Dual Head with Dual Vidcard Without Xinerama Help


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Thread: Dual Head with Dual Vidcard Without Xinerama Help

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    Hershey, PA, USA
    Posts
    552

    Dual Head with Dual Vidcard Without Xinerama Help

    Hello, been a while since I've posted, but I'm really stuck this time.

    Had a debian etch machine, worked fine with Xinerama . Relavent parts of that config file are as follows:

    Code:
    Section "Device"
    	Identifier	"savage"
    	Driver		"savage"
    	Option		"DPMS"
            Option  "DPMS"  "true"
    	BusID		"PCI:1:8:0"
    EndSection
    
    Section "Device"
    	Identifier  "ati"
    	Driver      "ati"
    	Option		"DPMS"
    	Option  "DPMS"  "true"
    	BusID		"PCI:0:2:0"
    EndSection
    	
    Section "Monitor"
    	Identifier	"First Monitor"
    	VendorName      "MEI"
    	ModelName       "MEI1648"
    EndSection
    
    Section "Monitor"
    	Identifier	"Second Monitor"
            VendorName      "MEI"
            ModelName       "MEI1648"
    EndSection
    
    Section "Screen"
    	Identifier	"First Screen"
    	Device		"ati"
    	Monitor		"First Monitor"
    	DefaultDepth	16
    	SubSection "Display"
    		Depth		16
    		Modes		"1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
    	EndSubSection
    EndSection
    
    Section "Screen"
    	Identifier	"Second Screen"
    	Device		"savage"
    	Monitor		"Second Monitor"
    	DefaultDepth	16
    	SubSection "Display"
    		Depth		16
    		Modes		"1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "640x480"
    	EndSubSection
    EndSection
    
    Section "ServerLayout"
    	Identifier	"DualHead"
    	Screen		"First Screen" LeftOf "Second Screen"
    	Screen		"Second Screen"
    	InputDevice	"Generic Keyboard"
    	InputDevice	"Configured Mouse"
    EndSection
    
    Section "ServerFlags"
    	Option "AllowMouseOpenFail"  "true"
    	Option "Xinerama" "On"	
    EndSection
    Upgraded to debian testing, with newer Xorg (7.3).

    Long story short, Xinerama isn't working well for me, and I wish to find another way to have a large virtual screen that flows onto both monitors. If I have two screens configured separately, I have two monitors with separate x desktops, which is cool. This tells me that my drivers, etc are working fine.

    My question is this: can I configure a large Virtual Screen that spans both monitors WITHOUT using Xinerama ? Can I do this all inside of Xorg ? I have found many howtos that use xrandr, but I have two different vidcards, not one card with multiple ports.

    Here is my current, working Xorg.conf with two separate screens working:

    Code:
    Section "Device"
    	Identifier	"savage"
    	Driver		"savage"
    	Option		"DPMS"
            Option  "DPMS"  "true"
    	BusID		"PCI:1:8:0"
    EndSection
    
    Section "Device"
    	Identifier  "ati"
    	Driver      "ati"
    	Option		"DPMS"
    	Option  "DPMS"  "true"
    	BusID		"PCI:1:7:0"
    EndSection
    
    	#HorizSync	30-70
    	#VertRefresh	50-160
    	
    Section "Monitor"
    	Identifier	"First Monitor"
    	VendorName      "MEI"
    	ModelName       "MEI1648"
    EndSection
    
    	#HorizSync	30-70
    	#VertRefresh	50-160
    Section "Monitor"
    	Identifier	"Second Monitor"
            VendorName      "MEI"
            ModelName       "MEI1648"
    EndSection
    
    Section "Screen"
    	Identifier	"First Screen"
    	Device		"ati"
    	Monitor		"First Monitor"
    	DefaultDepth	16
    	SubSection "Display"
    		Depth		16
    		Modes		"1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
    	EndSubSection
    EndSection
    
    Section "Screen"
    	Identifier	"Second Screen"
    	Device		"savage"
    	Monitor		"Second Monitor"
    	DefaultDepth	16
    	SubSection "Display"
    		Depth		16
    		Modes		"1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "640x480"
    	EndSubSection
    EndSection
    
    Section "ServerLayout"
    	Identifier	"DualHead"
    	Screen		"First Screen" LeftOf "Second Screen"
    	Screen		"Second Screen"
    	InputDevice	"Generic Keyboard"
    	InputDevice	"Configured Mouse"
    EndSection
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  2. #2
    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Posts
    1,088
    I am pretty sure what you are looking to do is well documented in the NVidia drivers, but your config file looks like you are using and ATI card. Did you check any documentation that ATI provides with their drivers? I would start there and google/linux this to see what you come up with as I don't recall a how-to being post here on how to do it with ATI cards. I know there is a excellent thread on NVidia cards.
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  3. #3
    Join Date
    Sep 1999
    Posts
    3,202
    AFAIK, with NVidia cards you have one card with dual outputs - one analog and one DVI. Then you enable twinview in the X config, which spreads it across.

    I think if you are using 2 physical cards, nvidia or not, you need to use Xinerama. Of course, you could always spend $40 on a 256mb NVidia card wtih the dual outputs and be done with it...

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Posts
    1,088
    Ok I did a short search and believe I found some information to help you. There is a good how-to over at the Ubuntu forms on how to do large desktop without xinerama on ati cards http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=301941

    I found that on the unofficial wiki located here http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Main_Page

    Most of this looks pretty straight forward, hope it helps. Also good references for the ATI card owners among us.
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