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I have xubuntu on an HP DL360 G7 server. Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS

Machine has two vga ports, one at the back and one at the front.

I can get an identical desktop displayed on both monitors, but cannot get the desktop extended across the two.

I've tried switching off 'Mirror displays' in the display application and arranging the two side by side. Doesn't work however. 'Identify displays' shows them both as Display 2, no matter how I arrange them.

xrandr gives:

Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 1024, maximum 4096 x 4096 VGA-0 connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 338mm x 270mm 1280x1024 60.02*+ 75.02
1280x960 60.00
1152x864 75.00 69.97
1024x768 75.03 70.07 60.00
832x624 74.55
800x600 72.19 75.00 60.32 56.25
640x480 75.00 72.81 66.67 59.94
720x400 70.08
VGA-1 connected primary 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 338mm x 270mm 1280x1024 60.02*+ 75.02
1280x960 60.00
1152x864 75.00 69.97
1024x768 75.03 70.07 60.00
832x624 74.55
800x600 72.19 75.00 60.32 56.25
640x480 75.00 72.81 66.67 59.94
720x400 70.08

Is it possible to use two monitors on this machine in any way other than both showing identical output?

Although I have 2 two physical monitors attached to this machine and the Display application lets me see 2 monitors and drag one to the side of the other, the HardInfo application informs that I only have a single monitor.

On my laptop, also running xubuntu with a second monitor, where the desktop does extend across the 2nd monitor, HardInfo reports that I have 2 monitors.

It occurs to me that maybe in a DL360, although there are 2 physical vga ports, the wires both connect to the same thing internally.

As suggested by Stormlord below, I've tried:

xrandr --output VGA-0 --primary --left-of VGA-1

but it seems to have no effect.

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  • Apologies. I mis-typed my ubuntu version number. Now corrected.
    – rgh
    Aug 29 '18 at 22:50
  • Normally you change the way 2nd monitor behave in Settings->Devices->Displays Choose a Display Mode that you want, Joint, Mirror or Single.
    – Bernard Wei
    Aug 30 '18 at 1:04
  • Thanks Bernard, I've added a bit more detail to my post.
    – rgh
    Aug 31 '18 at 9:33
  • So you can see two displays in the arrangement but identity shows that both displays are idenfied as display 2? That is a very strange problem. Since it only shows the arrangement for Join Display whenit can see detect two display devices. And yet things are not working.
    – Bernard Wei
    Aug 31 '18 at 17:44
  • "So you can see two displays in the arrangement but identity shows that both displays are idenfied as display 2?" Yes, that's the situatiion.
    – rgh
    Aug 31 '18 at 18:43
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Open a terminal and try this command to have xrandr make the change:

xrandr --output VGA-0 --primary --left-of VGA-1

If xrandr succeeds, you have to run this command every time you log in to your user account though.

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