multi-head

Revision 3 as of 2011-12-08 01:47:11

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dual head testing in XFCE

there were 2 test cases i used for dual monitors. these cases are described as follows...

mirroring - this would be for a presentation maybe. having the same image on both the main display, and a secondary display, such as a projector.

spanning - this would be where the desktop is actually extended onto both monitors making one big desktop.

- mirroring the display is quite simple with the included tool from XFCE/Xubuntu located in the menu under "settings" - "monitor settings". this package is LXrandr. http://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=lxrandr

- to enable, and manage dual head spanning, the only tool that worked for me (with a GUI) was arandr.

http://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=arandr

the different displays were easy to find, configure and rotate using the GUI arandr.

arandr and 'monitor settings' in the menu have the same icons.

between these 2 tools, we can cover whatever the end-user needs.

failed packages, and why

grandr failed. i couldnt enable spanning with it, and there were quite a few 'greyed-out' options.