Dual Monitor in Ubuntu Feisty

I have recently moved from Windows XP to Ubuntu at work. The only thing that holded me for so long to switch to Linux is because of the dual monitor support, and I wasn’t sure where to start to make it work. In the last few days, I have spent around 1 hour a day in the morning, for three days to fix the dual monitor in Ubuntu Feisty. It is now working perfectly. Things are always very complicated unless you try to solve it. This is what I did: 1. install nvidia driver:

sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx

or

sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx-new

I think both work, and I used the later one. You might also need to go to “Application -> System -> Restricted Drivers Manager” to enable the “NVIDIA accelerated grahics drive”, if it is disabled, enable it and restart your computer. The last thing is to update the xorg.conf file to tell Ubuntu how to handle dual monitor, this is the xorg.conf file which makes my dual monitor working on my Ubuntu Feisty:

# xorg.conf (X.Org X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
#   sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier  "Generic Keyboard"
    Driver      "kbd"
    Option      "XkbRules"  "xorg"
    Option      "XkbModel"  "pc105"
    Option      "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier  "Configured Mouse"
    Driver      "mouse"
    Option      "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "Configured Video Device"
    Driver      "i810"
    Busid       "PCI:0:2:0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "Second Video"
    Driver      "nv"
    BusID       "PCI:1:1:0"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier  "DELL E196FP"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier  "Second Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier  "Default Screen"
    Monitor     "DELL E196FP"
    Device      "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier  "Second Screen"
    Monitor     "Second Monitor"
    Device      "Second Video"
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier  "Default Layout"
    Screen  0   "Default Screen" 0 0
    Screen  1   "Second Screen" rightof "Default Screen"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
    Mode 0666
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
    Option "Composite" "0"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
    Option "Xinerama" "true"
EndSection

There is also an article about the same topic from ubuntugeek. Looks like his xorg.conf is simpler, but both work. Good luck.