xorg radeon driver dual monitors; have been struggling for lil over a year

08-27-2008

#1 (permalink)

REVEREND_FLIBBLE

Just Joined!

Join Date: Jun 2007

Posts: 5

xorg radeon driver dual monitors; have been struggling for lil over a year

I would like to have dual monitors on my tower;

I have been looking at xorg files for the past year and a half and played in different versions of linux

I am tempted to apandon the xorg-radeon drivers and change to fglrx; (which i still have little faith in due to past epirience) I don't do this because i have read that changing to fglrx can cause problems with other graphics related things (if fglrx is a good choice at this point let me know)

I'm running two Hanns-G 1440x900 LCD monitors
One is VGA the other is DVI input
my videocard is the Radeon x850 PRO
my default xorg runs them cloned;

I would like to have spanned monitors.

My current OS is Fedora Core 9 and I am running Compiz-Fusion I have tried all of the built in sofware to get dual monitors working but no avail

I have been using linux for ~4 years (2 years as main OS)

here is my current xorg file

Code:

# Xorg configuration created by system-config-display

Section "ServerLayout"
        Identifier     "single head configuration"
        Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
        InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

# keyboard added by rhpxl
        Identifier  "Keyboard0"
        Driver      "kbd"
        Option      "XkbModel" "pc105"
        Option      "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier   "Monitor0"
        ModelName    "LCD Panel 1440x900"
        HorizSync    31.5 - 56.0
        VertRefresh  56.0 - 65.0
        Option      "dpms"
EndSection

Section "Device"
        Identifier  "Videocard0"
        Driver      "radeon"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier "Screen0"
        Device     "Videocard0"
        Monitor    "Monitor0"
        DefaultDepth     24
        SubSection "Display"
                Viewport   0 0
                Depth     24
        EndSubSection
EndSection

and here is the xorg file that i have most reciently tried for dual monitors

Code:

################################################################################
# Server Layout
################################################################################

Section "ServerLayout"
        Identifier     "Dual Head Configuration"
        Screen         "Screen0" 0 0
        Screen         "Screen1" RightOf "Screen0"
        InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
#       Option         "Xinerama"  "true"
EndSection

################################################################################
# Input Devices
################################################################################

Section "InputDevice
        Identifier  "Keyboard0"
        Driver      "kbd"
        Option      "XkbModel" "pc105"
        Option      "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection


################################################################################
# Monitors: I have two hanns-g LCD Monitors
################################################################################

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier   "Monitor0"
        ModelName    "LCD Panel 1440x900"
        HorizSync    31.5 - 56.0
        VertRefresh  56.0 - 65.0
        Option      "dpms"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier   "Monitor1"
        ModelName    "LCD Panel 1440x900"
        HorizSync    31.5 - 56.0
        VertRefresh  56.0 - 65.0
        Option      "dpms"
EndSection

################################################################################
# Video Cards: I have one Radeon x850 PRO. One monitor is connected to the
# digital DVI output, the other is connected to the analog VGA output.
################################################################################

Section "Device"
        Identifier  "Videocard0"
        Driver      "radeon"
        Screen      0
EndSection

Section "Device"
        Identifier  "Videocard1"
        Driver      "radeon"
        Screen      1
EndSection

################################################################################
# Screens: I would like to have one large desktop that spans both monitors,
# but when an application is maximized it would expand to fill just the monitor
# on which it is displayed.
################################################################################

Section "Screen"
        Identifier "Screen0"
        Device     "Videocard0"
        Monitor    "Monitor0"
        DefaultDepth     24
        SubSection "Display"
                Viewport   0 0
                Depth     24
                Modes     "1440x900"
        EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier "Screen1"
        Device     "Videocard1"
        Monitor    "Monitor1"
        DefaultDepth     24
        SubSection "Display"
                Viewport   0 0
                Depth     24
                Modes     "1440x900"
        EndSubSection
EndSection

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08-28-2008	#2 (permalink)
Grandebasta Just Joined! Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 86	Hello What is your question?

08-28-2008	#3 (permalink)
REVEREND_FLIBBLE Just Joined! Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 5	sorry of being unclear; How do i get dual monitors working w/ my graphics card? the dual monitor xorg file above does not work

08-28-2008	#4 (permalink)
Grandebasta Just Joined! Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 86	Hello again 1.) Graphic card has two dvi outlets: For one outlet you need a vga adapter. I guess, your monitor1 has a vga plug, as well: Otherwise just get a adapter-plug. Dvi, is probably no big issue... Each monitor needs to be plugged to the bus bar, as well. 2.) Get a fresh default xorg.conf file. 3.) To run spanned view, use Xinerama. 4.) Try to get your xorg.conf file configured via: Example: The "SimplyMEPIS" operaton system has a "Mepis X-window Assistant". There, you could use the "monitor configs" card, and your xorg.conf file would get configured, (You can also configure your Nvidia or ATI driver, there.) Please update us. Tell us about your progress/achievments. Kind regards.

09-02-2008	#5 (permalink)
REVEREND_FLIBBLE Just Joined! Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 5	I reverted to my default xorg file and then added xinerama and dual monitors, while i have compiz-fusion enabled and xinerama the whole screen becomes white, and i cannot see anything, though i can rotate the cube (which stays white) I tried using the tools and re-writing a xorg file withought compiz-fusion, and one of my screens shows what was last in run level 3 and the other shows a single screen layout for run level 5. Also one of my video card outputs is VGA and the other is DVI, the Hanns-G lcd takes either input so i use both without adapter (on card side) ... also sorry for not getting back for a while

09-04-2008	#6 (permalink)
i92guboj Linux Engineer Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Córdoba (Spain) Posts: 1,438	I've only had bad experiences with the many dozens of ATi cards that I have tried. For single head it's just complicated and painful to get it working. For two heads I consider it a lost cause. Even when I could get them working (with the recent fixes for xinerama) they are still unusable due to system hangs and lots of other funny bugs. Probably not what you wanted to hear, but for dual heads at least, I would just stick with nVidia or Intel for the time being.

09-07-2008	#7 (permalink)
REVEREND_FLIBBLE Just Joined! Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 5	installing fglrx drivers so how do i best install the fglrx drivers so that i don't use two drivers at once

11-14-2008	#8 (permalink)
MikeH30 Linux Newbie Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: USA Posts: 164	I too have been struggling with xorg files to get dual monitors working for the last 6 months - until today. I downloaded the newest ATI Driver and used Catalyst Control Center to configure dual monitors. ATI Catalyst™ 8.11 Proprietary Linux x86_64 Display Driver - For Intel® EM64T and AMD64 Platform Architecture There is no need to use SaX2 or edit xorg.conf files. The ATI Catalyst Control Center GUI allows you to set up dual monitors with ease. I have the Radeon HD 2400 Pro card. -Mike __________________ Suse Linux Enterprise Server 11 Suse Linux Enterprise Server 10 - SP2 OpenSuse 11.1, KDE 4.1.3 OpenSuse 11.1, KDE 4.2

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