Multi Head / Screen / Monitor Set-up in FC6 with dual ATI's
 

This is something I've been battling with for a while now, and it's becoming rather annoying.

I'm trying to set-up a 3 monitor stretched desktop. (1 desktop across all three monitors)

OK, hardware:

1x AGP ATI 9800 Radeon with 2 Video Outputs (this seems to be the issue)
1x PCI ATI 9250 Radeon with 1 Video Output
3x 17" Flat Panels

Currently I have a shared / stretched desktop across Monitor 1 (in Card 1) and Monitor 3 (in Card 2). However, Monitor 2 ( second output in Card 1 ) simply mimics Monitor 1 - and is recognised by the OS as just that (screen 1 - 'configure desktop > identify screens' ).

My assumption is that it doesn't recognise that I've got a second output on that card and the card is just duplicating the feeds by default.

I am currently running Fedora Core 6, but my last attempt at getting this to work was with FC5, and at that time, I had the opposite problem - I could get Monitors on the same card to work, but not the second card's monitor. So, there is a way to do it, I'm just not sure I'm configuring the xorg.conf file correctly. I've searched around on google and a few other places and found several howtos etc, but none have really resolved the entire issue.

Here's the relevant config in the xorg.conf file. I've played with this file and tried so many different scenarios that my head's starting to go a little funny.

Hopefully someone can point me in the right direction.

Thanks

Try the file below and see if it works I think I have it right although the Screen 2 may not be needed in the Device section for the videocard2 and the first monitor (monitor0) should be hooked up to the bottom connector on the dual card for it to work right.

Thanks for the response HappyTux, I tried the file and changed some of the config in the ServerLayout section so X would accept it:

Unfortunately it didn't work - nothing came out of vid card 2, and vid card 1 showed the same desktop on both monitors :-(

Should I consider using another driver besides the radeon one ?

I'm sure I've tried most of the possible configurations for this that *should* work, but something just isn't right.

Thanks for any help you can give.

Well I'm not quite sure on this I have only setup dual head nvidia not triple on ati. Can you post the /var/log/Xorg.0.log file using the corrected file perhaps there is something in there I can see wrong, you will need to put this in two posts it is rather big.

have you tried......

Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
Screen 1 "Screen1" LeftOf "Screen0"
Screen 2 "Screen2" RightOf "Screen0"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"

sleepindawg,

yes, that was one of the many variations tried, one of the first actually, as it's the most logical way (and is cited in many a tutorial). Alas, it didn't work.

HappyTux,

I'll retry the set-up and post the log data shortly.. unfortunately my install seems to have committed OS suicide (crashed while I was out, and now has kernel panics when booting:-( ) - once I get that sorted (or more likely re-install) I'll let you know how your config goes.

Thanks again,

Try this Xorg.conf - resultes in dual screen desktop
 

If you havent got this one figured out yet - try this, I have had success with this xorg.conf - took me a little while and almost a divorce to get it working. This does not 'enable desktop effects' in FedoraCore 6. Still working on that.

If your cards are 'MULTI-HEAD' then you will need to treat each individula 'Head' as another card from what I have experianced. Each head will have an entry under 'device' to indicate that it is a separate display device but obviously two device entries will share the same BusID - eg: BusID "PCI:1:0:0" but in my examples I have '2 cards" listed as BusID "PCI:3:0:0" and then two cards listed as BusID "PCI:6:0:0"

Importantly, in Fedora6 anyway, you need to specify what 'screen' each card will represent. This dosnt nesecarrily have to mirror the "Screen" or "ServerLayout" section, but rather indicate that there are screen outputs for each card. You need to start at Screen 0 then Screen 1 - in the "Device" section - even though by default Fedora will delete referrence to 'Screen' "0" (ZERO) as it is treated as the default screen. You need to add entries to the effect that after screen 0 there will be another screen on the 'next card'. Fedora only seems to be concerned about how many screens are on each card because when I move on to label 'physical card 2'(the second video card piece of hardware) I can start back at Screen 0 and label the next "head" as Screen 1 see my working xorg.conf below.

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Samsung"
ModelName "SyncMaster 930BF LCD Panel 1280x1024"
HorizSync 31.5 - 65.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 72.0
Option "dpms"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor1"
VendorName "BenQ"
ModelName "FP737s-D LCD Panel 1280x1024"
HorizSync 31.5 - 67.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 75.0
Option "dpms"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard11"
Driver "nVidia"
VendorName "nVidiaCorporation"
BoardName "nVidia Corporation G70 [GeForce 7600 GS]"
Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"
Option "RenderAccel" "True"
Option "DisableGLXRootClipping" "True"
BusID "PCI:3:0:0"
Screen 0
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard12"
Driver "nVidia"
VendorName "nVidiaCorporation"
BoardName "nVidia Corporation G70 [GeForce 7600 GS]"
Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"
Option "RenderAccel" "True"
Option "DisableGLXRootClipping" "True"
BusID "PCI:3:0:0"
Screen 1
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard21"
Driver "nVidia"
VendorName "nVidiaCorporation"
BoardName "nVidia Corporation G70 [GeForce 7600 GS]"
Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"
Option "RenderAccel" "True"
Option "DisableGLXRootClipping" "True"
BusID "PCI:6:0:0"
Screen 0
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard22"
Driver "nVidia"
VendorName "nVidiaCorporation"
BoardName "nVidia Corporation G70 [GeForce 7600 GS]"
Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"
Option "RenderAccel" "True"
Option "DisableGLXRootClipping" "True"
BusID "PCI:6:0:0"
Screen 1
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard11"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen1"
Device "Videocard21"
Monitor "Monitor1"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024"
EndSubSection
EndSection



Hope this helps if your not on top of it already.

Trauma,

That worked perfectly - thank you !

It runs all three monitors as a single desktop as required. Although you posted an excellent answer, with a near enough example for me to get it working, here is the final configuration for anyone who may need to see my specific scenario's config (which just changes it to the radeon driver and adds the serverlayout bit).

Again, many thanks Trauma, I had all but given up on getting this working. Annoying thing is that I got so close to this several times, but didn't get the combination of things all at the same time ! gah..!

Anyway,... onto the next linux issue.... ;-)

Glad this helped
 

Im glad this helped you out. It caused me no end of bother for many weeks.

Have fun.

thanks to all of you. i've been working on it for the past few months and pretty much gave up. i gave it another shot after looking at this post. my distro is mandriva 2007 and my setup is using 2 lcd panels on an ati radeon 9600xt card with dual heads. i used dambler's last code (i removed the 3rd monitor) and slightly modified it with the existing information from my existing xorg.conf. because of your help, i have now completely switched from windows to linux.

what about the gdm.conf barney??? can u post it , plz ?

i didn't have to edit my /etc/X11/gdm/gdm.conf.

also my default gui is KDE. i've never actually tested my config in gnome. if gdm is only meant for the login prompt manager, then i don't think i have to change mine because on boot, my login screen is on the left monitor while the right monitor is simply the default wallpaper (extended or stretched).

That is a good thing :)
 

Im glad you have made the switch. Although, I for one, cannot seem to listen to that "switching completely to linux".

I really want to, but am stuck with some 'legacy' issues and software that wont run in WINE. And, since this post started I have just completed my 3rd XP install.

Nice huh :mad:

But I do love linux. My flavour is Fedora. Waiting for Fedora 7 to come out in a few weeks :p

wait, i got confused. :)
is this we are talking about multi head with 2 Monitor, 2 Keyboard ,2 mice, 1pc with different login at a same time in pc which split by 2 monitor ?? i make it simple, one big picture in 2 monitors ? is it right ?

if its right, i've got wrong idea. sorry and thanks.

i'm talking about one keyboard and mouse, and two monitors side by side and one user logged in for a wider workspace.