Ubuntu For Free

Was a real pain. The nvidia-settings program has always crashed on me, with two different video cards. I finally got it the way I wanted. One big large desktop/screen across my LCD and my TV. My LCD is on the right of my TV, and the orientation was the most troublesome for me. It seems that xorg.conf is rather forgiving, and literally allows us to describe the arrangement. I did so such as:


Option "TwinViewOrientation" "CRT-0 RightOf TV"


The best source of information is here and here. All of the other forums posts are pages upon pages of people struggling with other problems. Fortunately the official TwinView documentation is top-notch.

Below are the contents of my entire xorg.conf now:


# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig: version 1.0 (buildmeister@builder3) Wed Sep 12 14:29:35 PDT 2007

# /etc/X11/xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf(5) manual page.
# (Type “man xorg.conf” at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
# sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section “ServerLayout”
Identifier “Default Layout”
Screen 0 “Default Screen” 0 0
InputDevice “Generic Keyboard”
InputDevice “Configured Mouse”
InputDevice “stylus” “SendCoreEvents”
InputDevice “cursor” “SendCoreEvents”
InputDevice “eraser” “SendCoreEvents”
EndSection

Section “Files”

# path to defoma fonts
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1″
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi”
FontPath “/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType”
EndSection

Section “Module”
Load “i2c”
Load “bitmap”
Load “ddc”
Load “extmod”
Load “freetype”
Load “int10″
Load “vbe”
Load “glx”
Load “v4l”
EndSection

Section “InputDevice”
Identifier “Generic Keyboard”
Driver “kbd”
Option “CoreKeyboard”
Option “XkbRules” “xorg”
Option “XkbModel” “pc105″
Option “XkbLayout” “us”
EndSection

Section “InputDevice”
Identifier “Configured Mouse”
Driver “mouse”
Option “CorePointer”
Option “Device” “/dev/input/mice”
Option “Protocol” “ImPS/2″
Option “ZAxisMapping” “4 5″
Option “Emulate3Buttons” “true”
EndSection

Section “InputDevice”
Identifier “stylus”
Driver “wacom”
Option “Device” “/dev/input/wacom”
Option “Type” “stylus”
Option “ForceDevice” “ISDV4″# Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section “InputDevice”
Identifier “eraser”
Driver “wacom”
Option “Device” “/dev/input/wacom”
Option “Type” “eraser”
Option “ForceDevice” “ISDV4″# Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section “InputDevice”
Identifier “cursor”
Driver “wacom”
Option “Device” “/dev/input/wacom”
Option “Type” “cursor”
Option “ForceDevice” “ISDV4″# Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section “Monitor”
Identifier “VA1912wb”
DisplaySize 1440 900
HorizSync 30.0 - 82.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 85.0
ModeLine “1440×900_70.00″ 127.0 1440 1536 1688 1936 900 901 904 937 -hsync +vsync
ModeLine “1440×900_60.00″ 106.5 1440 1520 1672 1904 900 901 904 932 -hsync +vsync
Option “DPMS”
EndSection

Section “Monitor”
#
Identifier “monitor1″
Gamma 1
EndSection

Section “Device”
Identifier “Generic Video Card”
Driver “nvidia”
VendorName “NVIDIA”
BoardName “NVIDIA GeForce 6 Series”
BusID “PCI:1:0:0″
Screen 0
Option “ConnectedMonitor” “TV,CRT”
EndSection

Section “Screen”
Identifier “Default Screen”
Device “Generic Video Card”
Monitor “VA1912wb”
DefaultDepth 24
Option “TwinView”
Option “TwinViewOrientation” “CRT-0 RightOf TV”
Option “TVOutFormat” “SVIDEO”
Option “TVStandard” “NTSC-M”
Option “MetaModes” “1440×900,640×480; 1440×900,NULL; 1024×768,NULL; 800×600,NULL; 640×480,NULL”
SubSection “Display”
Depth 24
Modes “1440×900_70.00″ “1440×900_60.00″
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section “Extensions”
Option “Composite” “Enable”
EndSection

A great application to watch Internet TV, Miro, has provided the Ubuntu community with instructions on how to install Miro in Feisty Fawn. I’ve used the software for a while now, since it was previously called DemocracyTV Player. It requires a lot of resources to use, but the output is excellent. The best part is the ease of use. I was able to install, open, and subscribe to Pal Van Dyk’s Fast Tracks in a matter of minutes. It integrates with Google Video, YouTube, Bit Torrent, and many different services to allow you to view and save video content and has quickly become a favorite of mine.