Does anyone know if it is possible to run dual screens on Fedora Core 8 using an NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 card? Right now when I launch FC8, one of my screens is readable but the other is a solid color with flashing lines or character blocks. I've tried modifying xorg.conf but to no avail. Someone please point me in a direction to get this working.

How are you attempting to enable dual screens?

Basically there are two options for you: twinview (only with the nvidia driver), and xorg dual-head.

In Gnome, I open System -> Administration -> Display, then select the Dual head tab and I select Use dual head. When I confirm the changes it says it has modified the xorg file and created a backup. After I reboot I get an error that the xorg is misconfigured and the X session cannot launch.

I looked into drivers on NVidia's site, and they claim their driver is included in Linux distros. Could this just be a driver issue?

The nvidia driver is not included with most GNU/Linux distros because it is non-free. The linux kernel includes a free driver called nv which supports 2D acceleration and xorg dual head. But at least you checked before installing the drivers - more than most people do.

To install the nvidia driver in fedora, enable the livna repo and

# yum install kmod-nvidia

Then you'll be able to use twinview. This will provide a single big desktop across both screens. There are many threads in LQ describing how to do this - I've written several of them.

What you have attempted is the xorg method - this produces two seperate desktops. To troubleshoot it, we need to see your xorg.conf.

To get X to load properly, you will need to replace your existing xorg.conf with the backup in the same directory.

# cd /etc/X11
# ls xorg* (to find out what the backup is called - say xorg.conf.old)
# cp xorg.conf xorg.dual (to keep the broken config for troubleshooting)
# cp xorg.conf.old xorg.conf

reboot...

Hi,

I encounter the same problem you describe above...
I run debian testing on a ppc (G5), with a nvidia geforce 5200.
(two video outputs: one dvi, and one "strange dvi").
I have two monitors (the same model), one is connected to the dvi plug, the other one goes through a "strangedvi-to-vga" adaptator.

I cannot use proprietary nvidia drivers: they do not exist for ppc...
so I am trying to use the "xorg dualhead" with the free "nv" driver.

With a standard (single-headed) xorg config, I get only one screen working (depending on which monitor is plugged in at boot time - if both of them are plugged, I get the dvi monitor working and the vga one displaying random art slightly evolving along with the other monitor: what DukeD seems to describe as flashing lines); in any case, "xrandr --prop" shows only one screen, but the two monitors are detected according to Xorg.0.log:

$ grep Manufacturer Xorg.1.log
(II) NV(0): Manufacturer: DEL Model: a020 Serial#: 810038355
(II) NV(0): Manufacturer: DEL Model: a021 Serial#: 827936339

Note that there are also these (annoying) messages:
$ grep -3 output Xorg.1.log
(II) LoadModule: "ddc"(II) Module "ddc" already built-in
(II) NV(0): I2C bus "DDC" initialized.
(II) NV(0): Probing for analog device on output A...
(--) NV(0): ...found one
(II) NV(0): Probing for analog device on output B...
(--) NV(0): ...can't find one


When I add the `Option "Dualhead" "True"' in the Device Section of xorg.conf (as hinted by "man nv"), X fails to start, with the following messages :
(II) NV(0): No legacy BIOS found -- trying PCI
(II) Attempted to read BIOS 128KB from /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:f0:10.0/rom: got 0KB
(EE) NV(0): Cannot read V_BIOS (5)
(EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration.


Any idea (I've been looking on newsgroups for one month...) ?
Do you have more pointers about the so-called "xorg method" ?
I can provide more files (xorg.conf, Xorg.log...) if needed.

Thanks a lot,
Maurice

I am working on the same issue. PPC Mac G5 with dual head Nvidia GeForce 6800. Currently using the 'nv' driver but have yet to figure out a way to enable dual monitors. I know Nvidia doesn't make a binary for ppc linux but I don't really care about 3D. Would just like to use two monitors. Thoughts?