Mandriva 2010 dual monitor setup

wheel · 03-31-2011, 03:27 PM

Seems like an ongoing issue, I've never run a dual monitor setup like this before.

Running Mandriva 2010 PWP. I'm on a gigabyte motherboard model GA-MA78LMT-S2. Runs find under mandriva with my monitor plugged into the onboard video.

here's my xorg.conf file:

Code:

Section "ServerFlags"
    Option "DontZap" "False" # disable <Ctrl><Alt><BS> (server abort)
    AllowMouseOpenFail # allows the server to start up even if the mouse does not work
    #DontZoom # disable <Ctrl><Alt><KP_+>/<KP_-> (resolution switching)
EndSection

Section "Module"
    Load "v4l" # Video for Linux
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier "monitor1"
    VendorName "Acer"
    ModelName "Acer X243Wt"
    HorizSync 30.0-82.0
    VertRefresh 56.0-76.0
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier "device1"
    VendorName "ATI Technologies Inc"
    BoardName "ATI Radeon HD 2000 and later (radeon/fglrx)"
    Driver "fglrx"
    Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "screen1"
    Device "device1"
    Monitor "monitor1"
    DefaultColorDepth 24
    
    Subsection "Display"
        Depth 8
        Modes "1680x1050" "1600x1000" "1440x900" "1280x800"
    EndSubsection
    
    Subsection "Display"
        Depth 15
        Modes "1680x1050" "1600x1000" "1440x900" "1280x800"
    EndSubsection
    
    Subsection "Display"
        Depth 16
        Modes "1680x1050" "1600x1000" "1440x900" "1280x800"
    EndSubsection
    
    Subsection "Display"
        Depth 24
        Modes "1680x1050" "1600x1000" "1440x900" "1280x800"
    EndSubsection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier "layout1"
    Screen "screen1"
EndSection

I added an ASUS EN8400GS card and a second monitor. In the hardware GUI, it's seeing two cards. But only my main display is doing anything.

It seems like this should either just work, or it's extremely complex. I seem to be floundering, trying stuff and not getting anywhere.

Could anyone provide newb-level guidance? I'm unsure where to even start here.

adamk75 · 03-31-2011, 04:52 PM

Getting two monitors working on two separate video cards (especially GPUs from different manufacturers such as AMD and nVidia) is not typically straightforward.

First, I'd try and get it working without fglrx. Use the open source radeon driver for the radeon GPU. The fglrx driver, being proprietary, is much more likely to have problems interacting nicely with an X server that has to use another video driver in addition to fglrx.

So, my suggestion, remove fglrx, reboot into the console, and run 'Xorg -configure'. That should, ideally, give you an xorg.conf file with two device sections and will, hopefully, just work as is. That is assuming, of course, that the open source 'nv' driver works with that new GPU. The 8400GS might be newer than the 'nv' driver in Mandriva 2010.

Now if one of those video cards has two ports, you might have better luck driving both monitors from a single GPU.

Adam

wheel · 03-31-2011, 09:51 PM

I'll try and figure out what you've suggested shortly. But would this just be a whole bunch easier if I bought a different video card, one with two heads? I'm not adverse to doing that.

The second video card I bought, the asus, has three different types of outputs, but I doubt they're available as seperate heads - I expect it would be one or the other.

adamk75 · 04-01-2011, 04:22 AM

Most modern video cards support two or more heads. I'm willing to bet the nvidia GPU (the card from Asus) can drive at least two monitors. And, yes, that would definitely be easier. If you wanted to do that with the EN8400GS, you would need to install the proprietary nvidia driver.

Adam

wheel · 04-01-2011, 05:59 AM

Thanks for your help, I appreciate it! I'll give that a try this weekend.