Dual screen stretching with nvidia proprietary driver

Question

I have a laptop with a nvidia card and an integrated intel card, and a HDMI screen connected to it. I understand PRIME support has been problematic in the past, but the newer nvidia drivers are quite good. I'm using driver version 375.66.

I can use either screens fine, or both with mirroring, but trying to use both as independent screens results in this strange stretching:

Both screens are 1920x1080. As can be seen in the screenshot, some GUI elements (e.g. unity-panel) are scaled correctly to a single screen, while most others (e.g. windows) are stretched through both screens. Interestingly, nvidia's applet does not detect both monitors, while ubuntu's display applet does, as can be seen in the screenshot.

This is my xorg.conf (although I'm not sure if the nvidia driver even uses it at all):

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier "layout"
    Screen 0 "nvidia"
    Inactive "intel"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier "intel"
    Driver "modesetting"
    BusID "PCI:0@0:2:0"
    Option "AccelMethod" "None"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "intel"
    Device "intel"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier "nvidia"
    Driver "nvidia"
    BusID "PCI:1@0:0:0"
    Option "ConstrainCursor" "off"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "nvidia"
    Device "nvidia"
    Option "AllowEmptyInitialConfiguration" "on"
    Option "IgnoreDisplayDevices" "CRT"
EndSection

What am I missing?

Avishek Saha · Answer 1 · 2017-07-08T14:00:45.627

1

Why don't you try this out -

According to NVIDIA, it's because the built in display is connected to intel iGPU. ( source: https://devtalk.nvidia.com/default/topic/807239/nvidia-server-setting-utility-doesn-t-see-laptop-screen/)

Which basically means that Nvidia x server has no control over your built in display.

To solve this, switch graphic mode from MShybrid to discrete in BIOS setting, which can force the built in monitor to be driven by you discrete GPU, and x server will work correctly to recognize both built in and external display.

edited Jul 08 '17 at 14:00

answered Jul 07 '17 at 16:24

Avishek Saha

507

Unfortunately my BIOS doesn't have that option. I could try updating it, since the laptop is quite old (late 2012), but I would rather avoid flashing if I can. – Leo Brito Jul 08 '17 at 14:39
Also, you can force discrete-only through nvidia's x server settings app (which I did already). – Leo Brito Jul 08 '17 at 14:41
And did that solve the problem? – Avishek Saha Jul 08 '17 at 15:10
No, I was using that setting already, prior to opening this question. – Leo Brito Jul 08 '17 at 15:11

Dual screen stretching with nvidia proprietary driver

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