Dual Monitor 'How To' for 12.04
- by Kim Prince
I recently built my own PC and was delighted with the result, except for a problem with dual monitors. After having tried a few different combinations of hardware, I think what I really need is a 'how to' explanation.
My motherboard is an MSI Z77MA-G45, which has an analogue, a DVI, and a HDMI port. Initially I hooked monitors up to the DVI and analogue port and it seemed to work fine. Both screens worked independently of each other, it was great.
After a few days I started turning my PC off at night, and when I tried to turn it back on it would boot into the terminal mode. I would have to turn one of the monitors off and after rebooting a few times, it would eventually boot into an X Window session. Occasionally I would see an error relating to Xorg.
I upgraded the motherboard BIOS but that made no difference. Eventually, I installed a graphics card - an NVIDIA GeForce GT 520. Now it seems that my on board graphics have been disabled completely, and I am reliant on the graphics card. Furthermore, the graphics card seems to only recognise one screen at a time. (The first time I rebooted with both plugged in, it flashed up a message saying that it was auto-selecting DVI).
Anyhow, I think I need some 'how to' (or perhaps 'where to'), from here. For example, is X Windows configuration the next place to look? And how do I go about configuring X Windows? (Note that in Systems Settings it says my graphics driver is 'unknown', and when I ask it to detect monitors, it sees only the one!)
