fullscreen applications kill second monitor

[slojam]

Hi, fglrx Cataylst 12.1, openSUSE 12.1 x86_64, (tried a hd5770, and hd6970)

I have two monitors, using the 'Multi Display Desktops' option in amdcccle. Works fine, I can drag windows back and forth, etc.

But when I run a fullscreen app (like a game) as soon as I exit the app it kills my second monitor/desktop. I have to logout & restart X to get it back. Anyone seen this bug? Should I report it somewhere? The monitors are different size/resolution if that matters..?

[rohcQaH]

Those games probably use an ancient method of setting up screen resolutions, which isn't multiscreen aware. Thus, they fail when they try to reset to the previous layout on exit.

You could update the games to properly use xrandr, but that won't work for doom3, ut2k4 and other closed source games.

An easy workaround is to create a small bash script that runs the game, then resets the screens using xrandr, like

#!/bin/bash
/usr/bin/mygame
xrandr --output DVI-0 --auto --pos 0x0
xrandr --output DVI-1 --auto --right-of DVI-0

Or you could run the game in windowed mode instead, in a maximized, borderless window.

Or you could spawn a second X server, effectively sandboxing your game.

[Kano]

I am pretty sure you could fix doom 3

[slojam]

Those games probably use an ancient method of setting up screen resolutions, which isn't multiscreen aware. Thus, they fail when they try to reset to the previous layout on exit.

You could update the games to properly use xrandr, but that won't work for doom3, ut2k4 and other closed source games.

An easy workaround is to create a small bash script that runs the game, then resets the screens using xrandr, like

#!/bin/bash
/usr/bin/mygame
xrandr --output DVI-0 --auto --pos 0x0
xrandr --output DVI-1 --auto --right-of DVI-0

Or you could run the game in windowed mode instead, in a maximized, borderless window.

Or you could spawn a second X server, effectively sandboxing your game.

ah great, thanks!
For spawning a second X server, what is a good method?

[slojam]

ah great, thanks!
For spawning a second X server, what is a good method?

Ok I found this: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Gaming