Configuring multi-monitor with seperate x screens

Good day,

I tried Googling around and found some stuff but not yet a good guide that tells me how to configure my setup so I am asking here before I try things, reboot and then my display is black or other terrible stuff.

Currently I have a “10-monitor.conf” with the following content:


Section "Monitor"
    Identifier  "DisplayPort-1"
    Option      "PreferredMode"  "2560x1440"
    Option      "Position"       "0 0"
    Option      "Rotate"         "left"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier  "DisplayPort-0"
    Option      "PreferredMode"  "2560x1440"
    Option      "Position"       "1440 521"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier  "HDMI-A-0"
    Option      "PreferredMode"  "3840x2160"
    Option      "Position"       "4000 521"
EndSection

My “DisplayPort” monitors are FreeSync and I am going to give that another try, but for FreeSync to work, I need to have “HDMI-A-0” on a seperate x-server.

I need “HDMI-A-0” to work sinds that is my A/V reciever and need that connected so I can hear audio.

So, I basically want the same setup as earlier but with “HDMI-A-0” on a seperate x-server.

I have thrown together the following what I want to add to the above code:

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "FreeSync Layout"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    Screen      1  "Screen1" RightOf "Screen0"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0"          "CorePointer"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0"       "CoreKeyboard"

EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen0"
    Monitor    "DisplayPort-1"
    Option     "RightOf" "Screen0"
    DefaultDepth 24
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen1"
    Monitor    "HDMI-A-0"
    Option     "RightOf" "Screen0"
    DefaultDepth 24
EndSection

My question is, how can I add my second monitor to “Screen0”? And how can I tell it how to position them?

Right now on my normal setup I have a script that positions the monitors correctly and that is:

xrandr --output DisplayPort-1 --mode 2560x1440 --pos 0x0 --rotate left -r 120.00 --output DisplayPort-0 --primary --mode 2560x1440 --pos 1440x521 --rotate normal -r 120.00 --output HDMI-A-0 --mode 3840x2160 --pos 4000x521 --rotate normal -r 60.00

So, in general my question is “simple”, keep using what I have put have “HDMI-A-0” on a seperate X so it with interfere with my 2 main monitors so I can use FreeSync and have my audio played through “HDMI-A-0” and sometimes also movies, but I did found information how to start a application on a seperate X screen.

Righ now I need a good guide or advice that tells me what did I do right and what did I mess up.

I hope someone has some more info about this, because with Google I have a hard time finding good guides how to set it up.

Right now I have this:

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "FreeSync Layout"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    InputDevice    "Mouse0"          "CorePointer"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0"       "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen0"
    Monitor    "DisplayPort-1"
    Option      "PreferredMode"  "2560x1440"
    Option      "Position"       "0 0"
    Option      "Rotate"         "left"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen0"
    Monitor    "DisplayPort-0"
    Option      "PreferredMode"  "2560x1440"
    Option      "Position"       "1440 521"
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "OLED Layout"
    Screen      1  "Screen1" RightOf "Screen0"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0"          "CorePointer"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0"       "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen1"
    Monitor    "HDMI-A-0"
    Option     "RightOf" "Screen0"
EndSection

No clue if it works, but it seems like it can. One serverlayout for my 2 monitors and how I want them, and another serverlayout for my hdmi.

Welp, was unable to test because of the mesa/amd bug where booting fails if 2 DP devices are connected.

Shame that after all these kernel updates it still hasn’t been fixed.

@Sojiro84

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Multihead