Configure dual monitor in Debian lenny
 

I am trying to configure my video card (ATI Radeon X1300) to use two monitors. Now i can see in both the same duplicate screen.
Can somebody help me?, in the forums i did not find a solution.

configure display and optionally put in a custom /etc/X11/xorg.conf file.

That was not very helpful, was it?

jl*;

This appears to be a pretty good tutorial:
http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/X.Org/Dual_Monitors

Are using KDE, Gnome, or some other desktop?

But even that much is not required on Ubuntu :)

Current Methods:
http://www.x.org/archive/X11R6.8.0/doc/radeon.4.html
See also http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Additi..._radeon_driver

For driver radeon, xinerama is not needed

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "ATI dual head configuration"
Screen 0 "Default Screen" 0 0
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

... (modules, keyboard, etc)

Section "Device"

Identifier "ATI Radeon"
Driver "radeon"
VendorName "ATI corp."
BoardName "ATI Technologies Inc .."
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
Option "Monitor-DVI-0" "Panel-0"
Option "Monitor-DVI-1" "Panel-1"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"

Identifier "Panel-1"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "...."
Option "dpms"
# Option "LeftOf" "Panel-0"
# Option "Ignore" "true"

EndSection

Section "Monitor"

Identifier "Panel-0"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "...."
Option "dpms"
Option "RightOf" "Panel-1"

EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "ATI Radeon"
Monitor "Panel-1"
DefaultDepth 24

SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
# big virtual screen to place the monitors
Virtual 2560 1024

EndSubSection

EndSection

One of the problems I find in Lenny is that the xorg.conf file does not contain the same configuration than in previous Debian versions.
This is my current file:

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "kbd"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc104"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

I do not know how to add here a second monitor.

What is the output of 'xrandr' from a terminal while running X?

Adam

to do it manually use the info in xorg logs in /var/log

http://wiki.debian.org/XStrikeForce/HowToRandR12

This is the "xrandr" output:

# xrandr

Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1920 x 1080, maximum 1920 x 1600
DVI-1 connected 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 477mm x 268mm
1920x1080 60.0*+
1600x1200 60.0 59.9
1680x1050 60.0 60.0
1600x1024 60.0
1400x1050 60.0
1280x1024 59.9 60.0
1440x900 60.2 59.9
1280x960 60.0 59.9
1280x800 59.8 60.0
1280x768 60.0
1024x768 60.0
800x600 60.3 56.2
640x480 60.0 59.9
DVI-0 connected 1600x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 338mm x 270mm
1280x1024 60.0 + 75.0 59.9 60.0
1600x1024 60.0*
1400x1050 60.0
1440x900 60.2
1280x960 60.0
1280x800 60.0
1152x864 75.0 74.8
1280x768 60.0
1152x768 54.8
1024x768 75.1 70.1 60.0
832x624 74.6
800x600 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
640x480 75.0 72.8 72.8 75.0 66.7 60.0 59.9
720x400 70.1

You'd want to use an xorg.conf like this:

Obviously you'd may want to change the "RightOf" to "LeftOf" depending on which monitor is on the right or left.

Adam

Thanks,

finally I am able to see the two monitors, this is what I did:

1. install ati drivers:
# ./ati-driver-installer-9-3-x86.x86_64.run

2. Configure to support dual monitor (left and right)
# aticonfig --initial=dual-head --screen-layout=right

3. Enable Xinerama in /etc/X11/xorg.conf


Section "ServerFlags"
Option "Xinerama" "on"
EndSection

I'm glad you got that working, but you should be aware that 9.3 is the last version of fglrx that supports your GPU. You will not be able to upgrade to a newer version and if you upgrade your kernel to something newer than 2.6.27.* or your X server to something newer than 1.5.* you will no longer be able to use that driver.

Adam

Adam,

do you mean that to use "fglrx" is not the correct way to do it?

On the other hand, using the config file you sent the xserver does not start.

Note: I added a missing "EndSection" tag
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "DVI-1"
Option "RightOf" "DVI-0"
EndSection

I mean that fglrx will work fine for now. It will not work for your card if you upgrade your kernel beyond 2.6.27.* or your X server beyond 1.5.*.

Adam

Adam,

this was clear, but is there any other method to configure dual-monitor without using fglrx?.

Lucas

Yes, the open source driver fully supports xrandr. Obviously there was some error in the xorg.conf file I posted above (other than the missing "EndSection"). We would need to see the /var/log/Xorg.0.log file that was generated to figure out what the problem was.