Re: Random crashing - related to tri video card?

[Kent West <westk@acu.edu>]

Dave Schick wrote:

> I am interested in using three monitors.  Since they do not sell any 
> Tri-video cards I was told to use a dual AGP along with a PCI card.  
> Is this a simple process?  Please write me back if you can.
>  



Fairly simple once you've done it a time or two.

Basically, each video card will have a BusID associated with it ("lspci" 
will show the code in hex; something like 00:1f.3). In 
/etc/X11/XF86Config you'll need to have a "Device" section for each 
card; each will look something like this:

Section "Device"
       Identifier      "Card For Left Display"
       Driver          "ati"
       BusID           "PCI:00:31:3"
EndSection

The BusID numbers are the same as that reported by lspci, only converted 
from hex to decimal. If the cards are identical, the sections will be 
identical, except for the Identifier and the BusID. In addition to the 
three sections for your three cards, you'll need three "Monitor" 
sections, one for each monitor; they'll look something like this:

Section "Monitor"
       Identifier      "Monitor for Left Display"
       HorizSync       30-55
       VertRefresh     50-75
       Option          "DPMS"
EndSection

Then you'll need three "Screen" sections to tie each monitor to a card, 
like so:

Section "Screen"
       Identifier      "Leftmost Screen"
       Device          "Card for Left Display"
       Monitor         "Monitor for Left Display"
       DefaultDepth    16
       SubSection "Display"
               Depth           16
               Modes           "800x600" "640x480"
       EndSubSection
EndSection

And finally you'll put it all together in the "ServerLayout" section:

Section "ServerLayout"
       Identifier      "Three-Headed Beastie"
       Screen          "Leftmost Screen" Leftof "Center Screen"
       Screen          "Center Screen" Leftof "Rightmost Screen"
       Screen          "Rightmost Screen"
       Option          "Xinerama"
       InputDevice     "Generic Keyboard"
       InputDevice     "Configured Mouse"
EndSection

Note that you need the "Xinerama" option for multi-heading.

Hope this helps.

btw, your question doesn't have much to do with your subject line . . . .

--
Kent