linuxgeek: [LINUX_Newbies] Re: Using two monitors

--- In LINUX_Newbies@yahoogroups.com, "loyal_barber" <loyal_barber@...> wrote:

> Depends a lot on the motherboard and BIOS. Look in the BIOS and see
> if you can enable both. Sometimes you can, but less often so with
> old motherboards.
>
> Also, from my experience with Linux, it helps if both the on-board
> and the plug in video board are both of the same type: both Nvidia,
> both ATI etc. I honestly don't know how you would do it with
> different kinds.
>
> My experience driving two monitors in Linux is driving both off
> one card. That works like a dream. Mine is Nvidia. I just fire
> up the Nvidia configuration tool, select the black monitor, enable
> it in "twinview" mode and then I have an extra big desktop. I
> personally don't think "twinview" is a very good description of
> what it does as "twin" normally means duplicate. In this case it
> means expanding your desktop. You might also mention what distro
> and version you are running.
>
> Loyal
>

I don't know why, but this comment reminded me something that happened to me the first time I installed GNU/Linux. I remembered few years ago when I downloaded and installed a version of Mandrake Linux, my first step to GNU/Linux... I don't know why, but I couldn't perform a graphical instalation, I wanted Linux so badly, so I had to perform a text installation (I had 20 minutes old in Linux), in that time, when configuring the monitor for the first time, the steps for configuation pointed that you could actually BURN your monitor or your motherboard if the configuration was wrong !!! I remember that day, with no one to ask for help. I made every step like if the computer was to EXPLODE (LOL...no kidding, that was an extreme moment). That was scary. Nowadays you don't have to worry about those things anymore.

Here some links to help:

http://www.yolinux.com/TUTORIALS/LinuxAndDualMonitors.html

http://www.ubuntugeek.com/dual-monitors-with-nvidia.html

http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/how-to-setup-dual-monitors-on-linux-fedora-core/

Regards.