I've been using Linux since the early 1990s. When one of my Ubuntu 20.04 machines became "vacant" I decided to install FreeBSD13 on it. The installation went perfectly well except when I started X I found Xfce mirrored on my dual monitors. What is more, neither xrandr nor arandr could identify the monitors. I tried everything under the sun to expand the desktop on to the two monitors, to no avail.
The good folks at irc.libera.chat (#freebsd and #freebsd-desktop) came to my rescue. Following their advice I installed drm-kmod and added kld_list="i915kms" to /etc/rc.conf. After re-booting the machine I had what I wanted: both the VGA and the HDMI monitors came alive with an extended desktop. Using arandr I positioned the monitors to my liking and saved the configuration script in ~/.screenlayout; added the script to "Application Autostart" section in "Session and Startup" of "Settings Manager."
I'm posting this in the hope that FreeBSD newbies like myself would find it useful if they ever try a dual monitor installation.
The good folks at irc.libera.chat (#freebsd and #freebsd-desktop) came to my rescue. Following their advice I installed drm-kmod and added kld_list="i915kms" to /etc/rc.conf. After re-booting the machine I had what I wanted: both the VGA and the HDMI monitors came alive with an extended desktop. Using arandr I positioned the monitors to my liking and saved the configuration script in ~/.screenlayout; added the script to "Application Autostart" section in "Session and Startup" of "Settings Manager."
I'm posting this in the hope that FreeBSD newbies like myself would find it useful if they ever try a dual monitor installation.