Questions[xinerama](ubuntu)

Alright, guys. I cannot for the life of me figure this one out. What I'm trying to do is change my Xorg settings to act as if my 3 (identical) monitors are a single monitor so I can span a game across all 3.

Here are the 3 monitors I'm using with my NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080: https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-24-gaming-monitor-s2417dg/apd/210-aizs

I was able to find this video from Jakejw93 on YouTube, which was uploaded back in 2016. From what it looks like, all he had to do was change Xinerama to "1" in his /etc/X11/xorg.conf. I can see he is running Unity in the video, so I'd assume he was on 16.04.

I figured that seemed simple enough, so I did it on my 18.04 install. I went ahead and set Xinerama to "1" in my /etc/X11/xorg.conf file, and rebooted. However, that's when trouble starts.

Upon reboot, I am greeted with just my mouse cursor on a black screen. The good thing, however, is that I can move the cursor around. Here's a (low quality) picture I took with my phone: https://imgur.com/a/m3QF94j

Here's a copy of my (modified) /etc/X11/xorg.conf: https://pastebin.com/sjK356aE ...here's my /etc/Xorg.0.log: https://pastebin.com/bWt2kYAc ...and my /etc/Xorg.1.log https://pastebin.com/DjYq7Sfc

Output of lshw: https://pastebin.com/U5WuriWz

Where would I even start with this? There isn't much documentation online about Xinerama, and I was not able to find any about NVIDIA's TwinView either.https://imgur.com/oLbpaWV

Is there some way that I can have Xinerama enabled and still use hardware acceleration? I have three monitors on 2 GPUs. I have enabled Xinerama, but now all hardware acceleration is gone. This results in bad framerates in games, and Compiz isn't working properly. In case this is impossible, is there some way to move applications between X screens without Xinerama? Here is my xorg.conf, generated by NVIDIA X Server Settings:

# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings
# nvidia-settings:  version 295.33  (buildd@zirconium)  Fri Mar 30 13:43:34 UTC 2012

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "Samsung SyncMaster"
    HorizSync       30.0 - 81.0
    VertRefresh     56.0 - 85.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor1"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "GML GM-QUADRANT-A"
    HorizSync       30.0 - 81.0
    VertRefresh     56.0 - 75.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor2"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "Samsung SyncMaster"
    HorizSync       30.0 - 81.0
    VertRefresh     56.0 - 75.0
    Option         "DPMS"
    # HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "TwinView" "0"
    Option         "metamodes" "CRT: nvidia-auto-select +0+0; CRT: 1280x1024_75 +0+0"
    SubSection "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen1"
    Device         "Device1"
    Monitor        "Monitor1"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "TwinView" "0"
    Option         "metamodes" "DFP: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
    SubSection "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen2"
    Device         "Device2"
    Monitor        "Monitor2"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "TwinView" "0"
    Option         "metamodes" "nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
    SubSection "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
    # generated from default
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
    Option         "Composite" "Disable"
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    Screen      1  "Screen1" RightOf "Screen0"
    Screen      2  "Screen2" RightOf "Screen1"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
    Option         "Xinerama" "1"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce GTX 570"
    BusID          "PCI:1:0:0"
    Screen          0
    Option  "NoLogo"    "True"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device1"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce GTX 570"
    BusID          "PCI:1:0:0"
    Screen          1
    Option  "NoLogo"    "True"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device2"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce 9500 GS"
    BusID          "PCI:7:0:0"
    Option  "NoLogo"    "True"
EndSection

after searching I have not found a solution.

I have 2 nvidia quadro 295 cards with 3 monitors but I can not extend twinview across multiple GPUs.

I have the most recent nvidia proprietary drivers installed, and they work fine for the single GPU / dual monitors. I tried using xinerama, but without success.

I don't mind switching to the nouveau drivers if that would handle my multiple monitors, although I would like to continue to use unity and compiz if i can).

Following the WoLpH's recommendation I am looking forward to enable Xinerama to set up 2 monitors to be 2 separate Gnome virtual desktops instead of one big.

But the thing I worry about is how to set it up correctly and not to harm Ubuntu's "Monitor Preferences" application, panel indicator applet or anything else.

If you have had any experience with Xinerama, would you be so kind to share?

I use Ubuntu 10.10 on my Toshiba L10 laptop with Intel 82852/855GM onboard card. And I switch (which, AFAIK, can be an inconvenience with Cinerama) monitor configurations (detach all monitors but a laptop's built-in panel, attach monitors with different resolutions) pretty often (sometimes many times a day).

As Ubuntu was unable to detect my graphics, I was to create Xorg.conf already, which has solved most of my graphics problems.

The last time I have had experience with writing Xorg.conf manually and setting up Xinerama was about 7 years ago, with Slackware and Matrox MGA G550 card. And I definitely wouldn't like to edit Xorg.conf every time I need to switch my monitors configuration.

I am trying to make gnome-mplayer play a video in fullscreen on my second screen. I am using a Nvidia card with xineramascreen. Below is my ~/.mplayer/config file.

[default]
xineramascreen=1

[gnome-mplayer]
ao=alsa:device=hw=1.0
msglevel=all=5
alang=English,eng,en
slang=English,eng,en
xineramascreen=1

The options have no affect, it plays on my primary screen as usual.

Running mplayer -xineramascreen 1 works perfectly, I just want gnome-mplayer to work since it's nicer to use with GUI and Nautilus integration etc.