Uses far too much of the resources.
Anyway, we are way off topic here. :-)