https://faq.i3wm.org/questions/Frequently asked questions and answers about the i3 window managerenCopyright i3, 2012Mon, 14 Jul 2014 00:14:09 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/4207/i3-only-in-first-screen-with-nvidia-33120/My system has 4 screens, such that one pair are connected to my nVidia GTX 460 (both DVI) and the other pair to a GT 610 (one DVI, one VGA). I am using `nvidia-settings` version 331.20. With XFCE in xubuntu 14.04 this works as expected with all screens functional. In i3, only the first display on the 460 is working correctly, with additional displays showing only black. I can move my mouse around these screens, but the cursor is a black X. As per tigrezno's comment, xrandr _does_ detect all the screens correctly. However i3 appears only on the first display. This post (https://faq.i3wm.org/question/315/how-can-i-use-i3-with-multiple-graphic-cards/) seems potentially helpful, but when I tried launching separate instances of i3 with `$ DISPLAY=:0.1 i3 &` these instances are incapable of interacting with each other and each have their own workspace 1. In any case `~/.xsession` isn't the right file as I'm not using `startx`. How can I make i3 detect all 4 of my screens? These are the values from xrandr. I have removed the list of available resolutions for each display for brevity leaving only `1920x1080 60.0*+`. henry@kuru:~$ xrandr --screen 0 Screen 0: minimum 8 x 8, current 1920 x 1080, maximum 16384 x 16384 DVI-I-0 disconnected primary (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) DVI-I-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) DVI-I-2 connected 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm 1920x1080 60.0*+ HDMI-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) DP-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) DP-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) henry@kuru:~$ xrandr --screen 1 Screen 1: minimum 8 x 8, current 1920 x 1080, maximum 16384 x 16384 DVI-I-3 connected primary 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm 1920x1080 60.0*+ henry@kuru:~$ xrandr --screen 2 Screen 2: minimum 8 x 8, current 1920 x 1080, maximum 16384 x 16384 DVI-I-0 disconnected primary (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) DVI-I-1 connected 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm 1920x1080 60.0*+ HDMI-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) henry@kuru:~$ xrandr --screen 3 Screen 3: minimum 8 x 8, current 1920 x 1080, maximum 16384 x 16384 VGA-0 connected primary 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm 1920x1080 60.0*+ My `/etc/X11/xorg.conf` was generated by `nvidia-settings`. I do *not* have Xinerama enabled. # nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings # nvidia-settings: version 331.20 (buildd@roseapple) Mon Feb 3 15:07:22 UTC 2014 Section "ServerLayout" Identifier "Layout0" Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0 Screen 1 "Screen1" 1920 0 Screen 2 "Screen2" 0 1080 Screen 3 "Screen3" 1920 1080 InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard" InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer" Option "Xinerama" "0" EndSection Section "Files" EndSection Section "InputDevice" # generated from default Identifier "Mouse0" Driver "mouse" Option "Protocol" "auto" Option "Device" "/dev/psaux" Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no" Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5" EndSection Section "InputDevice" # generated from default Identifier "Keyboard0" Driver "kbd" EndSection Section "Monitor" # HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid Identifier "Monitor0" VendorName "Unknown" ModelName "CVT DVI" HorizSync 31.5 - 80.0 VertRefresh 59.8 - 75.0 Option "DPMS" EndSection Section "Monitor" # HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid Identifier "Monitor1" VendorName "Unknown" ModelName "CVT DVI" HorizSync 31.5 - 80.0 VertRefresh 59.8 - 75.0 Option "DPMS" EndSection Section "Monitor" # HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid Identifier "Monitor2" VendorName "Unknown" ModelName "CVT DVI" HorizSync 31.5 - 80.0 VertRefresh 59.8 - 75.0 Option "DPMS" EndSection Section "Monitor" # HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid Identifier "Monitor3" VendorName "Unknown" ModelName "CVT VGA" HorizSync 31.5 - 80.0 VertRefresh 59.8 - 75.0 Option "DPMS" EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "Device0" Driver "nvidia" VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation" BoardName "GeForce GTX 460" BusID "PCI:1:0:0" Screen 0 EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "Device1" Driver "nvidia" VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation" BoardName "GeForce GTX 460" BusID "PCI:1:0:0" Screen 1 EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "Device2" Driver "nvidia" VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation" BoardName "GeForce GT 610" BusID "PCI:2:0:0" Screen 0 EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "Device3" Driver "nvidia" VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation" BoardName "GeForce GT 610" BusID "PCI:2:0:0" Screen 1 EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "Screen0" Device "Device0" Monitor "Monitor0" DefaultDepth 24 Option "Stereo" "0" Option "metamodes" "DVI-I-2: nvidia-auto-select +0+0" Option "SLI" "Off" Option "MultiGPU" "Off" Option "BaseMosaic" "off" SubSection "Display" Depth 24 EndSubSection EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "Screen1" Device "Device1" Monitor "Monitor1" DefaultDepth 24 Option "Stereo" "0" Option "metamodes" "DVI-I-3: nvidia-auto-select +0+0" Option "SLI" "Off" Option "MultiGPU" "Off" Option "BaseMosaic" "off" SubSection "Display" Depth 24 EndSubSection EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "Screen2" Device "Device2" Monitor "Monitor2" DefaultDepth 24 Option "Stereo" "0" Option "metamodes" "DVI-I-1: nvidia-auto-select +0+0" Option "SLI" "Off" Option "MultiGPU" "Off" Option "BaseMosaic" "off" SubSection "Display" Depth 24 EndSubSection EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "Screen3" Device "Device3" Monitor "Monitor3" DefaultDepth 24 Option "Stereo" "0" Option "nvidiaXineramaInfoOrder" "CRT-1" Option "metamodes" "VGA-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+0" Option "SLI" "Off" Option "MultiGPU" "Off" Option "BaseMosaic" "off" SubSection "Display" Depth 24 EndSubSection EndSection Fri, 11 Jul 2014 19:31:59 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/4207/i3-only-in-first-screen-with-nvidia-33120/https://faq.i3wm.org/question/4207/i3-only-in-first-screen-with-nvidia-33120/?comment=4223#comment-4223@tigrezno henry@kuru:~$ ps ax | grep X 23294 tty7 Ss+ 0:03 /usr/bin/X -core :0 -seat seat0 -auth /var/run/lightdm/root/:0 -nolisten tcp vt7 -novtswitch 23873 pts/1 S+ 0:00 grep --color=auto X Sun, 13 Jul 2014 14:48:41 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/4207/i3-only-in-first-screen-with-nvidia-33120/?comment=4223#comment-4223https://faq.i3wm.org/question/4207/i3-only-in-first-screen-with-nvidia-33120/?comment=4216#comment-4216That xrandr output is for "screen 0", that may be the problem. Try with xrandr --screen 1Sat, 12 Jul 2014 13:50:58 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/4207/i3-only-in-first-screen-with-nvidia-33120/?comment=4216#comment-4216https://faq.i3wm.org/question/4207/i3-only-in-first-screen-with-nvidia-33120/?comment=4225#comment-4225Try activating xinerama and see what happensSun, 13 Jul 2014 21:43:45 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/4207/i3-only-in-first-screen-with-nvidia-33120/?comment=4225#comment-4225https://faq.i3wm.org/question/4207/i3-only-in-first-screen-with-nvidia-33120/?comment=4222#comment-4222What is the output for: "ps ax | grep X"Sun, 13 Jul 2014 14:44:38 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/4207/i3-only-in-first-screen-with-nvidia-33120/?comment=4222#comment-4222https://faq.i3wm.org/question/4207/i3-only-in-first-screen-with-nvidia-33120/?answer=4226#post-id-4226I enabled xinerama and added `force_xinerama yes` to my config file. Normally this is non-ideal as you can't add or remove monitors on the fly (http://i3wm.org/docs/userguide.html#_forcing_xinerama), but my computer is a desktop and (understandably) lacks have the capacity to drive more than four displays anyway. Much thanks to tigrezno!Mon, 14 Jul 2014 00:14:09 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/4207/i3-only-in-first-screen-with-nvidia-33120/?answer=4226#post-id-4226