i3 not working on two screens

[zioast...@gmail.com]

Hi,
I've just tried i3 on qubes3.2 but there is an issue with my external monitor. I cannot separate them, even when I split and dispose properly the screen in the settings, as you can see in the image. The screens did not even refresh.

http://imgur.com/a/7jtvI

I remember I didn't had this problem with qubes 3.1. Going into system-settings and selecting display would effectively apply the settings and split my desktop in two screen.

Maybe I'm not calling the correct app, as I don't remember of having xfce in the previous 3.1 qubes.

Thanks!

[Noor Christensen]

On Thu, Jul 13, 2017 at 12:37:27PM -0700, zioast...@gmail.com wrote:
> Hi,
> I've just tried i3 on qubes3.2 but there is an issue with my external
> monitor. I cannot separate them, even when I split and dispose
> properly the screen in the settings, as you can see in the image. The
> screens did not even refresh.

Could you elaborate what you mean by "separating them"?

Are the monitors showing the same image, and you want to have two
separate desktops instead?

-- noor

|_|O|_|
|_|_|O| Noor Christensen
|O|O|O| no...@fripost.org ~ 0x401DA1E0

[zioast...@gmail.com]

Yes, by "separating them" i mean to extend the desktop to two screens, since now I see them mirrored (i.e. the eternal one is a copy of the laptop's display)

I adopted the solution listed here, but with no success at all (it just changed the border of the windows in i3)
https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-issues/issues/2084

[Noor Christensen]

On Fri, Jul 14, 2017 at 04:07:15AM -0700, zioast...@gmail.com wrote:
> Yes, by "separating them" i mean to extend the desktop to two screens,
> since now I see them mirrored (i.e. the eternal one is a copy of the
> laptop's display)

You can use xrandr to set up the different display outputs.

For example, the following command defines my external display (VGA1) as
being positioned to the right of my internal display (LVDS1):

$ xrandr --output VGA1 --right-of LVDS1 --preferred

To get the names of your display outputs, run xrandr without flags:

$ xrandr

It's a bit unclear whether or not you are using XFCE or i3wm as your
window manager, but the xrandr method should be effective in either
case.

Another solution is to set up your xorg.conf properly, so your desired
display outputs are configured when X starts, before any window manager
is run.

Here is an example config for a Thinkpad X220:

Section "Device"
# Specify the device we are configuring
Identifier "Intel HD 3000"
Driver "intel"
BusID "PCI:0:2:0" # Video card PCI address

# Give friendly names to the display outputs
Option "Monitor-LVDS1" "LCD"
Option "Monitor-VGA1" "VGA"
EndSection

# Internal monitor (LVDS1)
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "LCD"
Option "Enable" "true"
Option "PreferredMode" "1366x768"
EndSection

# External monitor (VGA1)
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "VGA"
Option "Enable" "true"
Option "PreferredMode" "1680x1050" # Acer AL2216W
Option "RightOf" "LCD"
EndSection

This config has the same effect as the xrandr example shown before -
external display output VGA1 positioned to the right of LVDS1.

You can put the file in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d and it will be read by X on
next start.

Use the "Enable" option to specify whether you want it to activate on X
start, or manually (via xrandr). See the documentation for X.org and the
graphics driver you are using for more options.

NOTE: You probably have to replace some/all values to fit your specific
scenario. Obviously the "Device" section (first paragraph) of the
xorg.conf in particular, but also the xrandr parameters.

[zioast...@gmail.com]

Thanks, i used the xrandr approach and it worked like a charm! <3 :)

[Alex]

Late to the party, but I remember having had trouble with my 6 monitor
configuration and i3. Alas I cannot remember if the switch to i3 was
related to the problems, but after many days of struggle I solved it
with a shell script that calls xrandr 6 times in order to get things fixed.

I set it to be executed by i3 on startup, because xorg.conf is way
beyond my humble brain to understand.

--
Alex