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<title>i3: The multi-monitor situation</title>\r
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<h1>The multi-monitor situation</h1>\r
<span id="author">Michael Stapelberg</span><br />\r
-<span id="email"><tt><<a href="mailto:michael+i3@stapelberg.de">michael+i3@stapelberg.de</a>></tt></span><br />\r
-<span id="revdate">March 2010</span>\r
+<span id="email"><tt><<a href="mailto:michael@i3wm.org">michael@i3wm.org</a>></tt></span><br />\r
+<span id="revdate">July 2012</span>\r
<div id="toc">
<div id="toctitle">Table of Contents</div>
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<h2 id="_the_quick_fix">1. The quick fix</h2>\r
<div class="sectionbody">\r
<div class="paragraph"><p>If you are using the nVidia binary graphics driver (also known as <em>blob</em>)\r
-you need to use the <tt>--force-xinerama</tt> flag (in your .xsession) when starting\r
+you need to upgrade to at least version 302.17 (released in June 2012).</p></div>\r
+<div class="paragraph"><p>In case you cannot update the driver to 302.17 or newer on your machine for\r
+some reason, use the <tt>--force-xinerama</tt> flag (in your .xsession) when starting\r
i3, like so:</p></div>\r
<div class="listingblock">\r
<div class="title">Example:</div>\r
<div class="content">\r
<pre><tt>exec i3 --force-xinerama -V >>~/.i3/i3log 2>&1</tt></pre>\r
</div></div>\r
+<div class="paragraph"><p>…or use <tt>force_xinerama yes</tt> in your configuration file.</p></div>\r
</div>\r
</div>\r
<div class="sect1">\r
<h2 id="_the_explanation">2. The explanation</h2>\r
<div class="sectionbody">\r
-<div class="paragraph"><p>Starting with version 3.ε, i3 uses the RandR (Rotate and Resize) API instead\r
-of Xinerama. The reason for this, is that RandR provides more information\r
-about your outputs and connected screens than Xinerama does. To be specific,\r
-the code which handled on-the-fly screen reconfiguration (meaning without\r
-restarting the X server) was a very messy heuristic and most of the time did\r
-not work correctly — that is just not possible with the little information\r
-Xinerama offers (just a list of screen resolutions, no identifiers for the\r
-screens or any additional information). Xinerama simply was not designed\r
-for dynamic configuration.</p></div>\r
+<div class="paragraph"><p>Starting with version 3.ε (March 2010), i3 uses the RandR (Rotate and Resize)\r
+API instead of Xinerama. The reason for this, is that RandR provides more\r
+information about your outputs and connected screens than Xinerama does. To be\r
+specific, the code which handled on-the-fly screen reconfiguration (meaning\r
+without restarting the X server) was a very messy heuristic and most of the\r
+time did not work correctly — that is just not possible with the little\r
+information Xinerama offers (just a list of screen resolutions, no identifiers\r
+for the screens or any additional information). Xinerama simply was not\r
+designed for dynamic configuration.</p></div>\r
<div class="paragraph"><p>So RandR came along, as a more powerful alternative (RandR 1.2 to be specific).\r
It offers all of Xinerama’s possibilities and lots more. Using the RandR API\r
made our code much more robust and clean. Also, you can now reliably assign\r
(position inside the list of screens, which could change, and so on…).</p></div>\r
<div class="paragraph"><p>As RandR has been around for about three years as of this writing, it seemed\r
like a very good idea to us, and it still is a very good one. What we did not\r
-expect, however, was the nVidia binary driver. It still does not support RandR\r
-(as of March 2010), even though nVidia has announced that it will support RandR\r
-eventually. What does this mean for you, if you are stuck with the binary\r
-driver for some reason (say the free drivers don’t work with your card)? First\r
-of all, you are stuck with TwinView and cannot use <tt>xrandr</tt>. While this ruins\r
-the user experience, the more grave problem is that the nVidia driver not only\r
-does not support dynamic configuration using RandR, it also does not expose\r
-correct multi-monitor information via the RandR API. So, in some setups, i3\r
-will not find any screens; in others, it will find one large screen which\r
-actually contains both of your physical screens (but it will not know that\r
-these are two screens).</p></div>\r
+expect, however, was the nVidia binary driver. It did not support RandR until\r
+mid 2012, even though nVidia had announced that it will support RandR\r
+previously. What does missing RandR support mean for you? First of all, you are\r
+stuck with TwinView and cannot use <tt>xrandr</tt>. While this ruins the user\r
+experience, the more grave problem is that the nVidia driver not only does not\r
+support dynamic configuration using RandR, it also does not expose correct\r
+multi-monitor information via the RandR API. So, in some setups, i3 will not\r
+find any screens; in others, it will find one large screen which actually\r
+contains both of your physical screens (but it will not know that these are two\r
+screens).</p></div>\r
<div class="paragraph"><p>For this very reason, we decided to implement the following workaround: As\r
long as the nVidia driver does not support RandR, an option called\r
-<tt>--force-xinerama</tt> is available in i3. This option gets the list of screens\r
-<strong>once</strong> when starting, and never updates it. As the nVidia driver cannot do\r
-dynamic configuration anyways, this is not a big deal.</p></div>\r
+<tt>--force-xinerama</tt> is available in i3 (alternatively, you can use the\r
+<tt>force_xinerama</tt> configuration file directive). This option gets the list of\r
+screens <strong>once</strong> when starting, and never updates it. As the nVidia driver cannot\r
+do dynamic configuration anyways, this is not a big deal.</p></div>\r
+<div class="paragraph"><p>Also note that your output names are not descriptive (like <tt>HDMI1</tt>) when using\r
+Xinerama, instead they are counted up, starting at 0: <tt>xinerama-0</tt>, <tt>xinerama-1</tt>, …</p></div>\r
</div>\r
</div>\r
<div class="sect1">\r
</div>\r
</div>\r
<div id="footnotes"><hr /></div>\r
-<div id="footer">\r
-<div id="footer-text">\r
-Last updated 2011-07-22 20:28:19 CEST\r
-</div>\r
+<div id="footer" lang="de">\r
+© 2009-2011 Michael Stapelberg, <a href="/impress.html">Impressum</a>\r
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projects / i3 / i3.github.io / blobdiff