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

[Tod Harter]

The problem is that each mode is a different configuration 'layout' of 
the display X is configured with. X only reads its configuration file at 
startup, so in order to get it to switch layouts you will HAVE to 
restart your X server. In fact realistically the only way I know how to 
do what you want thats simple is to start up in runlevel 3 and pass 
parameters to X at the startx command. That way you can tell it which 
layout to use. So the switching drill would involve shutting down your X 
desktop, switching hardware configurations, and typing startx ... which 
obviously isn't what you want!

Now I'm pretty sure with some hacking of scripts you can get X to figure 
out what your configuration is and then you could run at level 5 and 
every time X restarts it will 'do the right thing', but thats about as 
close as you can get, as things stand now. Its not TOTALLY infeasible 
for this sort of facility to exist, but it would have to be supported by 
the driver, and probably would require some redesign in the
server itself so that window managers, applications, and X internal data 
structures would get updated as well. I would assume that since X can 
already switch resolutions on the fly that its mostly a driver issue at 
this point.

Personally I wouldn't hold my breath for it. Obviously MS has worked all 
this out. X and Linux hasn't.

Osho GG wrote:

>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
>
>
>
>	
>		
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