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My test system: Mandrake Linux 8.0 with SMP kernel, dual P2-400 with 384 MB RAM, 3 monitors:

  1. AGP Nvidia TNT2 Ultra, primary in BIOS
  2. PCI Nvidia TNT, to the left of the primary
  3. PCI Matrox G450, to the right of the primary

Installation

Much improved over version 7, Mandrake installs XFree86 4.0.3 by default, and creates a multi-monitor X configuration using Xinerama (extended desktop) mode. There is no useful graphical configuration tool though, so you still need to edit XF86Config (/etc/X11/XF86Config-4 for XFree86 4) by hand. I needed to change the display modes and monitor positions.

Adjusting the display mode: look for the Screen section of the monitor you want to edit. There will be several Display subsections, one for each colordepth. Make sure that the first value for Modes is the resolution you want to use, then add the value Virtual, set to the same resolution:

Subsection "Display"
  Depth 24
  Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
  ViewPort 0 0
  Virtual 1024 768
EndSubsection

Adjusting monitor positions: look for the ServerLayout section at the end of the file, then modify the Screen values:

Section "ServerLayout"
  Identifier "layout1"
  Screen "screen1" LeftOf "screen2"
  Screen "screen2"
  Screen "screen3" RightOf "screen2"
  Option "Xinerama" "on"

  InputDevice "Mouse1" "CorePointer"
  InputDevice "Keyboard1" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Window Manager

Mandrake 8 includes KDE 2.1.1, but unfortunately it still doesn't properly support multiple monitors. I then installed Enlightenment 0.16.5, which has good multi-monitor support:

  • you can use different resolutions on each monitor
  • windows maximize to the monitor they are on
  • dialogs open on the monitor where their parent application is located

Here is a screen shot of Enlightenment, the left monitor is running at 800x600, the right one at 1024x768. See below for why the third monitor isn't used.

Enlightenment desktop

Matrox G450

I wasn't able to get the G450 working, even after installing the latest drivers and Matrox PowerDesk for Linux. I have it connected to an analog LCD flat panel, maybe that was part of the problem: if I adjusted the horizontal and vertical refresh rates to match the specs of the monitor, I was able to get it to initialize, but the screen was garbled. If someone is successfully using a G450, any tips you might have would be appreciated.

Problems

After quitting X, secondary monitors aren't uninitialized, which can cause 'Out of Scan Range' and similar problems. This can be annoying if you don't stay in X all the time.

Conclusion

Using multiple monitors with Linux definitely got easier since Mandrake 7. What's missing now is a graphical configuration tool, and multi-monitor support in KDE. Hopefully this will be added in a future release.

If you have questions or comments, post them to the forum.

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