Tips For Getting Dual Monitors To Work?

[soundchaser59]

I went into settings > settings manager > display
On this screen there is a checkbox for "Mirror Displays" that is defaulted to UNchecked.
But it turns out that "Mirrored" is the default configuration, even though the box is unchecked. I checked the box and as soon as I clicked on it the displays reconfigured into separate "extended desktop" displays, and the checkbox remained UNchecked. This strikes me as a tiny bug that should be an easy fix for the right programmer. I noted this in a post at the AVLinux forum as well, since a user there told me to try it.

I also realized that I could drag the display icons into an over-under configuration. Doing so automatically caused my mouse to change from side-to-side behavior to up-and-down behavior for moving the cursor between screens.

The only minor glitch here is the GUI has the bottom monitor designated as "Primary" but the OS (AVLinux) insists on putting the menu bar and everything up on the upper monitor screen. LOL!! Not a show stopper, I'll adjust, but it's opposite from the dual monitor setup I was used to in Windows.

[oshunluvr]

Good job finding that. BTW, you might be able to move the menu bar (called the "panel" when using KDE/Plasma) by unlocking widgets and dragging it.

[oshunluvr]

Also, BTW - you don't need to boot to Windows just to retrieve files. Linux can read NTFS file systems.

[soundchaser59]

...you might be able to move the menu bar (called the "panel" when using KDE/Plasma) by unlocking widgets and dragging it.

I'll try it. I was wondering about that term "panel" when looking thru the settings gui.

[soundchaser59]

Also, BTW - you don't need to boot to Windows just to retrieve files. Linux can read NTFS file systems.

Yup, it took me several times before I realized what i was looking at in the Linux file manager. I finally realized that the "new drive" I was looking at indeed had all of my Windows folders on it, and they were easily accessible.

It's interesting that Microsoft thinks NTFS is so secure...as long as people are running Windows...but all a guy has to do is boot up to Linux to see and copy every single file on that NTFS drive.

I was just reminded of this a few minutes ago. After I got the wireless and the dual monitors working under my standard AVLinux user, I started thinking about downloading my favorite recording software, Reaper. But then I realized I could simply grab the Reaper folder from the leftover Windows partition. In fact, I could probably use that partition "as is" for saving and running my Reaper song projects...but then I wouldn't be making a complete break from Microsoft junk down the road when I am ready to abandon that Windows part forever and ever amen!

[oshunluvr]

A comment about "secure" and NTFS - it's not. The primary reason any version Linux is clearly more secure than any version Windows is the file systems. The concept of file ownership and access control via permissions makes all the difference in the world - just my opinion though.

Another point about filesystems is you can increase your system performance and utility by selecting the correct file system for the task at hand. The default filesystem for most distros is ext4 but it's not the best - just the most common. I use one called btrfs for all my stuff for tons of reasons - subvolumes, snapshots, multi-device support, the ability to "send" an entire filesystem to a backup location, and more. You can also use xfs for better performance in some use cases. For you, with audio editing and creation being your primary use, you might do some research as to the best filesystem for you.

Since you're new to Linux, a small lesson in some disk format stuff: In the Linux world, we create partitions on devices, create filesystems on partitions (in some cases, also on whole devices), and then mount filesystems to access them. So a hard drive is a device, you split it into partitions, create or "format" the partitions with particular filesystems of your choice (there are dozens), and mount it. Once this is done, you can now write to it and read from it. When you use a file manager (Kubuntu uses Dolphin, AVLinux might use something else) on a current distro, most of the time the file manager will mount an unmounted filesystem (if it's permissions allow you access) to a temporary location when you first attempt to access it. When you log out, the "connection" to that file system is broken until the next time. In the case that you may want to access a filesystem all the time, it might be more productive to permanently mount it at a fixed location.

[soundchaser59]

Good info, Thank You for the great assist!