Is ANYONE using separate X screens?

Issues related to hardware problems
ADAMC
Posts: 28
Joined: 2016/12/16 15:55:53
Location: Fort Worth, TX

Re: Is ANYONE using separate X screens?

Post by ADAMC » 2016/12/22 17:20:29

Trying not to get too far off forum content, but I used my account at symless to try this for you. Yes, there is an rpm for RHEL (aka CentOS) and Fedora. It works well. My client system is a Win7 laptop from my work. Symless specifies "one user" in that to get the software, one has to login to the site to get whatever versions of the download needed...on each system. [Although, I am sure you can also port the file(s) about.]

Upon starting Synergy, you have to activate on each system with your one key. It works well other than in a VPN split-tunneling requirement. That I believe is why I stopped using it for a time. Pointless for me, because the only real use for my work laptop is to access company stuff via VPN. Laptop becomes a ball and chain.

"One should just take a corporate laptop and drop it in a bucket of wet cement, because its usefulness (after applied security) has become such."

Regarding Scanning from a printer in CentOS 7, Sane works well from an HP-AIO using the hplip stuff.

Good luck,

A>AM

taylorkh
Posts: 534
Joined: 2010/11/24 15:08:33
Location: North Carolina, USA

Re: Is ANYONE using separate X screens?

Post by taylorkh » 2016/12/22 17:58:51

Thanks once more ADAMC. I did play with the nightly build version once I installed it. It asked for the registration number and offered only "limited features" until I supplied that. Seemed to be some firewall stuff to configure etc. I never did connect the two machines but I did get an idea of the user interface.

As to my MFC... it is an ancient Brother MFC240c. Brother provided Linux drivers which have worked in Ubuntu 9.10 and CentOS 6. It took a little playing and tweaking - described in the documentation - but it has been many years since I installed the thing on CentOS 6 that I do not remember what was involved. Hopefully just a few hoops to jump through.

I also need to look through my notes for things I want to try again which did not work for me in CentOS 6. autofs comes to mind. My CentOS 6 machine gets wrapped around the axle when I boot up one of my servers (simply backup and bulk file storage), mount the nfs exports on the server from the CentOS machine and shut down the server before unmounting. I have been advised to use autofs but somehow I never did get it to work as advertised. Hopefully it will be better on 7,

Ken

taylorkh
Posts: 534
Joined: 2010/11/24 15:08:33
Location: North Carolina, USA

Re: Is ANYONE using separate X screens?

Post by taylorkh » 2016/12/26 14:43:05

Happy Boxing Day ADAMC!

Reading the user guide for Synergy I came across this little item
When Synergy starts during a computer's bootup process, it can then be used to log in to a client using the server's keyboard and mouse. This is currently only possible on Windows. We have not found a good way to do this on Mac and Linux systems. The closest we can get is to set up Synergy as a login item, and then have your user auto-login to OS X or Linux.
That would not seem to be good news. I DO need to figure out sustemd for a couple of other items I want to do but... Have not done that yet. I guess I could connect to the "client" with a ssh, invoke an x11vnc session, login to the client, start Synergy then disconnect x11vnc and ssh. Seems like a tedious work around. And I wonder what happens when I suspend the client and server. I can un-suspend them with the power button but I wonder if they would reconnect to each other?

Ken

taylorkh
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Re: Is ANYONE using separate X screens?

Post by taylorkh » 2017/01/13 18:09:05

I have been playing with Plan B (or C or D or 9 From Outer Space - I have lost track). I picked up a refurbished 19" Dell monitor for $40 US. What a deal! I built a test setup on a CentOS 7 PC with Intel integrated graphics.I swivelled it to portrait mode and placed it to the right of the landscape monitor. This GPU only allows me to make a single combined screen - not separate X screens.

I built a CentOS 7 virtual machine in VMWare and invoked it on the test box. I moved the VM to the Portrait monitor and expanded it to full screen. I also change it to always be on the visible workspace. I can now cycle through the workspaces on the left (landscape) monitor which is native to the host. The VM stays put much like my separate X screen monitor on CentOS 6. I can change workspaces on the VM without impacting the host of course. The look and feel are very similar to the CentOS 6 machine.

I found that I can drag and drop files between the host and VM - at least from Desktop to Desktop. Better yet, I an open a Libreoffice Calc spreadsheet on the host and another one on the VM and copy/paste data and formulas between them! That is something I could not do on the separate X screens as LIbreoffice programs always opened on the same screen as the initial instance was running. I can connect the VM to the host with autofs and nfs and load my email profile for example to Thunderbird running on the VM. Bottom line I think this approach will provide a usable configuration to move my dual monitor system to CentOS 7. Well actually I think I will purchase a new workstation to celebrate and put CentOS 7 on it :mrgreen:

taylorkh
Posts: 534
Joined: 2010/11/24 15:08:33
Location: North Carolina, USA

Re: Is ANYONE using separate X screens?

Post by taylorkh » 2017/01/13 18:20:20

Correction - I can move multiple cells of data between spreadsheets. Still, that is something I could not do with my beloved separate X screen setup.

Ken

shovas
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Joined: 2009/08/17 23:36:54
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Re: Is ANYONE using separate X screens?

Post by shovas » 2018/02/14 18:13:27

Sorry to bump an old thread but few people run this setup and I wanted to get their attention.

I can alt-tab on my first screen but not on my second screen.

Does anyone else have this issue?

I have an unanswered Stack Exchange question about this with details:

https://superuser.com/questions/1218520 ... -x-session

taylorkh
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Joined: 2010/11/24 15:08:33
Location: North Carolina, USA

Re: Is ANYONE using separate X screens?

Post by taylorkh » 2018/02/14 19:16:09

I have not run separate X screens since I left CentOS 6 so I do not remember too many details. I suspect Alt-Tab would work on both screens - otherwise I would have posted a question about it :mrgreen: Looking at your Stack Exchange post... does not Xinerama make two monitors look/work as one? I do not think I ever used it but I did see it in the nVidia configuration tool. Or are you trying to Alt-Tab from a window on one monitor to something on the second monitor? I do not believe that worked.

Ken

shovas
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Re: Is ANYONE using separate X screens?

Post by shovas » 2018/02/14 21:03:03

Thanks for the reply. I'm running with Xinerama *disabled* actually. It's like what you guys are/were running in this thread.

Pretty sure if I used a normal xinerama setup like most people alt-tab would work fine but I like this setup.

desertcat
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Location: Tucson, AZ

Re: Is ANYONE using separate X screens?

Post by desertcat » 2018/02/19 05:09:28

taylorkh wrote:Hi ADAMC,

That symless product looks neat. I have no idea how it works but I will dig into it. The one downside I see it that I will need MORE MONITORS! I have my main desktop, two headless servers, a headless OLD desktop made into a server, a Dell micro desktop hooked up to the TV as a media player, a test micro desktop, an ancient netbook serving as an mp3 player out in my shop and the wife's desktop. Except for my desktop and the test machine I access the others with VNC. With symless I might as well give each one it's own monitor :D

Maybe I will pick up a 72" TV for $99 next Black Friday and provide each computer a piece of the realestate. Not sure if the resolution would be sufficient.

So many choices. I need to step back and figure out what I am trying to do in the first place. Thanks again for your encouragement. I will post back if I get something running with symless.

Ken
Ah!!! I remember it well. I have a bunch of rebuilt computers -- some hand-me-downs, and my most recent acquisition was found next to a dumpster -- an Ex-HP workstation over 10 years old that was literally DOA It is now once again a functioning computer that is currently running CentOS 7.4. It had two 250GB (!!) HDD in it. One was really TOAST, but the other I was able to re-format and install CentOS 7.4 It will eventually replace my current Gateway, but still have a few bugs to work out. :)

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