A problem I’ve encountered since setting up dual display using Nvidia Twinview inside linux is that when playing full screen games I run into the problem where:

a) The game tries to run across the two displays but cuts off in the middle, so you only get the game on one monitor whilst your other monitor is naked

or

b) The game runs like it should on the primary monitor…however the window doesn’t capture the mouse and your second monitor is left open

It gets extremely annoying.

One workaround I’ve been using is disabling the second monitor and reenabling it once I’m done. Being a programmer…I thought…there should be a better way! So I googled a bit and found this solution which I will write up, for my own reference in the future should I encounter this problem and for anybody else who might be having the same issue.

So to sum up, this tutorial will allow you to play a fullscreen game on ONE monitor in a dual display setup.

  1. Open up a terminal
  2. First we should probably backup your xorg.conf just type ‘sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup’
  3. Type ‘sudo vim /etc/X11/xorg.conf’ Replace vim with your text editor of choice
  4. Scroll down until you see the “Screen” block for your PRIMARY monitor. It should look something like this:

    Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen0"
    Device "Videocard0"
    Monitor "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth 24
    Option "TwinView" "1"
    Option "TwinViewXineramaInfoOrder" "DFP-0"
    Option "metamodes" "CRT: 1280x1024 +1680+0, DFP: 1680x1050 +0+0"
    EndSection
  5. On the second last line which contains the word “metamodes” you’ll need to change it to this:

    Option "metamodes" "CRT: 1280x1024 +1680+0, DFP: 1680x1050 +0+0"; DFP: 1280x1024 +0+0,NULL"

    Replace 1280×1024 by the resolution of the game that you play on. However, EVERYBODY’s xorg.conf file will be different, make sure you adhere to the formatting of your file.
  6. Reboot your computer or simply press CTRL+ALT+BACKSPACE to restart X
  7. Open the game you wish to play and hopefully everything is working

Feel free to post any problems you may have after following this tutorial and I’ll try my best to help.