Matrox G550 and Dual Head

[Bill Moseley <moseley@hank.org>]

I know a few people here are using this video card.  I have one for a new
machine I'm building.  I'm running X11 4.2.1 with IceWM.

I have a few questions:

- It says at http://xfree86.org/current/Status18.html#18

  "The G450 and G550 are supported only in 4.3.0"

So, that means I need to install the driver from the Matrox site, correct?

- ftp://ftp.matrox.com/pub/mga/archive/linux/2002/lnx200notes.txt says the
driver is based on the XFree86 version for supporting PowerDesk (mgapdesk
Debian package) and with the use of the HAL library to use special
features.

That page states that HAL is not needed for basic dual head, but for their
"Merged" displays.  Is "Merged" their word for Xinerama?

- I'm not sure I need Xinerama.  I suppose it depends on IceWM, but I
don't want to maximize across both windows, and I'd like my IceWM task bar
to be only on one monitor (or at least not spanned acrocss two monitors).  
Really, all I think I need is to be able to place windows in either
monitor (and dragging a window from one monitor to the other would be
useful).  So I'm not sure if I can do that without Xinerama.

I ask about Xinerama because I see a lot of posts where people are not
that happy with it.

Finally, the driver readme says: 

  "Please take note that this feature does not support DVI monitors 
   in XFree86 4.1.0 and 4.2.0."

So 4.3.0 will be in my future soon, too.

Thanks,

-- 
Bill Moseley moseley@hank.org