Dual displays in different orientations


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I'm very impressed with the capabilities of Unraid and the supportive community around it, and I'm thinking of converting my desktop machine into an Unraid server, so that I can run both Linux and Windows apps in VMs, organise my storage into shares, and get parity protection against disk failure. However, I've been experimenting with running WIndows guests in KVM/qemu (Manjaro host) and there's one thing I need that I can't get to work.

 

When I process images in Affinity Photo (I use the Windows version, although there is also a Mac flavour), I like to use my main monitor (1920x1200 with internal calibration) for the image as this has best colour accuracy, and use my secondary monitor (1024x1280 in portrait mode. set to 125% scale) for the toolbars. I previously did this with Photoshop too. But I can't seem to achieve this setup in a Windows guest. I've got as far using remote-viewer to get two monitors working to extend the desktop, but I can't seem to get the second one to fill the screen in portrait orientation. Nor am I quite sure what will happen if I pass through the GPU, as I have only the one at the moment, although I'm quite willing to acquire a second for purposes of setting up Unraid, etc. Nor do I currently have integrated graphics, although again this is a possible acquisition if needed.

 

Has anyone managed to do something like this? Would GPU passthrough make a difference? TIA.

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If not, plan B is:

  • Set up the Unraid on an old Dell or HP workstation from eBay with Xeons and ECC RAM
  • Continue to run Windows bare metal on the desktop machine, syncing the local disk with the Unraid shares daily (I've tried photo editing files on a network share and the results are not encouraging - I guess my Homeplug set up is just not fast enough)
  • Remote into a Linux VM on the Unraid server for everything that isn't photo editing

Does that sound sensible?

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On 1/19/2022 at 11:40 PM, thriddle said:

I've got as far using remote-viewer to get two monitors working to extend the desktop, but I can't seem to get the second one to fill the screen in portrait orientation

Can you explain better, maybe attaching some pictures?

In this case you are using spice+qxl?

How you are connecting to the spice server?

 

On 1/19/2022 at 11:40 PM, thriddle said:

Would GPU passthrough make a difference?

When you passthrough a gpu the behavior will be the same as in a bare metal installation, so if you achieved the goal on bare metal I see no reason why it wouldn't work with gpu passthrough.

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4 hours ago, ghost82 said:

Can you explain better, maybe attaching some pictures?

In this case you are using spice+qxl?

How you are connecting to the spice server?

 

Thanks for taking an interest. I'm basically following the guide here: 

as this is the only suggestion I have found so far.

 

I set it up with a Spice server and two Video QXLs, then run "remote-viewer spice://localhost:5900" in a terminal.

 

Unfortunately, the end result looks like the attached.

 

4 hours ago, ghost82 said:

When you passthrough a gpu the behavior will be the same as in a bare metal installation, so if you achieved the goal on bare metal I see no reason why it wouldn't work with gpu passthrough.

 

Seems like a reasonable argument. I'll source a second card and try it. Pardon the stupidity of this question, but when I pass through a GPU, do I need to have the monitor/s connected to that GPU, or will the signal still come out of the same video out that the host uses? Not having done it, I'm not sure what to expect.

 

Thanks!

PXL_20220122_170936275.jpg

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4 hours ago, ghost82 said:

So the issue is that the screen on the right doesn't "rotate"?

Stupid question: don't you have some settings in the windows guest to adjust that display, like setting the portrait mode?

 

:D Ha, no. I mean, yes they are there, but the only result of putting it portrait is now the screen is sideways! None of that helps at all, alas.

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Could be an issue with the qxl driver, but unfortunately I can't test this config and I can't find anything useful in google.

Also the first monitor in landscape doesn't seem to adjust in a proper fullscreen.

For sure having a passed through gpu should be the best option.

Edited by ghost82
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2 hours ago, ghost82 said:

Could be an issue with the qxl driver, but unfortunately I can't test this config and I can't find anything useful in google.

Also the first monitor in landscape doesn't seem to adjust in a proper fullscreen.

For sure having a passed through gpu should be the best option.

 

Thanks! I'll test this when I can and mark as a solution if it works.

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