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I am using Slackware Linux 13.37 with FVMW2 as my window manager.

I have a pair of monitors that are different physical dimensions (a 21" widescreen, and a 19" standard display) which I use to do my work. I typically have my Slackware installation running within a virtual machine, and then a Knoppix installation running in another. It seems that the only way to accomplish dual monitor support in VMware Fusion 3 with FVWM is to have one VM log in to the other via a graphical SSH connection on a private network behind NAT.

I connect from my Knoppix VM to my Slackware VM like so:

ssh -Y user123@
Xnest :1 -geometry 1600x1200 & 
fvwm2 -s -display :1

My Slackware VM looks normal at 1400x900 resolution, but the 19" standard display looks terrible when it starts up FVWM. Is it possible to setup my (simple) xorg.conf file so that the second instance of FVWM automatically uses a different display configuration (ie: is running at 1600x1200 resolution instead of just having Xnest scale it and make the display distorted and aliased?).

Additionally, provided I can accomplish this, is it possible to have both instances share the same virtual desktops between each other?

Let's say that I have a 3x3 virtual desktop configuration in FVWM.

Slackware VM   Knoppix VM
 ________      ________

Can I set it up so that I have a separate pager for the instance of FVWM on my Slackware VM, and a separate pager for the instance running through the graphical SSH connection from my Knoppix VM, but they can both see the same open applications that are running on the Slackware VM?


Slackware VM   Knoppix VM
 ________      ________
|A_|__|__|    |A_|__|__|

In the example above, I open an application named "A", and both VMs can see it open if they are on Virtual Desktop 1 (upper left corner of pager). However, both VMs do NOT NEED to be focused on the same virtual desktop at the same time. ie: The Slackware VM could stay focused on virtual desktop 1 and see "A", while the Knoppix VM could just focus on virtual desktop 2, an empty screen.

Does anyone know if this is possible?

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Version 13.37 == awesome –  JW. Nov 30 '11 at 16:13
Superuser, or perhaps the Unix site. –  Novelocrat Nov 30 '11 at 20:35
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migrated from stackoverflow.com Dec 1 '11 at 10:29

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