Multiple monitors?

Tom Buskey tom at buskey.name
Fri May 16 15:48:28 EDT 2003


Ken D'Ambrosio wrote:

>>I'm looking at a Matrox G550 card to get this going.  Any opinions?
>>Experience?
>>
>>I've had dual monitors on a sparc solaris box in the past and am running
>> a mac iBook with an external monitor + the LCD and it works very well.
>> I want to switch to Linux and get X11.  I'm discovering I'm not a fan
>>of  the Mac GUI.
>>    
>>
>
>The Lesson I've Learned Re: Dual-Monitor Support Under Linux:
>
>
>BE SURE YOUR VIDEO CARDS ARE EXPLICITLY MENTIONED AS SUPPORTED FOR XINERAMA.
>
>Otherwise, you may have problems.
>
>-Ken
>

You don't have to use xinerama to have multiple monitors.  The sun I ran 
would only support it if both monitors were at the same res and depth.  
I tried it, didn't like it, and ran w/o xinerama.

xinerama: both screens look like one to the system.  Drag windows from 
screen to screen.

w/o xinerama: One's localhost:0, the other localhost:1.  Can't drag 
windows between screens.  I had to run a window manager on each screen.

People have asked me about any info.  We have a system at work w/ 3 
monitors off 3 cards.  Here's the XF86config for people that want to 
play with it.  Me, I want to free up a PCI slot.
-------------- next part --------------
# XFree86 4.0 configuration generated by Xconfigurator

#Section "ServerLayout"
#	Identifier "XFree86 Configured"
#	Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
#	InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
#	InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
#EndSection

# By default, Red Hat Linux 6.0 and later use xfs

Section "Files"
	FontPath "unix/:7100"
EndSection

# This loads all the modules...

Section "Module"
	Load  "GLcore"
	Load  "dbe"
	Load  "dri"
	Load  "extmod"
	Load  "glx"
	Load  "pex5"
	Load  "record"
	Load  "xie"
	Load  "v4l"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "Keyboard0"
	Driver      "keyboard"
	Option      "XkbLayout"	"us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "Mouse0"
	Driver      "mouse"
	Option      "Device" "/dev/mouse"
	Option      "Protocol" "PS/2"
	Option      "Emulate3Buttons" "on"
	Option      "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier "MICRON 700Ex"
	VendorName "Unknown"
	ModelName  "Unknown"
	HorizSync 30 - 70
	VertRefresh 50 - 160
EndSection

# On Board Graphics
Section "Device"
	Identifier "Intel Corporation|82815 CGC [Chipset Gra"
	Driver "i810"
	BoardName "Unknown"
	VideoRam 16384
	BusID "PCI:0:2:0"
EndSection

#nVidia PCI card
Section "Device"
	Identifier "nVidia Corporation|Vanta [NV6]"
	Driver "nv"
	BoardName "Unknown"
	BusID "PCI:1:13:0"
EndSection

# Cirrus Logic Card
Section "Device"
	Identifier "My Video Card"
	Driver "cirrus"
	BoardName "Unknown"
	BusID "PCI:1:12:0"
EndSection


#On Board to Micron Monitor
Section "Screen"
	Identifier "Screen0"
	Device "Intel Corporation|82815 CGC [Chipset Gra"
	Monitor "MICRON 700Ex"
	DefaultDepth 16
	Subsection "Display"
		Depth 16
#		Modes "1024x768"
		Modes "1600x1200"
	EndSubSection
EndSection

#nVidia to micron monitor
Section "Screen"
	Identifier "Screen1"
	Device "nVidia Corporation|Vanta [NV6]"
	Monitor "MICRON 700Ex"
	DefaultDepth 16
	Subsection "Display"
		Depth 16
		Modes "800x600"
	EndSubSection
EndSection

# Cirrus Logic to Micron Monitor
Section "Screen"
	Identifier "Screen2"
	Device "My Video Card"
	Monitor "MICRON 700Ex"
	DefaultDepth 16
	Subsection "Display"
		Depth 16
		Modes "800x600"
	EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
EndSection

#layout with 1600 on left then nvidia then cirrus
Section "ServerLayout"
	Identifier "Simple Layout"
#	Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
	Screen "Screen0"
	Screen "Screen1" RightOf "Screen0"
	Screen "Screen2" RightOf "Screen1"
	InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
	InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection


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