well its really dependant on what video card and driver you are using.
for example the proprietary nvidia driver has a gui that can adjust
the display mode and resolution without restarting X fairly easily but
there is no such option with the free nvidia driver.

On Wed, Nov 21, 2012 at 1:32 PM, Andrew Z <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> .. not easy, but super easy for simple dual monitor setup.
> And i think it def helped to have one of the monitors to be connected with
> HDMI.
> here are a few links i found useful:
> https://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=6738
> http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Xorg_RandR_1.2
> en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/X.Org/Dual_Monitors
>
> i had dsub + DVI originally and i had to specify the resolution. Once i
> switched to HDMI+DVI all i have to do is to issue xrandr blah --auto and
> specify which monitor i want where.
>
>
>
> On Tue, Nov 13, 2012 at 2:34 PM, Andrew Z <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>> Hello,
>>  i want to setup a dual monitor under xfce (4.8) ( and compiz if it
>> matters ). I did a quick search and it seems there are quite a few open
>> bugs.
>> Can you gentlemen, advise on the subject? Maybe point to a good howto?
>>
>> Thank you
>> AZ
>
>