This does indeed work. Depending on whether Xinerama is enabled, there are
two different ways that X can handle this (Linux doesn't really handle
dualhead setups, X does. FWIW, this is handled the same way under
Free/Net/OpenBSD)

With Xinerama, the two (or more) displays will be merged to form one
continuous desktop.

Without it, they will show up as separate displays, known as :0.0 and :0.1.
Many WMs (WindowMaker, Enlightenment, Kwin) will start on both displays. In
this mode, you can't move windows between the heads, but non-Xinerama-aware
apps will behave more intelligently.

You WILL have 3D-acceleration issues. Generally speaking, you can only use
DRI on one head, and you cannot use DRI and NV-GLX at the same time (if, for
exaple, you have an nVidia card in the AGP slot, and an ATi Rage 128 or
similar in the PCI slot, one will have to software-render.) I've currently
got a multihead setup with an AGP Radeon DDR and a PCI Voodoo3 3000, which
works fine (modulo some DGA screwiness on the Voodoo), but I only have
3D-acceleration on the Radeon (Which is OK, since it's a buttload faster
than the Voodoo anyway.). I haven't done extensive Xv testing, since I only
ever use Xawtv on the Radeon side, but with the ati.2 driver, that works.

If you're not using Xinerama, the two displays can run at any color depth or
resolution (subject to limitations of the cards and monitors, of course). I
sometimes start the Voodoo3 in 8-bit color to use apps that require a
PseudoColor default visual, while leaving the Radeon in 24-bit to satisfy
everything else.

With Xinerama, they can be at any resolution, but must use the same color
depth. (note that this usually isn't too horrible of a requirement.)

-----Original Message-----
From: Marcel Birthelmer [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2001 10:20 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [Newbie]2 video cards/monitors


Hi
I just wanted to know how X would deal with a dual-screen setup...or 
rather, how linux itself would cope... would each of them be treated as 
a workspace, would it be one continuous desktop, or what?
and also, has anyone tried using 2 different resolutions/depths on the 
monitors?
Thx
Marcel

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