Dual Monitor Setup

Hi all,

I just got a dual head video card (PCI ATI Radeon 7000 64MB DDR Video Card w/Dual VGA Head & Tv Out V27). It's a PCI. I am trying to set up dual monitors (using Twinview or Xinorama, haven't really decided yet).

Everything works, except when X starts, the second monitor goes black. This is to be expected, as I haven't configured the X configuration file to recognize the dual setup. Since I am still new to Linux, can anyone tell me what I need to put in the conf file?

Also, do I need to install the proprietary radeon driver for it to function properly?

BTW, I'm running Red Hat 9.

Thanks so much, :)

Bill

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wbishop311

I just got a dual head video card (PCI ATI Radeon 7000 64MB DDR Video Card w/Dual VGA Head & Tv Out V27). It's a PCI. I am trying to set up dual monitors (using Twinview or Xinorama, haven't really decided yet).

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I could be wring, but i believe TwinView to be an nvidia thing, so will not work on ATi anyway, so looks like you may be forced to use xinerama, or another option.

Ahhh, ok, I gotcha. So xinerama it is. :)

Do you know if Red Hat 9's default "radeon" driver supports dual monitors or do I have to download a driver for my card? Also, if you have kinda a rough idea as to how I would edit the configuration file, that would be great. I hate to ask such silly questions, but unfortunately I am unable to find documentation specific to my situation :(

Anyway, thanks again :)

Bill

not sure about wether the "radeon" driver supports dual heads.

I have never had an ATi card on linux since i know the drivers (to get one monitor) can even be a right pain.

Plus i haven't really had an issue with nvidia that hasn't been easily solved :)

i've got a dual head ati 7000 that supports dual monitors just fine..

i set mine up via the GUI in FC3, but here is my xorg.conf

Code:

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# Xorg configuration created by system-config-display

Section "ServerLayout"
        Identifier    "Multihead layout"
        Screen      0  "Screen0" LeftOf "Screen1"
        Screen      1  "Screen1" 0 0
        InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
        InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
        Option            "Xinerama" "on"
        Option            "Clone" "off"
EndSection

Section "Files"

# RgbPath is the location of the RGB database.  Note, this is the name of the
# file minus the extension (like ".txt" or ".db").  There is normally
# no need to change the default.
# Multiple FontPath entries are allowed (they are concatenated together)
# By default, Red Hat 6.0 and later now use a font server independent of
# the X server to render fonts.
        RgbPath      "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
        FontPath    "unix/:7100"
EndSection

Section "Module"
        Load  "dbe"
        Load  "extmod"
        Load  "fbdevhw"
        Load  "glx"
        Load  "record"
        Load  "freetype"
        Load  "type1"
        Load  "dri"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

# Specify which keyboard LEDs can be user-controlled (eg, with xset(1))
#        Option        "Xleds"                "1 2 3"
# To disable the XKEYBOARD extension, uncomment XkbDisable.
#        Option        "XkbDisable"
# To customise the XKB settings to suit your keyboard, modify the
# lines below (which are the defaults).  For example, for a non-U.S.
# keyboard, you will probably want to use:
#        Option        "XkbModel"        "pc102"
# If you have a US Microsoft Natural keyboard, you can use:
#        Option        "XkbModel"        "microsoft"
#
# Then to change the language, change the Layout setting.
# For example, a german layout can be obtained with:
#        Option        "XkbLayout"        "de"
# or:
#        Option        "XkbLayout"        "de"
#        Option        "XkbVariant"        "nodeadkeys"
#
# If you'd like to switch the positions of your capslock and
# control keys, use:
#        Option        "XkbOptions"        "ctrl:swapcaps"
# Or if you just want both to be control, use:
#        Option        "XkbOptions"        "ctrl:nocaps"
#
        Identifier  "Keyboard0"
        Driver      "kbd"
        Option            "XkbModel" "pc105"
        Option            "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier  "Mouse0"
        Driver      "mouse"
        Option            "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
        Option            "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
        Option            "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
        Option            "Emulate3Buttons" "yes"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier  "Monitor0"
        VendorName  "Monitor Vendor"
        ModelName    "MAG InnoVision MX17F/S"
        DisplaySize  320        240
        HorizSync    30.0 - 68.0
        VertRefresh  50.0 - 110.0
        Option            "dpms"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier  "Monitor1"
        VendorName  "Monitor Vendor"
        ModelName    "Monitor 1280x1024"
        HorizSync    31.5 - 79.0
        VertRefresh  50.0 - 90.0
        Option            "dpms"
EndSection

Section "Device"
        Identifier  "Videocard0"
        Driver      "radeon"
        VendorName  "Videocard vendor"
        BoardName  "ATI Radeon VE"
EndSection

Section "Device"
        Identifier  "Videocard1"
        Driver      "radeon"
        VendorName  "Videocard Vendor"
        BoardName  "ATI Radeon VE"
        BusID      "PCI:1:0:0"
        Screen      1
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier "Screen0"
        Device    "Videocard0"
        Monitor    "Monitor0"
        DefaultDepth    24
        SubSection "Display"
                Viewport  0 0
                Depth    16
                Modes    "800x600" "640x480"
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Viewport  0 0
                Depth    24
                Modes    "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier "Screen1"
        Device    "Videocard1"
        Monitor    "Monitor1"
        DefaultDepth    24
        SubSection "Display"
                Viewport  0 0
                Depth    24
                Modes    "1280x1024"
        EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
        Group        0
        Mode        0666
EndSection

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I also have an AGP ATI radeon 7000 (with the VGA and DVI outputs) and have had one heck of a time getting it up and running. I'm running both RH FC3 and MDK 10.0, and haven't had luck in either. At this point, I copied the XF86Config file posted here and used it on my PC (tweaked a little to fit my monitor's specs), but instead of getting 2 individual displays, I get a cloned setup where both screens show the same thing. Not exactly what I intended.

So for the sake of curiosity, and to test if I actually had things set up semi-correctly, I went back in and changed one of the monitor's resolutions to 800x600, while leaving the other at 1024x768. Well after restarting X, BOTH still displayed 1024x768, it's as if X isn't even recognizing that I put in that 2nd monitor configuration.

More curiosity overcame me, so I copied back my original XF86Config file, the one I had used with one monitor, and nothing was different. 2 screens with the same display.

Can anyone confirm that the Radeon 7000 does indeed support dual displays? Also, I heard that if your card was capable of supporting dual displays, upon running 'lspci', you should see one listed as 01:00:00 and 01:00:01. I did not see the latter when I ran it. Does the "radeon" driver support multiple monitors off the same card?

Help!

Dan

my radeon 7000 did indeed do dual monitors, with the desktop spanned across both screens. have you used FC3's graphical tool? thats what i used and it worked fine.

Ok, I got it working earlier this afternoon. The FC3
system-config-display program they provide is crap, even after I
installed the updated RPM. Despite making any changes to the xorg.conf
file, it just sits there all dumb like it's going through the motions,
but never changes anything. So I actually deleted the xorg.conf file,
killed/restarted X, and let it figure out what the heck was going on
from scratch, and it worked. Looks like I was missing the "Screen 1"
option, as opposed to Screen 0, associated with the 2nd video driver
section of the xorg file. I pretty much copied this info into my MDK
10.0 XF86Config file, and it works there as
well.

Cool 8)

Hi all,

I am using FC4 with Radeon 9600 video card.
I want to have two output for which I hav used a VGA monitor and other is CRT type. For CRT monitor i have used S-video cable.
Using GUI I changed the xorg.conf file, and when I restarted the X server the second monittor is not even fired up while the first moinitor works as usual.

Does the Radoen card suppots the dual monitor or else what should I do?

Thanks in advance,

Ankur