[Solved]Openbox dual monitor crashing

Question

I have been working this out for days to no avail. I have an ATI video card not using the catalyst drivers. Dual monitors worked fine in KDE without any additional setup, and no xorg.conf. In openbox i have tried with arandr, and manual. but when i enable the second monitor its seems that openbox crashes, because whatever is on the screen at the time of enabling the monitor turns to static. I think its openbox because i still have a functional mouse cursor and has proper fucntions accross both monitors in any configuration that i try. when it crashes i have to hard reboot. when i reboot with the monitor still plugged in, both lvds and vga will display a cloned image at the same resolution which is the wrong resolution for both lvds and vga.
I have googled till there is no link unclicked, and wiki give me nothing. i dont believe that i need to set up an xorg.conf as the external is detected fine. its almost like when x applies the settings it corrupts openbox.
anyone have any ideas?
Last edited by zero_one (2010-09-18 18:26:28)

Answer 1

zero_one wrote:you mean add the monitors to a xx-monitor.conf? i can give that a try but it doesnt seem that would provide the flexibility that im looking for as sometimes i use the external monitor disabiling lvds, sometimes right of, and sometimes i use hdmi to my tv set right of, to watch movies.
I mean add the monitors to xorg.conf.  Here is the xorg.conf I use with openbox (separate X display for the TV), just to give you an idea - yours will differ with ATI:
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout0"
Screen 0 "Screen[0]"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "tv"
Screen 0 "Screen[1]" 0 0
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection
Section "Module"
Load "glx"
EndSection
Section "Files"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
# generated from default
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
# generated from default
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
Option "AutoRepeat" "210 50" #added, did no good, use ~/.xinitrc xset
Option "XkbOptions" "terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor[0]"
HorizSync 31.0 - 83.0
VertRefresh 55.0 - 76.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor[1]"
HorizSync 15.0 - 620.0
VertRefresh 15.0 - 600.0
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Device[0]"
Driver "nvidia"
BoardName "GeForce 8500 GT"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Device[1]"
Driver "nvidia"
BoardName "GeForce 8500 GT"
#adjust using 'lspci' or cat /proc/pci
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
Option "ConnectedMonitor" "TV"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
#nvidia
Identifier "Screen[0]"
Device "Device[0]"
Monitor "Monitor[0]"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "TwinView" "0"
# Option "metamodes" "DFP: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
Option "NoLogo" "True"
Option "RenderAccel" "True"
Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "nvidia-auto-select"
EndSubSection
EndSection
Section "Screen"
#nvidia
Identifier "Screen[1]"
Device "Device[1]"
Monitor "Monitor[1]"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "TwinView" "0"
Option "UseEDID" "FALSE"
Option "ConnectedMonitor" "TV"
Option "TvOutFormat" "Component"
Option "metamodes" "CRT: 1920x1080 +0+0"
Option "TVStandard" "HD1080i"
Option "RenderAccel" "True"
Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "nvidia-auto-select"
EndSubSection
EndSection
Then I start the second X display on the TV with this in openbox's autostart.sh:
(sleep 5 && xinit /usr/bin/openbox -- /usr/bin/X :1 -layout tv -nolisten tcp) &
Thus there are two instances of openbox running.
It may not give you the flexibility, but for testing it may help you narrow down what is causing the problem and find remedies.
Also, the monitor turning to static sounds more like a driver or X issue than something with openbox.
Last edited by IgnorantGuru (2010-09-18 17:46:12)