Dual monitor setup — Porteus 3.0 RazorQt -- [SOLVED]

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kevjonesin
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Dual monitor setup — Porteus 3.0 RazorQt -- [SOLVED]

Post#1 by kevjonesin » 23 May 2014, 15:01

Hello, I'm using Porteus 3.0 RazorQt desktop and am running it persistent from a USB key at present with "opensource drivers" (presume this means 'noveau') on a 2.4GHz P4 system with dual monitors via an Nvidia GeForce 8400 GS.

I built the 'zarfy-0.1.0' gui monitor app from slackbuilds.org and converted it with USM to a porteus module.

At present I've got dual left/right function but it's quirky.

http://i.imgur.com/aOAkmhm.png

The left monitor (VGA-2) displays as a blank openbox desktop, while the right (DVI-1) has inherited the razor-qt gui. The clock and other wdgets that were activated before going to dual mode are apparently still running, but hidden by the openbox desktop. One can see a touch of the edge of the notepad widget showing a gray vertical line at the border between the two screens.

Tips for trouble-shooting this setup will of course be appreciated, but I'm also wondering about perhaps using another app.

I looked for 'arandr' but didn't find a slackbuild script or other slack-verse package for it.

'krandrtray' is mentioned a few times in these forums regarding KDE versions of previous Porteus releases. I'm wondering if it, being Qt based, might perform better. But again, I'm having difficulty finding a package to try.

Ultimately, I'd like to end up with the left screen (VGA-2) as primary with the razor-qt panel/toolbar and the right one (DVI-1) as extended razr-qt desktop (perhaps with an additional panel). I'm not expecting razor to offer full independent multi-screen configuration like E17, but I'm guessing some improvement might be made to what I have now.

I'm a Porteus newbie and fairly new to the slack-verse in general. (I installed Vector Linux 7.0 Light to an old laptop a couple weeks ago; mostly 'Deb/untu' and Puppy experience before that).
Last edited by kevjonesin on 27 May 2014, 11:05, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Dual monitor setup — Porteus 3.0 RazorQt

Post#2 by francois » 23 May 2014, 22:20

If you have a nvidia card you simply need the nvidia linux porteus module in the /porteus/modules folder and reboot the computer:
-32 bit:
http://ponce.cc/porteus/i486/current/drivers/
-64bit:
http://ponce.cc/porteus/x86_64/current/drivers/

According to nvidia specification, the third one, 334.21 should be the one for you, see:
http://www.nvidia.fr/Download/driverRes ... x/73717/fr

I think that there will then be automatically an option in the panel menu under system or settings. If not for now just use the command nvidia-settings in terminal to start the gui.

From what I remember once you fix the settings for you dual display, it will be remembered if you save the settings. :)
Prendre son temps, profiter de celui qui passe.

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Re: Dual monitor setup — Porteus 3.0 RazorQt

Post#3 by kevjonesin » 25 May 2014, 17:50

Ah, thanks for the reminder Francois. The official Nvidia gui gadget had slipped my mind. I'd gotten in the habit of preferring noveau back when the Nvidia driver still broke 'suspend' and 'hibernate' (they'd fail by returning to a hung blank screen). I think I recall mention of such being fixed a year ago or so ...

It's actually moot on the box I'm using most often, at present, anyway as suspend is failing on it with most everything currently (... over a range of distros. It's an old Dell dimension 2400 w/ 2.4 GHz P4 CPU.) o.O lol

I'll give the Nvidia drivers a shot.
(... though I think I'm recalling some 'full screen quirks' with them in the past--aspect ratios based on combined width or some such ... perhaps that has sorted out also by now ... 'fingers X'd' ...)

Thanks again.
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Re: Dual monitor setup — Porteus 3.0 RazorQt

Post#4 by kevjonesin » 27 May 2014, 11:03

I added the nVidia module as per above and ran ...

Code: Select all

nvidia-settings
... as root so as to permit the (gui) settings app to save to xorg.conf.

Adds a little lag to boot/initial launch of the desktop, but otherwise it seems to be working fine.

The nVidia gui settings options are much more robust than zarfy's.
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Re: Dual monitor setup — Porteus 3.0 RazorQt -- [SOLVED]

Post#5 by francois » 28 May 2014, 11:05

I am happy that this could improve your porteus experience. :)
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