Mailing List Archive: MythTV: Users

Dual Head MythTV

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markcanup at pobox

Jun 7, 2012, 9:31 AM

Post #1 of 7 (482 views)
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Dual Head MythTV

Hi

I know there is a wiki page on this topic (http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Running_MythTV_Dual_Headed), but I'm unable to get things to work properly so am seeking assistance here. This is more of an OS-level configuration problem with X than it is Myth, but hopefully someone here can help.

I am essentially trying to use my backend as both a Linux console and a Myth frontend. I'm running Mythbuntu 12.04. The backend has an on-board Intel graphics card that has VGA and HDMI outputs. The VGA output is connected to my desktop monitor and the HDMI output is connected to my TV. I want the desktop to just be a regular console where I can run a terminal and a browser and whatnot, and the TV to be running mythfrontend.

I keep getting a virtual screen that extends across my desktop monitor and my TV. However, my desktop monitor is 1400x1050 and my TV is 1360x768, so my virtual screen ends up being 2760x1050 and part of the virtual screen has nowhere to display. This means when I launch mythfrontend on the TV, the top and bottom are missing since the TV isn't as tall as the desktop monitor.

What I really want to do is have the two screens operate independently, with mythfrontend running at 1360x768 on the TV and my desktop running at 1400x1050 on my desktop monitor. But I can't seem to get my xorg.conf configured properly to do that. If I had an nVidia card I could use nvidia-settings to build the xorg.conf, but I have an Intel card and haven't found anything like nvidia-settings to help. arandr doesn't seem to allow creation of an additional screen.

I spent a little time trying the approach outlined in the wiki article with two X servers, but ended up where I had both the monitor and TV displaying two different window managers as I switched between virtual terminals, which isn't what I'm going for.

So I think the approach of one X server with two screens is what I want, but it keeps coming up as one X server with one big virtual screen. I don't see anything in /var/log/Xorg.0.log that indicates what the problem is. I'm a big believer in RTFM before asking, and I have also read the xorg.conf manpage, searched several Ubuntu and general Linux sites, but can't figure it out.

Any assistance would be much appreciated. TIA

Here is /etc/X11/xorg.conf:
Section "Device"
Identifier "IntelOnBoard"
Driver "intel"
Option "Monitor-VGA1" "DesktopMonitor"
Option "Monitor-HDMI1" "Television"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "DesktopMonitor"
Option "Primary"
Option "PreferredMode" "1400x1050"
Option "DPMS" "true"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Television"
Option "PreferredMode" "1360x768"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "DesktopScreen"
Device "IntelOnBoard"
Monitor "DesktopMonitor"
Subsection "Display"
Modes "1400x1050"
EndSubsection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "MythScreen"
Device "IntelOnBoard"
Monitor "Television"
Subsection "Display"
Modes "1360x768"
EndSubsection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Multi-Head"
Screen 0 "DesktopScreen" 0 0
Screen 1 "MythScreen" RightOf "DesktopScreen"
EndSection

eric at lisaneric

Jun 7, 2012, 9:55 AM

Post #2 of 7 (462 views)
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Re: Dual Head MythTV [In reply to]

On Thu, Jun 7, 2012 at 12:31 PM, Mark Canup <markcanup [at] pobox> wrote:
> I keep getting a virtual screen that extends across my desktop monitor and
> my TV. However, my desktop monitor is 1400x1050 and my TV is 1360x768, so my
> virtual screen ends up being 2760x1050 and part of the virtual screen has
> nowhere to display. This means when I launch mythfrontend on the TV, the top
> and bottom are missing since the TV isn't as tall as the desktop monitor.

Launch it like this:

mythfrontend -geometry 1360x768

then it will fit your TV.

Eric
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hoodlum7 at gmail

Jun 7, 2012, 10:58 AM

Post #3 of 7 (458 views)
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Re: Dual Head MythTV [In reply to]

On Thu, Jun 7, 2012 at 9:55 AM, Eric Sharkey <eric [at] lisaneric> wrote:

> On Thu, Jun 7, 2012 at 12:31 PM, Mark Canup <markcanup [at] pobox> wrote:
> > I keep getting a virtual screen that extends across my desktop monitor
> and
> > my TV. However, my desktop monitor is 1400x1050 and my TV is 1360x768,
> so my
> > virtual screen ends up being 2760x1050 and part of the virtual screen has
> > nowhere to display. This means when I launch mythfrontend on the TV, the
> top
> > and bottom are missing since the TV isn't as tall as the desktop monitor.
>
> Launch it like this:
>
> mythfrontend -geometry 1360x768
>
> then it will fit your TV.
>
> Eric
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users [at] mythtv
> http://www.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>

If you truly want your screens to be seperate then you need to turn off
Xinerama. Look for something like below and turn it to false if it is true.

Section "ServerFlags"
Option "Xinerama" "true"

EndSection

--
Working on World Domination since 2001

markcanup at pobox

Jun 7, 2012, 11:22 AM

Post #4 of 7 (460 views)
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Re: Dual Head MythTV [In reply to]

Never would have thought of that approach, thanks! I added it to /etc/mythtv/session-settings and works great.

MYTHFRONTEND_OPTS="-geometry 1360x768+1400+0"

>________________________________
> From: Eric Sharkey <eric [at] lisaneric>
>To: Mark Canup <markcanup [at] pobox>; Discussion about MythTV <mythtv-users [at] mythtv>
>Sent: Thursday, June 7, 2012 12:55 PM
>Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Dual Head MythTV
>
>On Thu, Jun 7, 2012 at 12:31 PM, Mark Canup <markcanup [at] pobox> wrote:
>> I keep getting a virtual screen that extends across my desktop monitor and
>> my TV. However, my desktop monitor is 1400x1050 and my TV is 1360x768, so my
>> virtual screen ends up being 2760x1050 and part of the virtual screen has
>> nowhere to display. This means when I launch mythfrontend on the TV, the top
>> and bottom are missing since the TV isn't as tall as the desktop monitor.
>
>Launch it like this:
>
>mythfrontend -geometry 1360x768
>
>then it will fit your TV.
>
>Eric
>
>
>

mtdean at thirdcontact

Jun 7, 2012, 12:03 PM

Post #5 of 7 (459 views)
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Re: Dual Head MythTV [In reply to]

On 06/07/2012 02:22 PM, Mark Canup wrote:
> From: Eric Sharkey
>> On Thu, Jun 7, 2012 at 12:31 PM, Mark Canup wrote:
>>> I keep getting a virtual screen that extends across my desktop monitor and
>>> my TV. However, my desktop monitor is 1400x1050 and my TV is 1360x768, so my
>>> virtual screen ends up being 2760x1050 and part of the virtual screen has
>>> nowhere to display. This means when I launch mythfrontend on the TV, the top
>>> and bottom are missing since the TV isn't as tall as the desktop monitor.
>> Launch it like this:
>>
>> mythfrontend -geometry 1360x768
>>
>> then it will fit your TV.
> Never would have thought of that approach, thanks! I added it to /etc/mythtv/session-settings and works great.
>
> MYTHFRONTEND_OPTS="-geometry 1360x768+1400+0"
>

Specifying a settings override on every start of your system is wrong.
Instead, you need to properly configure the system, then you only use an
override to, er, override a normally-correct setting for a single
session if you need to run mythfrontend differently for some reason
(i.e. because you no longer have your 2 monitors and you need to
override the size/position to change the settings that are set for your
Xinerama setup).

The problem you're encountering is that you've enabled Xinerama, but you
have not yet specified your Xinerama-specific settings (that are
required for those using Xinerama because we don't know which monitor to
use, nor how big that monitor is). Under mythfrontend settings
Appearance section, you should see settings:

Display on screen
Run on the specified screen or spanning all screens.

Monitor aspect ratio
The aspect ratio of a Xinerama display cannot be queried from the
display, so it must be specified.

You may also need to use:

GUI width (pixels)
The width of the GUI. Do not make the GUI wider than your actual screen
resolution. Set to 0 to automatically scale to fullscreen.

GUI height (pixels)
The height of the GUI. Do not make the GUI taller than your actual
screen resolution. Set to 0 to automatically scale to fullscreen.

GUI X offset
The horizontal offset where the GUI will be displayed. May only work if
run in a window.

GUI Y offset
The vertical offset where the GUI will be displayed.

also in Appearance settings, which may also be necessary depending on
your Window Manager.

Mike
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eric at lisaneric

Jun 7, 2012, 1:05 PM

Post #6 of 7 (454 views)
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Re: Dual Head MythTV [In reply to]

On Thu, Jun 7, 2012 at 3:03 PM, Michael T. Dean <mtdean [at] thirdcontact> wrote:
> Specifying a settings override on every start of your system is wrong.

Meh. The extra few microseconds to parse the options is unnoticeable.
Nothing really bad happens from doing it this way.

> Instead, you need to properly configure the system, then you only use an
> override to, er, override a normally-correct setting for a single session if
> you need to run mythfrontend differently for some reason

I do it this way because I don't have a "normally-correct setting".
It depends on my mood and what else I happen to be doing.

marvin% grep mythfrontend .fvwm2rc
+ "tiny" Exec mythfrontend --geometry 320x240 &
+ "tiny-wide" Exec mythfrontend --geometry 320x180 &
+ "small" Exec mythfrontend --geometry 640x480 &
+ "small-wide" Exec mythfrontend --geometry 640x360 &
+ "normal" Exec mythfrontend --geometry 800x600 &
+ "normal-wide" Exec mythfrontend --geometry 800x450 &
+ "large" Exec mythfrontend --geometry 1024x768 &
+ "large-wide" Exec mythfrontend --geometry 1024x576 &
+ "720" Exec mythfrontend --geometry 1280x720 &
+ "full" Exec mythfrontend &

Ideally the frontend should be able to toggle between windowed and
fullscreen and tolerate being resized without being restarted. Until
then, --geometry is all there is.

Eric
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mtdean at thirdcontact

Jun 8, 2012, 4:00 AM

Post #7 of 7 (438 views)
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Re: Dual Head MythTV [In reply to]

On 06/07/2012 04:05 PM, Eric Sharkey wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 7, 2012 at 3:03 PM, Michael T. Dean wrote:
>> Specifying a settings override on every start of your system is wrong.
> Meh. The extra few microseconds to parse the options is unnoticeable.
> Nothing really bad happens from doing it this way.

The wrong-ness isn't due to inefficiency of parsing or anything. It's
akin to configuring mythfrontend to use the Terra theme and then always
starting it with an override to use Steppes. If you have an ability to
configure it correctly, why wouldn't you?

And, note, also, that I didn't say /using/ --geometry is wrong. I said,
"Specifying a settings override *on every start* of your system is
wrong," (emphasis added). (This was aimed at the OP, who indicated he
changed his start script to use --geometry /every/ start, not aimed at you.)

I'm just saying that everyone should set the settings for the way they
run mythfrontend the most...

>> Instead, you need to properly configure the system, then you only use an
>> override to, er, override a normally-correct setting for a single session if
>> you need to run mythfrontend differently for some reason
> I do it this way because I don't have a "normally-correct setting".
> It depends on my mood and what else I happen to be doing.
>
> marvin% grep mythfrontend .fvwm2rc
> + "tiny" Exec mythfrontend --geometry 320x240&
> + "tiny-wide" Exec mythfrontend --geometry 320x180&
> + "small" Exec mythfrontend --geometry 640x480&
> + "small-wide" Exec mythfrontend --geometry 640x360&
> + "normal" Exec mythfrontend --geometry 800x600&
> + "normal-wide" Exec mythfrontend --geometry 800x450&
> + "large" Exec mythfrontend --geometry 1024x768&
> + "large-wide" Exec mythfrontend --geometry 1024x576&
> + "720" Exec mythfrontend --geometry 1280x720&
> + "full" Exec mythfrontend&
>
>
> Ideally the frontend should be able to toggle between windowed and
> fullscreen and tolerate being resized without being restarted. Until
> then, --geometry is all there is.

or even just pick one of the configurations at random and set it to use
that, so that at least once in a blue moon, the configured settings are
correct.

Ideally, though, you'd have a different profile (configuration) for each
of your run modes and each would be configured appropriately so you just
specify the profile you want. (Though this will be much easier with
some future changes we have planned.)

Mike
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