7

On a dual monitor setup, can you have both monitors displaying a shell without entering X (or any other graphical display server)?

And if it is not possible, why?

Jeff Schaller
  • 66,199
  • 35
  • 114
  • 250
itsok-dontworry
  • 233
  • 2
  • 8
  • why do you tag /x11 and /xorg ? If I understand correctly, you want to use dual monitor in console mode, right? – Giacomo Catenazzi Feb 27 '16 at 16:24
  • You are right. I've removed the tags. – itsok-dontworry Feb 27 '16 at 16:45
  • do you consider `wayland` different to X? is the answer you seek to have a console interface instead of a graphical one? Would it be ok to have a graphical one with a fullscreen terminal emulator? – humanityANDpeace Feb 27 '16 at 17:10
  • Are you talking about different virtual terminals per monitor, or the same virtual terminal for each monitor? – Faheem Mitha Feb 27 '16 at 17:17
  • @FaheemMitha Is either option possible? – itsok-dontworry Feb 27 '16 at 17:18
  • @itsok-dontworry I don't know. I'm just asking which option you have in mind. You are presumably aware that even if X is running, you can switch to a virtual terminal by Ctrl-Alt-F1 and so on, right? In this case, the monitors would show the same virtual terminal. – Faheem Mitha Feb 27 '16 at 17:19
  • @humanityANDpeace I'm interested in a console interface yes (I've modified my question, thank you). – itsok-dontworry Feb 27 '16 at 17:20
  • @FaheemMitha I'd be happy to know of any option to control dual monitors without a graphical interface, either having two consoles open on each or one stretched out along both monitors. Switching into a virtual terminal after X has been started leaves me only with a single terminal on one of the monitors. – itsok-dontworry Feb 27 '16 at 17:22
  • At least with Nvidia dual card support on my machine, I see one virtual terminal on each monitor. But perhaps you could expand on your use case? I'm not sure what the point of your question is. – Faheem Mitha Feb 27 '16 at 17:24
  • @FaheemMitha That's interesting. The point of my question is curiosity: I'm just wondering why only one monitor is displaying the console and what controls that. I see no reason why a graphical environment would be necessary to have e.g. both monitors display the same terminal. – itsok-dontworry Feb 27 '16 at 17:31
  • It is be possible, as both screens share the same framebuffer device, also check kernel parameters `video` and `console`, and have a look at `con2fb` code – Marware Feb 27 '16 at 20:58

0 Answers0