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I have one VGA-port and one HDMI-port connected to the system. With this, I can easily configure clone mode as well as extended mode.

In clone mode, both monitors mimic each other. In extended mode, both monitors behave as if single monitor.

Now, I would like to set them as Independent Mode, where both monitors will act as separate displays. Both monitors will have separate display values; e.g. VGA will have :0.0 whereas HDMI will have :0.1. In this mode, unlike Extended mode, only the mouse pointer will be able to switch from one monitor to another. I will not be able to drag any application from one monitor to another.

How do I configure this ?

I am using Ubuntu-17.04 and I would like to do this through manually configuring xorg configuration and anything that requires.

SHW@SHW:~ $ lspci | grep VGA
00:02.0 VGA Compatible controller: Intel corporation Atom Processor
SHW@SHW:~ $ Xorg -version
X.org X Server 1.18.2
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    Did you actually get it working in the way that the accepted answer indicates? Can you post your final config?
    – mvreijn
    May 31, 2017 at 9:21

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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The mode with several displays for each "head" (output) is also called "Zaphod-Mode". On my machine, I configure it in /etc/X11/xorg.conf in the following way:

Section "Device"
    Identifier "intel0"
    Driver "intel"
    Option "ZaphodHeads" "VGA1,HDMI1,DP1"
    Screen 0
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier "intel1"
    Driver "intel"
    Option "ZaphodHeads" "HDMI3"
    Screen 1
EndSection

Look at the output of xrandr to identify your output names, they'll be likely different from mine. I'm not sure of the Intel Atom uses the intel driver or the modesetting drive, look in Xorg.log. The modesetting driver might need a different setup.

Edit: The mousepointer is automatically "shared", because there's only one instance of the X server running. How it works in practice may also depend on your Window Manager. I use fvwm, which automatically starts on both displays.

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  • Thanks. I do have two "heads". But how do I share same mouse pointer with both of them, as I have mentioned in question.
    – SHW
    May 18, 2017 at 10:59
  • FYI,I am using icewm
    – SHW
    May 18, 2017 at 13:55
  • I don't know how icewm handles it. Just try it out?
    – dirkt
    May 18, 2017 at 13:57
  • Though, I can switch mouse from Screen 0 to screen 1 by using xdotool mousemove command. But I would like to achieve this by Xorg configuration file.
    – SHW
    May 18, 2017 at 14:05
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    x2x could help to move mouse cursor from one screen to the other
    – mviereck
    May 18, 2017 at 18:28

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