[ltp] dual head or xinerama - turning it on and off "on the fly"

[Alex Deucher]

This is definitely possible, albeit a bit hacky.  What you will need
is an radeon X server with
my MergedFB patches
(http://dri.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/moin.cgi/MergedFB).  You can
either grab the latest DRI snapshots
(http://dri.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/moin.cgi/Download), or build XORG
from cvs.  Once you have that installed, set up a mergedfb multi-head
desktop and then use xrandr to resize from one head to two on the fly.
 Feel free to ask me any questions if you have trouble setting it up.

Alex


-------------------------------------

Hi,

I am planning to get a T42p soon and wonder if the
usage model I have in mind will be possible with
Linux. I would like to use two monitors - LCD display
in the laptop (1600x1200 resolution) and an external
LCD flat panel display (1280x1024 resolution). LCD
flat panel display would be connected to the port
replicator of the thinkpad (either VGA or DVI -
whichever works). Based on what I read, I should be
able to configure X either with dual-head or with
xinerama to get such two displays working.

What I would like to know is whether it is possible to
use two displays only while thinkpad is in the port
replicator and use one display when thinkpad is
removed from port replicator. When I remove the
thinkpad from the port replicator and take it with me
- can I get the windows on the external display in the
laptop display? Ideally, it would be nice to be able
to use a configuration like that so I can use two
displays while on my desk and still work without
losing the windows while away from desk. Of course, I
wouldn't want to restart my X server every time I
switch between two displays and one display - as that
would mean significant disruption in work. This is
possible to do with Windows and (to it's credit) it's
reasonably smart about figuring out what is the
current display configuration and adjust to it.

Has anyone tried to get such a configuration to work
well? Any suggestions/pointers would be greatly
appreciated.

thanks,
Osho