How to set up two monitors for Linux?

[renegade7]

Running Linux Mint 13

I have two monitors, one of resolution 1920x1080 and another 1366x768. The first is connected with HDMI, the second with DVI. I've been using both on Windows with no trouble, I'm wondering how to get that configuration set up in Linux. Thanks.

 

[Albino Boo]

Install arandr. Its gui based monitor setup tool

 

[raeior]

Depends on what Desktop you use. KDE has krandr installed under normal conditions and Gnome probably has something like that too. XFCE or other stuff probably needs something like the already mentioned arandr. Besides that it is not different from Windows. No more messing around in xorg.conf or anything like that.

Edit:
kscreen not krandr that was taken out of KDE at some point in the past.

 

[renegade7]

Okay, so I have it displaying on two monitors, but now there's something...weird.

So I can drag my mouse between the two, and see it move and everything so I know it's sort of working. But if I try to move a window or desktop icon over there, it becomes invisible. If I leave half on the fully functional monitor, I can see only the half that's on that monitor even though I can still interact (via random clicking) with what's on the other screen.

 

[Frezzato]

Okay, so I have it displaying on two monitors, but now there's something...weird.

So I can drag my mouse between the two, and see it move and everything so I know it's sort of working. But if I try to move a window or desktop icon over there, it becomes invisible. If I leave half on the fully functional monitor, I can see only the half that's on that monitor even though I can still interact (via random clicking) with what's on the other screen.

Wait, I ran into this problem myself back when I first got this machine, except I'm using Windows 7. I also have two monitors, one DVI, one HDMI, but for the life of me I can't remember how I fixed it.

I think I accidentally fixed it by switching the cables. Now I'm using the DVI monitor as the primary. Have you tried switching?

*EDIT* Also, I had a ton of updates waiting for me when I first booted up. There was at least one driver for my specific HDTV in Windows Update.

 

[renegade7]

Okay, so I have it displaying on two monitors, but now there's something...weird.

So I can drag my mouse between the two, and see it move and everything so I know it's sort of working. But if I try to move a window or desktop icon over there, it becomes invisible. If I leave half on the fully functional monitor, I can see only the half that's on that monitor even though I can still interact (via random clicking) with what's on the other screen.

Wait, I ran into this problem myself back when I first got this machine, except I'm using Windows 7. I also have two monitors, one DVI, one HDMI, but for the life of me I can't remember how I fixed it.

I think I accidentally fixed it by switching the cables. Now I'm using the DVI monitor as the primary. Have you tried switching?

*EDIT* Also, I had a ton of updates waiting for me when I first booted up. There was at least one driver for my specific HDTV in Windows Update.

It's randomly decided to start working. I don't know why, but the screen is now appropriately split. New problem, though, is that the performance is horrible.

The graphics card is active, I think, it's saying the driver is active at least. But the performance is crap, like maybe 15 FPS at most.

 

[AWAR]

snip

What graphics card you're using? If you're on nvidia, switch to nvidia proprietry drivers from the drivers menu. Xorg drivers are on by default and they cause issues.
It wouldn't hurt getting the new mint version, mint 17 LTS will probably be released later this month.

 

[renegade7]

snip

What graphics card you're using? If you're on nvidia, switch to nvidia proprietry drivers from the drivers menu. Xorg drivers are on by default and they cause issues.
It wouldn't hurt getting the new mint version, mint 17 LTS will probably be released later this month.

It's an ATI Radeon 7770 card, kind of old but so far (on Windows) it's been good for everything I've thrown at it.

Will upgrading undo all of the configuration I've done, or is it possible to upgrade while keeping all of my OS settings?

 

[raeior]

Normally your settings should be saved between upgrades. You can check what driver you are using and if hardware acceleration is enabled by opening a terminal window and using the command "glxinfo". It should give you something like this as output:
glxinfo
name of display: :0
display: :0 screen: 0
direct rendering: Yes
server glx vendor string: ATI

Direct rendering has to say yes and the glx vendor string should be ATI if you are using the proprietary drivers. If not it shows MESA or something like that I think. The ATI drivers are called fglrx.

 

[AWAR]

For linux mint, it's recommended you do a clean install between releases, you can backup your software sources though.