Trying to set up triple-head

L-28C · 06-12-2008, 02:07 PM

Hello everyone!

Okay, I have three monitors and two video cards. One is an nVidia GeForce 8800GTS and the other an ATI Radeon 7000 (I believe I read 'VE' somewhere.)

I installed the nVidia drivers and got the two monitors for that card working, but one of them is stuck at 1024x768 when it can go all the way to 1440x900. I changed the xorg.conf file, put that res under Modes and Metamodes but the Xorg log says:

Quote:

(II) NVIDIA(0): Display Device found referenced in MetaMode: CRT-1
(II) NVIDIA(0): Assigned Display Device: CRT-1
(WW) NVIDIA(0): No valid modes for "CRT-1:1440x900+0+0"; removing.
(WW) NVIDIA(0):
(WW) NVIDIA(0): Unable to validate any modes; falling back to the default mode
(WW) NVIDIA(0): "nvidia-auto-select".
(WW) NVIDIA(0):
(II) NVIDIA(0): Validated modes:
(II) NVIDIA(0): "nvidia-auto-select"
(II) NVIDIA(0): Virtual screen size determined to be 1024 x 768
(WW) NVIDIA(0): Unable to get display device CRT-1's EDID; cannot compute DPI
(WW) NVIDIA(0): from CRT-1's EDID.

What could be wrong with that? As for the ATI card, there are no official drivers for my model. Knowing the Linux/open source community there must be some kind of unofficial driver somewhere. I can live without this extra card/monitor, but I would sure like to have them.

So, can anyone help? Thanks in advance! (PS: I just installed the latest Slackware yesterday, so I haven't messed with anything else.)

stress_junkie · 06-12-2008, 05:18 PM

I was surprised to find that you are correct about ATI not having Linux drivers for your video card. Before ATI created Linux drivers people used a set of open source drivers called GATOS.

http://gatos.sourceforge.net/

I didn't look up the Nvidia drivers but you should check their web page. It's possible that the driver just doesn't support more than 1024x768.

I would recommend using one brand of video cards for all three monitors. It just keeps the computer configuration simpler than using more than one brand. A simpler configuration often results in fewer problems.

L-28C · 06-12-2008, 07:48 PM

Yessssss I got it working!

I tried to reinstall the nVidia drivers but instead screwed up everything, so I re-installed Slack. Then I played around a lot with the config file until I got one monitor working with its native resolution. Then I added another one, then finally the third.

symatic · 06-12-2008, 08:32 PM

Post your xorg.conf, it will be of help to some people.

L-28C · 06-12-2008, 09:27 PM

Sure:

Quote:

# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings
# nvidia-settings: version 1.0 (buildmeister@builder63) Mon May 19 00:34:28 PDT 2008

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig: version 1.0 (buildmeister@builder63) Mon May 19 00:33:37 PDT 2008

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout0"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
Screen 1 "Screen1" LeftOf "Screen0"
Screen 2 "Screen2" RightOf "Screen0"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
RgbPath "/usr/lib/X11/rgb"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc/"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo/"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic/"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/TTF/"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "dbe"
Load "extmod"
Load "type1"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
Option "Xinerama" "0"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

# generated from default
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

# generated from default
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "CRT-1"
HorizSync 30.0 - 110.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 150.0
ModeLine "1440x900_60.00" 106.47 1440 1520 1672 1904 900 901 904 932 -hsync +vsync
Option "DPMS"
# 1440x900 @ 60.00 Hz (GTF) hsync: 55.92 kHz; pclk: 106.47 MHz
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor1"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "COMPAQ 5500"
HorizSync 30.0 - 54.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 120.0
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor2"
VendorName "Packard Bell"
ModelName "?"
HorizSync 30.0 - 54.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 120.0
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce 8800 GTS"
BusID "PCI:2:0:0"
Screen 0
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard1"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce 8800 GTS"
BusID "PCI:2:0:0"
Screen 1
EndSection

Section "Device"

### Available Driver options are:-
### Values: : integer, <f>: float, <bool>: "True"/"False",
### <string>: "String", <freq>: "<f> Hz/kHz/MHz"
### [arg]: arg optional
#Option "NoAccel" # [<bool>]
#Option "SWcursor" # [<bool>]
#Option "Dac6Bit" # [<bool>]
#Option "Dac8Bit" # [<bool>]
#Option "BusType" # [<str>]
#Option "CPPIOMode" # [<bool>]
#Option "CPusecTimeout" # 
#Option "AGPMode" # 
#Option "AGPFastWrite" # [<bool>]
#Option "AGPSize" # 
#Option "GARTSize" # 
#Option "RingSize" # 
#Option "BufferSize" # 
#Option "EnableDepthMoves" # [<bool>]
#Option "EnablePageFlip" # [<bool>]
#Option "NoBackBuffer" # [<bool>]
#Option "DMAForXv" # [<bool>]
#Option "FBTexPercent" # 
#Option "DepthBits" # 
#Option "PCIAPERSize" # 
#Option "AccelDFS" # [<bool>]
#Option "DDCMode" # [<bool>]
#Option "IgnoreEDID" # [<bool>]
#Option "DisplayPriority" # [<str>]
#Option "PanelSize" # [<str>]
#Option "ForceMinDotClock" # <freq>
#Option "ColorTiling" # [<bool>]
#Option "VideoKey" # 
#Option "RageTheatreCrystal" # 
#Option "RageTheatreTunerPort" # 
#Option "RageTheatreCompositePort" # 
#Option "RageTheatreSVideoPort" # 
#Option "TunerType" # 
#Option "RageTheatreMicrocPath" # <str>
#Option "RageTheatreMicrocType" # <str>
#Option "ScalerWidth" # 
#Option "RenderAccel" # [<bool>]
#Option "SubPixelOrder" # [<str>]
#Option "ShowCache" # [<bool>]
#Option "DynamicClocks" # [<bool>]
#Option "VGAAccess" # [<bool>]
#Option "ReverseDDC" # [<bool>]
#Option "LVDSProbePLL" # [<bool>]
#Option "AccelMethod" # <str>
#Option "DRI" # [<bool>]
#Option "ConnectorTable" # <str>
#Option "DefaultConnectorTable" # [<bool>]
#Option "DefaultTMDSPLL" # [<bool>]
#Option "TVDACLoadDetect" # [<bool>]
#Option "ForceTVOut" # [<bool>]
#Option "TVStandard" # <str>
#Option "IgnoreLidStatus" # [<bool>]
Identifier "Card1"
Driver "radeon"
VendorName "ATI Technologies Inc"
BoardName "Radeon RV100 QY [Radeon 7000/VE]"
BusID "PCI:1:6:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "TwinView" "0"
Option "metamodes" "CRT-1: 1440x900_60.00 +0+0"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen1"
Device "Videocard1"
Monitor "Monitor1"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "TwinView" "0"
Option "TwinViewXineramaInfoOrder" "CRT-0"
Option "metamodes" "CRT-0: 1024x768 +0+0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen2"
Device "Card1"
Monitor "Monitor2"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "TwinView" "0"
Option "metamodes" "CRT-0: 1024x768 +0+0"
EndSection

I got this by mixing the outputs of 'X -configure' and 'nvidia-xconfig' and adding in the third monitor and screen by hand. Enjoy!