E17 and KDE reviving Multiscreen Linux. I need help riding this New/ old Wave.

Folks,
I am a fan of linux on Plugable Usb video units or docks. Multiscreen linux has either impossible or wizardry. This may be changing. The Enlightenment version 17 is out. It is supposed to be both tunable, either lightweight, or full featured as you wish. It is said to support Multiple screens well. Even KDE is moving this way. Now Desktops are offering Multi screen support, it is time to revive the topic.

I need pointers to multiscreen X tools and techniques. Bhodi Linux is said to support E-17 well. I am looking to use it to explore multiscreen linux. Anyone with pointers to E-17 docs, multiscreen X setup docs, or related tips, Please post them here. I’d like to get multiscreen support like I have under XP. I hope the Plugable community can help revive multiscreen magic under linux.

Hi Jeffrey,

Multi-monitor support under Linux has been a dismal area, especially spanning different PCI and USB graphics adapters. What’s easy on Windows has been unsupported or terribly difficult to configure under Linux.

But there have been a number of new developments (mostly spearheaded by David Airlie) that aim to catch Linux up with what Windows XP has long had.

You can see this stuff coming together in Fedora 18 betas. Other distros should follow in coming months.

The key dependencies include:

* Xorg 1.13 and later http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page… (released Sept 2012)
* Linux kernel 3.6 and later with DRM drivers enabled (including UDL DRM driver for DisplayLink USB 2.0 generation devices)
* UI and glue at the distro level, including monitor position and configuration

These enable full plug and plug extended monitor support on Linux, including for USB-attached display devices.

We’d love to hear more reports from people running these latest bits with DisplayLink-based USB 2.0 graphics adapters like our own (http://plugable.com/products/ )

And once more distros are released with all the support integrated, we’ll certainly be doing blog posts and videos to spread the news about what’s new, what works, and what remains to be done.

Thanks for pushing on this Jeffrey - and feel free to post your own experiences with what you’ve installed!

Bernie

Work stil progress :
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page…

I can stand for this to use my plugable DL-195 with my 3rd screen !

Thanks Mathieu! We’re reaching out to those KDE developers to offer them our hardware to test with. Combined with the work of David Airlie and others to enable low-level KMS support, it would be wonderful if a solid, Windows-competitive multi-mon setup was enabled by KDE!

i’m confident Bernie :slight_smile: , this WILL happen ! :smiley: