LinuxQuestions.org - dual monitor setup using ati and intel cards

Hey,

Wasn't sure where to post this, but hardware makes the most sense. I searched a lot on the internet before figuring this out myself, so I figured I'd share my experience to help others avoid the waste of time.

Problem: I have a flat panel monitor, a crt monitor, an onboard Intel 82945G/GZ video controller, and an ATI rage 128 pci card. The lcd is connected to the intel. The crt is connected to the ATI. I want to set it up to display my desktop across both monitors.

Solution:
I am using Ubuntu. I installed the xserver-xorg-video-ati package via apt:
apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-ati
The main idea there was to install the r128 driver (included in the above package).

I ran:
lspci | grep -i vga

This returned the name of my video cards along with their pci bus identifiers:
lspci | grep -i vga
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82945G/GZ Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02)
04:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Rage 128 Pro Ultra TR

I then edited the xorg.conf. I did not run aticonfig (I have never had success with aticonfig). I made sure there were monitor and video card and screen entries for each of my monitors and video cards:

Section "Device"
Identifier "Intel Corporation 82945G/GZ Integrated Graphics Controller"
Driver "i810"
BusID "PCI:0:2:0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "ATI Technologies Inc Rage 128 Pro Ultra TR"
Driver "r128"
BusID "PCI:4:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "DELL E177FP"
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "ADC"
EndSection

Notice that the ADC monitor (crt) does not have the DPMS option. That was important.

Below is the rest of my xorg.conf file. The important sections are the ones I pasted above, the Screen sections, and the ServerLayout section. Pay special attention to the ServerLayout section. This section is the most important for bringing it all together. It may take some trial and error to get everything in its correct place. Also, at the end notice the section with the xinerama option. This allows your desktop to be spread out over both monitors rather than having to run 2 completely separate X sessions on both monitors.

One other thing to note is that killing X and restarting it did not function for me. I had to reboot the computer each time I wanted to test a new configuration. I believe I could have gotten around this my using rmmod on the video modules, but I didn't try that.

# /etc/X11/xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf(5) manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
# sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "Files"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi"
# path to defoma fonts
FontPath "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "i2c"
Load "bitmap"
Load "ddc"
Load "dri"
Load "extmod"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
Load "int10"
Load "vbe"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "kbd"
Option "CoreKeyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "stylus"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "stylus"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "eraser"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "eraser"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "cursor"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "cursor"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Intel Corporation 82945G/GZ Integrated Graphics Controller"
Driver "i810"
BusID "PCI:0:2:0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "ATI Technologies Inc Rage 128 Pro Ultra TR"
Driver "r128"
BusID "PCI:4:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "DELL E177FP"
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "ADC"
#Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen0"
Device "Intel Corporation 82945G/GZ Integrated Graphics Controller"
Monitor "DELL E177FP"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 1
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 4
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen1"
Device "ATI Technologies Inc Rage 128 Pro Ultra TR"
Monitor "ADC"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 1
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 4
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Default Screen0"
Screen "Default Screen1" RightOf "Default Screen0"
InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
InputDevice "Configured Mouse"
InputDevice "stylus" "SendCoreEvents"
InputDevice "cursor" "SendCoreEvents"
InputDevice "eraser" "SendCoreEvents"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
Option "xinerama" "true"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection