Cannot change screen resolution in multi-monitor setups

Almost forgot, I also tried purging wine from my system then compiling wine myself following the directions at http://wiki.winehq.org/WineOn64bit
The build was successful, but the same problem occurred.
I then removed that wine, disabled the winehq repositories and tried using wine from the Hardy repositories instead, but the problem is still there. I am currently using wine-0.9.59
Again, the problem still existed in the latest wine, 0.9.61

OK, I reinstalled with the i386 version of Ubuntu Hardy and the problem still exists, so it must be that wine does not like the hardware.
Using an NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT. Even with a fresh install, no nvidia restricted driver, the same problem occurs.

Can somebody please confirm this bug?

connor@compy686:~$ uname -a
Linux compy686 2.6.24-16-generic #1 SMP Thu Apr 10 13:23:42 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux

connor@compy686:~$ sudo lshw -C video
  *-display
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: GeForce 8600 GT
       vendor: nVidia Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
       version: a1
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller bus_master cap_list
       configuration: driver=nvidia latency=0 module=nvidia

Just tried nvidia restricted driver version 100.14.19, did not fix the problem.

Now using a new kernel, new wine version, and had to reinstall the restricted nvidia drivers, but the problem still exists. Does anybody have any ideas at all?

connor@compy686:~$ uname -a
Linux compy686 2.6.24-19-generic #1 SMP Wed Jun 18 14:43:41 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux

connor@compy686:~$ wine --version
wine-1.1.0

Problem still exists. At this time I am only using 1 monitor.

connor@compy686:~$ uname -a
Linux compy686 2.6.24-20-generic #1 SMP Mon Jul 28 13:49:52 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux

connor@compy686:~$ wine --version
wine-1.1.2

OK, so a workaround has been discovered.

1) * TwinView must be disabled *
2) Load the game and disable windowed mode (which means full screen is enabled).
3) Restart the game - you can now select a resolution. Do it and restart the game.
4) You can now re-enable windowed mode and choose a screen resolution to better match.

The kicker is that TwinView has to be disabled. Right now I only have one monitor plugged in, so I will have to see if the fix continues to work when both monitors are plugged in and TwinView is re-enabled. I will post the results of that back in a few weeks.

I found a work around where you can have BOTH dual screen AND you can change your resolution. Your post helped me figure this out so thanks!

Here's what I did in the nvidia-settings (took several iterations to get this correct),

1. Load the Nvidia-Settings
2. Detect Displays
3. In the configure screen, turn TwinView off like you mentioned above.
4. Select "Use separate X windows" I think is the option.
5. Check the xinerama, this is required if you want to be able to move your windows from one screen to the next otherwise X treats this as two different windows (per the option above).

Then I restarted X, I now have dual monitoring working AND was able to play counter-strike @ 1024x768.

I'm not sure if this is a Wine bug or an nvidia bug. Is there a non Wine-related application that makes similar resolution changes?

Hi Scott,

I only experience the problem with dual head, I thought that Wine may be having trouble talking with the drivers correctly in this setup. Since the game works fine with one monitor (no TwinView) and restricted drivers, Wine seemed like the best package to assign this bug to.

I have not had the problem with any other programs outside of Wine - the problem only occurs with these Steam games in Wine (Counter-Strike and Day of Defeat act the same - both are based on the Half Life engine). I don't use Wine very much, but programs that I do use (or have used) in Wine work fine. If you need anything else, let me know. Thanks.

Please note that a workaround has been detailed under the following two links. They both contain the same information:
http://www.ltyer.com/wordpress/tutorial-xorg-metamodes-running-fullscreen-games-on-1-monitor-in-a-dual-display
http://www.kareeser.com/ubuntu/metamodes.php

The problem is due to TwinView merging both displays into a single resolution, which confuses games.

Unfortunately, because wine is designed to work with one monitor, and not a dual (or triple) head setup with Twinview, this is most likely better to be categorized as "wishlist".

However, the workaround listed above works perfectly. Wine should automatically interface with nvidia-settings and setup metamodes properly. Alternatively, nvidia-settings should set up metamodes automatically.

Thank you for posting this bug.

As per upstream, this functionality is duly noted but not implemented yet.

Hence, I agree with Julian Lam, this is a wishlist bug. This should be marked as such.

Setting Wishlist on rusivi1s request.