Dual monitor and Xmonad
my adventure with multiple screens
Date: 2022-10-07
Last weekend I had an opportunity to add a second monitor to my computer setup. I have an old Dell monitor, which I wasn't using, and the only way to connect it is to buy a cable for my other monitor, so the main monitor's old cable
After about 1,5 days of using it, I realized it's just not for me. Too much distraction, and I had problems with it. I couldn't make a second xmobar appear and the screen was a little bit yellowish. I was a little bit disappointed, because originally I wanted to try streaming and a second monitor would have come in handy for that.
During that time I made a mistake of watching a shitty movie on twitch and my daily cycle went to shit. Usually when I stay up very late (past midnight) I need about a week to return to my normal self. Spent the Monday and Tuesday very cranky, really moody, downright nihilistic thoughts. Frak that shit!
As I got better, I realized I shouldn't give up on a second screen. After all it can be very useful for a lots of things. So yesterday, that's Tuesday, I cleared my desk a little and put back the Dell monitor to the same place, and I solved my cable management problem too.
My first experiment was interesting, because Linux instantly recognized the Dell, but what was strange that it handled as some giant monitor. I have one Samsung widescreen with 1920x1080 resolution and the other is the Dell with 1280x1024 resolution. Both worked fine during the weekend, in fact the new DVI-HDMI cable for the Samsung made the screen looking crisp. The Dell was a little bit blurry to read though. I used like this for 1,5 days before I gave up on using it.
Fast forward to yesterday, I was determined to make it work. Except nothing worked right. One part it was my problem, I started messing with Nvidia settings and xorg.conf. Arandr didn't start or if it did, the Dell monitor wasn't there. I was hopeless. Thanks to a friendly fediblob and a nice afternoon nap, I reseted everything and started over. The result was a working second monitor. I also factory reset the Dell, and fonts now look much better. The screen is still yellowish, but I don't think I will use it for graphical work or anything.
After this I started to looking at xmonad configs, how people added xmobar to different monitors. My first try was a fail, cause I was dumb. I used the same xmobar file, for both screens. Of course it did not work, most likely cause of the different resolution (length).
I usually look at DT's config, because he has some interesting usecases, and he uses multiple monitors. That's when I realized my mistake. So I just got my original xmobar, rename it, and added it in xmonad. And it worked!
What's good about this setup is, that now I can play with it. What do I want to add the second xmobar? I use that monitor for kind of entertainment stuff, like watching something in the background, chatting, etc. So cleared up the part of disk usage part, and I left the stalonetray there (I hate discord, but sometimes I use it).
I also use xmobar with prettyprinter (PP) stuff now, but I don't have experience with that, it will take some time to make something good looking. Although I like my current setup, and may not change it at all. My setup is not something I would put up on r/unixporn, since it's very bland. I don't even use a wallpaper, just a solid color. I use transparency, so I may put something in the background if I am writing something in Emacs, but I don't see the point, when I don't see them. :-)
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This is post #42 of the #100DaysToOffload challenge, where we write 100 posts in a year. If you are interested in this event, check out the official website: 100DaysToOffload.com. Happy writing everybody! :)
