Second monitor

[Peter Flynn]

On 27/12/2018 21:59, Bret Busby wrote:
[...]
> It is probably not the solution that you want, but I am wondering 
> whether, on the premise that your primary screen is a widescreen 
> monitor, at least 24", your desktop publishing application can not 
> display two A4 pages side by side, 

It certainly can, and I would still use it for showing a double-page 
spread. The pages would be 11" high (normal size), which is fine.

But for checking the fine detail of typography, I want to make use of 
the 20" rotated monitor, which will give me a page 17" high, avoiding 
the need to zoom (much).

That would also work, but the work of checking double-page spreads 
doesn't require the same level of magnification.

On 27/12/2018 22:21, Paul Smith wrote:
> I can't say whether your hardware can be connected that way: it
> would require knowing about your video card, motherboard, etc.

Which I'll have to dig into (I inherited this machine, so the spec isn't 
mine, but it's Dell so in theory I can look it all up with the tag number).

> However assuming that the hardware works, Ubuntu should have no
> trouble with it.  I'm assuming you're using straight Ubuntu Gnome, I
> have no experience with Mate, KDE, etc.  I also only use X, not
> Wayland, but I suppose both should work.

Certainly Ubuntu or a derivative, and certainly X. Right now it's 
running Mint 19 with Enlightenment, which is standard in our labs.
> 
> All you have to do is open Settings and choose Devices then
> Displays. You will see your multiple displays and you can choose
> which one is the "primary" display (has the panel etc.), drag them to
> the left/right so they're on the correct side, and change their
> orientation between landscape and portrait.  Your mouse will move
> between them and windows can be dragged between them.

I was hoping someone would say this :-) I'm getting cables tomorrow.
I've watched other people do it, but that was always for workstations 
where they wanted two identical monitors side-by-side operating as a 
contiguous desktop, so windows could be slid between monitors. I've 
never seen it done with one monitor in landscape and one in portrait.

> As far as I know there is zero need to muck about with different 
> DISPLAY values, run xrandr by hand, or any of that other stuff, 
> anymore.

Cool.

> I move my laptop between standalone and hooked to a docking station 
> with two external monitors, all the time and it's no problem.

Yes, that's commonplace. But not with one portrait and the other 
landscape :-)

On 27/12/2018 22:43, Karl Auer wrote:
> The standard display utility supports screen rotation, at least in 
> 16.04 which I am running. I just tested it and it happily rotated my 
> screen into portrait mode by rotating it once either clockwise or 
> anticlockwise.

Yes, I've done this with a single monitor.

> I don't think you have to anything. Your programs will just work.
> But you will have to physically turn the actual monitor through 90
> degrees to match the rotation you applied in the display utility.

That was the easy bit :-) I unclipped the stand, sawed a new cutout in 
the plastic cover of the fixing plate, drilled four holes in the fixing 
plate itself so I could remount the stand at 90°, and then reattached it 
and clipped it back in.

Thank you all for your help.

P