Why does Linux hate my dual monitors?

[sloppyc]

eVGA GeForce 6200.
DVI goes to a Toshiba 720p/1080i DLP TV.
VGA to a 19" 1280x1024 LCD.
Works great in Windows.


I had a little trouble with this in Kubuntu. I was messing around and decided to go back to SuSE (I used 10.1 a few years ago and it worked out pretty well). Whenever I have both screens plugged into my video card, I get digital gibberish on one screen, and a solid blue colour on the other. Failsafe mode is usable. It's perfectly fine if I unplug the TV. I'm not sure what to do. I'd really like to not have to reboot just to watch a video on my TV.

[waterhead]

Are you using the nVidia driver?

Suse may have a pre-compiled version of it available in YaST, but I always download and compile the driver from the nVidia web site.

[sloppyc]

Honestly I haven't done anything driver-related yet. I'm just re-familiarizing myself with SuSE. I will try that next. I forgot that SuSE and nVidia dn't always like to play nice for whatever reason.

[waterhead]

It has nothing to do with SuSE vs nVidia. It has more to do with OpenSource vs Closed Source.

I am not aware of a Linux distro that installs the nVidia driver by default. Even Ubuntu won't do it, although it will hold your hand to get it installed, doing most of the work for you.

You may need to enable or add a repository.

Additional YaST Package Repositories - openSUSE

[sloppyc]

I know. That was just a smartass remark based on the fact that SuSE always seems to have "special" instructions for installation. I added the repos and installed. It was actually a lot easier this time than it was back when I was using 10.1. So that's nice to see.

The nVidia panel that was created automatically detected my TV and its resolution and let me set its position relative to my monitor. Looks good so far, though it's still blank and black on that screen. I'll play a little later.