[Linux]XBMC on separate Screen
#1
Hello,

i want to launch XBMC on my TV which is connected via HDMI and run a separate Xserver for my Desktop on DVI. I got an Intel i5-650 and i use the Intel Core GPU. TwinView works just fine, but if i open XBMC in fullscreen mode, its spread across both screens.

I tried to create two Xserver, but had no success. I can move windows over to the TV, but can't start anything with DISPLAY=:0.1 there. Here is my xorg.conf:

Code:
Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Desktop"
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "intel0"
    Driver         "intel"
    BusID          "PCI:0:2:0"
    Option      "MonitorLayout" "HDMI1"
    Screen          0
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "screen0"
    Device         "intel0"
    Monitor        "Desktop"
    DefaultDepth    24
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
        Modes      "1920x1200"
    EndSubSection
EndSection

####### sekundärer Monitor ######

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier   "TV"
        Option      "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "intel1"
    Driver         "intel"
    BusID          "PCI:0:2:0"
    Option      "MonitorLayout" "HDMI2"
    Screen          1
EndSection

Section "Screen"
       Identifier "screen1"
       Device     "intel1"
       Monitor    "TV"
       DefaultDepth     24
       SubSection "Display"
               Depth     24
               Modes    "1280x720"
       EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
        Identifier     "layout"
        Screen  0 "screen0" 0 0
        Screen  1 "screen1" 0 0
EndSection
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#2
On nvidia I configured my monitor and tv as separate X screens, then you can start XBMC on the tv with "DISPLAY=:0.1 xbmc", I did this using nvidia-settings, I don't know how to do that using xorg.conf though.
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#3
I searched the internet for hours and only found answers with people using nvidia cards and nvidia-settings. But i don't want to install a dedicated GPU. And i can't use nvidia-settings with my Intel GPU.
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#4
Maybe try changing
Code:
Screen 1 "screen1" 0 0
into
Code:
Screen 1  "screen1" RightOf "screen0"

And maybe add
Code:
Option "Xinerama" "false"
to the serverlayout section.
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#5
Doesn't work.

Maybe another idea how i could run XBMC in fullscreen on my second monitor? I don't care if i'm able to move the mouse over to it. Window mode is no option because i will always see the window around it.
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#6
Windowed mode is a must, because otherwise SDL will lock your mouse and keyboard to the 2nd screen if using separate X screens.

Use your window manager's window rules feature to put it into fullscreen mode (Gnome), or forced geometry + borderless + position 0,0 (KDE4 - fullscreen is broken in KDE4), or use wmctrl.
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#7
Thanks for your response! I'm doing it with wmctrl now. If someone has the same problem, just make normal dual monitor and start xbmc with some script like this:

Code:
# start XBMC
xbmc &

# wait until the window is there
var=""
while [ "$var" == "" ]
do
        var=$(wmctrl -l | grep XBMC)
done

# move XBMC to second monitor (change coordinates for your setup)
wmctrl -r XBMC -e 0,2120,500,300,300
# toggle fullscreen
wmctrl -r XBMC -b toggle,fullscreen
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#8
Argh, is there a way to keep the overscan values in windowed mode? If i restart XBMC now, the overscan values are gone.
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#9
If I may somewhat hijack this thread: Is it possible to configure XBMC to properly use 2 displays attached to one computer, e.g. a small screen to control XBMC, show info about the file currently being played, and a large TV for displaying movies?
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#10
Correct me if I'm wrong. If X is configured as dual-monitor (no separate X screen) you loose the ability to adjust display refresh rate to match video. So a 24p video, in a X screen configured with a 60Hz refresh rate for example, will be jerky. To prevent this situation I think that a separate X screen configuration is obligatory.

@Hammi, maybe the answer is inside bobo1on1's post : you can start XBMC on the tv with "DISPLAY=:0.1 xbmc", so with DISPLAY=:0.0 firefox you can launch firefox and load, for example, an XBMC web interface.
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