CentOS 5 Nvidia Dual Monitor Question
 

I'm running CentOS 5 on an AMD64 with an Asus A8N5X MB and an NVidia NForce4 Series graphics card, However the only graphics drivers installed are the default ones CentOS installs.

When I go under Administration-> Display (using Gnome), it offers the option of setting up dual monitors but despite telling me it has changed the X11 config. when I connect the second monitor and re-boot I get kicked to something like runlevel 1 or 3 and a message telling me it failed. Unfortunately, being a beginner, the messages don't mean anything to me.

If I try both hooking up the extra monitor first, the screen either goes crazy or it kicks me to that same text mode.

Since it's giving me the option to set up a second monitor, I would think that I shouldn't need any extra drivers either from yum or the driver disk, but do I?

The current single monitor is an Acer analog LCD. The second monitor would be a Viewsonic digital LCD.

Fortunately, each time I've been able to get back to a working system by disconnecting the second monitor but I'm getting nervous about bunging the whole installation.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

EDIT: Dead links removed..

Here are several threads dealing with the same issue. You should not need anything along the lines of driver (disks) or anything from YUM, though if you are using a/the default included 'nv' driver in your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file, you would do well to upgrade THAT to the actual 'nvidia' driver from nVidia.com. YUM repositories should have it available for you, but don't quote me as I don't actually use YUM/CentOS. If it isn't in YUM, it can be gotten from www.nvidia.com

If after reading through the links above, and checking out the man page for xorg.conf, you are still stymied :) and unable to get the dual-screens working, then by all means post for us what specifically isn't working. You may as well post your xorg.conf file at that point too, so we can see what's what in there.

:) Best of success -- you'll get it working!

P.S> infact, posting your xorg.conf file anyways wouldn't hurt; maybe there's just a small glitch in there holding you back.

Thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately, those links are dead. I even tried them on another computer with the other OS and browser but no luck.

I do have the driver disk that came with the card which has linux drivers on it so if I feel brave again I'll give it a try.

Thanks again.

I am very sorry for the dead links.. I can't explain why they 'died' but they are indeed dead.

OK, try out your driver if you wish, and/or meanwhile, post your xorg.conf file here, and I/we will take a peek and see if anything stands out.

Sasha

Thanks for the help. Don't worry about the links..........I just have a way with computers!!

Here's my xorg.conf. Since both monitors have a max 1280x1024 res, could I just re-name the server layout "dual head configuration" and then add duplicate entries in the body (but re-labeled "Videocard1"?


Thanks for any suggestions.

============
# Xorg configuration created by system-config-display

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

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

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "nv"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1280x800" "1152x864" "1152x768" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

You've got exactly the right idea, though renaming the 'Serverlayout' section is your choice, it's optional.

You want to add a second Device section, called videocard1. Note that with more than one device defined, you will need to specify the BusID for each device. This is the location on the PCI Bus where the device resides, and can be determined using 'lspci' in a root console (note that's L S P C I). The BusID line looks like:

BusID "PCI:01:00:0"

You want a Monitor section, for EACH monitor. I see you are missing a default monitor section, which probably contributed to your weirdness when plugging in the other monitor. Basically they look like this:

Section "Monitor" # IBM-1 Monitor
Identifier "IBM1"
VendorName "IBM"
ModelName "E74"
HorizSync 30.0 - 86.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 160.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

You will now have several options as to how you will layout the two monitors. You can use Twinview, or Xinerams, or possible neither, though I have always used one of these options. Here's a sample of my Screen section:

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "nVidia1"
Monitor "KDS0" #& IBM0
DefaultDepth 16
Option "RenderAccel" "On"
Option "HWcursor" "On"
Option "DamageEvents" "True"
Option "ConnectedMonitor" "CRT-0,CRT-1"
Option "twinVieworientation" "CRT-1 Rightof CRT-0"
Option "metamodes" "CRT-0:1600x1200,CRT-1:1280x1024 @ 1600x1200"
EndSection

The above causes two CRT's to make up 'Screen0' in a Twinview configuration. All options you see here can be learned about in the xorg.conf man page, and the nVidia driver README documentation, which if you don't have, you should get-- it's great. Read about Twinview and Xinerama, and see which one, if either, you plan to use. Also, as you are still using the 'nv' driver, have you considered getting the 'real' driver from nVidia.com ?
Using Xinerama, I always had each monitor defined as a second 'Screen' in which case you will want to add it to your serverlayout section, like:

Section "ServerLayout" # KDS0 & IBM0, IBM1
Identifier "computer"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
#Screen 2 "Screen2" 3200 0
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Note that mine is commented out-- I'm not using it in this layout. If you DO make a second Screen section, you will want to implement this.

So there, that's the **basic** idea of what you're looking at.. Make sure to substitute YOUR OWN horizontal and vertical rates for your monitors. Chech the manuals or look up the monitors on Google for the tech-specs.

If you run into problems, or can't figure something out, come on back :)

Thanks so much for all of the excellent information. I'll also get that nvidia man page that you spoke of before trying anything.

I think that I may have confused things a bit. I have just one NVidia card driving two monitors, not two video cards. Sorry.

I've stayed away from the true Nvidia drivers due to a very prominent sticky on the Fedora forum here that was really hard about not using them (or the ATI drivers) due to incompatibilities that they injected into a RH system.

Thanks again for all of your help.

You're very welcome.