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I don't have a machine which is running with NVIDIA card. My machine is using

Intel® HD Graphics 4400
One Mini DisplayPort*1 1.2 supporting ultra-high definition
4K displays and multiple monitor functionality
One Mini HDMI* 1.4a port

I can attach two monitors and they works fine, but when I print out xrandr

Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1920 x 2160, maximum 32767 x 32767
HDMI1 connected 1920x1080+0+1080 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 477mm x 268mm
   1920x1080      60.0*+   59.9  
   1280x1024      75.0  
   1280x720       60.0     59.9  
   1024x768       75.1     60.0  
   800x600        72.2     75.0     60.3     56.2  
   720x480        60.0     59.9  
   640x480        75.0     60.0     59.9  
   720x400        70.1  
DP1 connected primary 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 480mm x 270mm
   1920x1080      60.0*+
   1680x1050      60.0  
   1400x1050      60.0  
   1600x900       60.0  
   1280x1024      75.0     60.0  
   1440x900       59.9  
   1280x800       59.8  
   1152x864       75.0  
   1280x720       60.0  
   1024x768       75.1     60.0  
   832x624        74.6  
   800x600        75.0     60.3     56.2  
   640x480        75.0     60.0  
   720x400        70.1  
HDMI2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
VIRTUAL1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

They are in same screen 0 while I want them to be in two separate screen0 and screen1. I have heard the NVIDIA TwinView which supports dual head vga, is able to do that but I don't make sure.

Short question: Could anyone use the TwinView and please paste your output of the command xrandr here? I just want to know whether there are more than once a screen0. Thank you.

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1 Answer 1

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The word "screen" is used in the meaning the X11 system uses, which is not intuitive. Rather than a physical screen, it means the logical abstraction for a single framebuffer. A display can have multiple screens, which can have multiple monitors each. Different monitors can then display different, possibly overlapping portions of the same screen.

So rather than "screen 0" and "screen 1", you want a larger "screen 0", with the monitors displaying different portions. You'd set that up with (e.g.)

xrandr --output DP1 --right-of HDMI1

After that, DP1 should report as

DP1 connected primary 1920x1080+1920+0

You'd use a setup with multiple "screen"s if you have multiple graphics cards, which have separate video memory, because in such a setup, rendering commands need to be distributed over separate GPUs, which has significant complexity, while in your case, it is sufficient to simply generate two different output signals.

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  • I don't have multiple graphics cards, that's the point. I wonder if I buy a PC has a external graphic card like NVIDIA, is there more one screen1? Easier way, if someone can post their xrandr output which sucessfully done that, I won't mind this problem anymore. Thank you for your explanation. It's helpful information Aug 29, 2014 at 9:18
  • Exactly -- you have one graphics card with multiple monitors, so don't expect to see a "screen 1". The command I gave you should set up a screen with 3840x1080, and send the left half to the monitor (or output) on HDMI1, and the right half to the monitor on DP1. Aug 29, 2014 at 9:30

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