multiple displays (was Re: [wplug] Boot drive work around)

[Patrick Wagstrom]

Zach wrote:
> On 10/25/07, Patrick Wagstrom <pwagstro at andrew.cmu.edu> wrote:
>> I normally run with dual displays off my laptop and have one display
>> wiht VMWare Player full screen for windows, and the other display for
>> whatever I'm doing in Linux.  Works awesome.
> 
> How can I get a dual screen display working in Linux? I tried plugging
> my CRT in to the laptop but it switches off the LCD when I do that,
> seems I can only use one at a time. And how do you switch between your
> two screens?

This all depends on your video card the version of linux you're using.
Fortunately, for most newer laptops, things have gotten pretty nice.  If
you've got an nvidia, run the nvidia-settings program to configure
multiple displays.  If you've got an ati or intel, use the open source
drivers and xrandr1.2 to configure multiple displays.

--Patrick