Dual Monitor Setup on Kubuntu 9.10 with KDE 4.3.2

I bought another monitor today, and found that it was actually quite easy to set up with KDE and Kubuntu (Karmic Koala). I have an ATI Radeon HD 4830, and I use the proprietary drivers.

Anyways, here’s what worked: instead of doing it KDE or Ubuntu-style, I set the monitors up with ATI’s AMD Catalyst Control Center. If you have the fglrx drivers installed, then you probably already have it: run it with


sudo amdcccle

from the command line.

You’ll get something like this:

ATI Catalyst Control Center Kubuntu Linux

Anyway, make sure your screens aren’t clones of each other in the Display Manager part. That’ll let you enable xinerama under Display Options. Apply the settings, restart your computer, and you should have two fully-functioning, non-cloned monitors!

My xorg.conf is below, just for reference:

Section “ServerLayout”
Identifier “amdcccle Layout”
Screen 0 “amdcccle-Screen[1]-0” 0 0
Screen “amdcccle-Screen[1]-1” 1920 0
EndSection

Section “Files”
EndSection

Section “Module”
Load “glx”
EndSection

Section “ServerFlags”
Option “Xinerama” “on”
EndSection

Section “Monitor”
Identifier “0-DFP1”
Option “VendorName” “ATI Proprietary Driver”
Option “ModelName” “Generic Autodetecting Monitor”
Option “DPMS” “true”
Option “PreferredMode” “1920x1200”
Option “TargetRefresh” “60”
Option “Position” “0 0”
Option “Rotate” “normal”
Option “Disable” “false”
EndSection

Section “Monitor”
Identifier “0-DFP2”
Option “VendorName” “ATI Proprietary Driver”
Option “ModelName” “Generic Autodetecting Monitor”
Option “DPMS” “true”
Option “PreferredMode” “1920x1200”
Option “TargetRefresh” “60”
Option “Position” “0 0”
Option “Rotate” “normal”
Option “Disable” “false”
EndSection

Section “Device”
Identifier “Default Device”
Driver “fglrx”
EndSection

Section “Device”
Identifier “amdcccle-Device[1]-0”
Driver “fglrx”
Option “Monitor-DFP1” “0-DFP1”
BusID “PCI:1:0:0”
EndSection

Section “Device”
Identifier “amdcccle-Device[1]-1”
Driver “fglrx”
Option “Monitor-DFP2” “0-DFP2”
BusID “PCI:1:0:0”
Screen 1
EndSection

Section “Screen”
Identifier “Default Screen”
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection “Display”
Virtual 3840 1200
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section “Screen”
Identifier “amdcccle-Screen[1]-0”
Device “amdcccle-Device[1]-0”
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection “Display”
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section “Screen”
Identifier “amdcccle-Screen[1]-1”
Device “amdcccle-Device[1]-1”
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection “Display”
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

Above is the Catalyst Control Center-generated xorg.conf that worked for me when Krandrtray, Gnome’s display panel and KDE’s display settings didn’t do anything. Let me know in the comments if you have any questions.

Also, here’s what my desktop looks like now:

(Click the thumbnail for a full-size version)