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Re: which videcard for dual-monitor setup?



On August 27, 2007 07:38:24 am Tinus Nijmeijers wrote:
> On Mon, 2007-08-27 at 12:20 +0200, Pol Hallen wrote:
> > > which videocard is recommended if I want a system with 2 screens
> > > attached?
> >
> > I always used nvidia video card (with vga+dvi)
> >
> > > or even 4 screens if that's at all possible.
> >
> > yep! it's possible :-)
> >
> > with 2 graphics card (vga+dvi)
> >
> > Regards
> >
> > Pol
>
> I always thought the dvi and analog output were the same signal; how do
> you get X to show something different on both screens?

I see you have already found a how-to for Xinerama but if you want separate X 
screens instead of the one big screen across the monitors then you can do 
similar to my Device sections below.

Section "Device"
        Identifier  "Card0"
        Driver      "nvidia"
        Option      "NoLogo" "on"
        Option      "NvAgp"  "3"
        Option      "RenderAccel" "true"
        Option      "BackingStore" "On"
        Option      "Coolbits"    "1"
        Option      "IgnoreDisplayDevices"  "TV"
        Screen       0
        VendorName  "EVGA"
        BoardName   "e-Geforce 7900 GS KO"
        BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
        Identifier  "Card1"
        Driver      "nvidia"
        Option      "NoLogo" "on"
        Option      "NvAgp"  "3"
        Option      "RenderAccel" "true"
        Option      "BackingStore" "On"
        Option      "DPI" "100x100"
        Option      "Coolbits"    "1"
        Screen      1
        Option      "IgnoreDisplayDevices"  "TV"
        VendorName  "EVGA"
        BoardName   "e-Geforce 7900 GS KO"
        BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Then for your ServerLayout.

Section "ServerLayout"
        Identifier      "DualHead"
        Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
        Screen      1  "Screen1" LeftOf "Screen0"
        InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
        InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

And you need to put Load "xtrap" in your Module section to have the mouse move 
between the screens. You would want to change the LeftOf to RightOf depending 
on the location of the second monitor. If you want to try this with a flat 
panel and a crt wanting the flat panel as the primary display then you need 
something like this for the monitor sections to make the flat panel the 
primary as the nvidia driver detects/uses a crt as the primary unless you use 
these options.

# Dell 2007WFP
Section "Monitor"
       DisplaySize      431   272     # mm
       Identifier   "Monitor0"
       VendorName   "Dell"
       ModelName    "2007WFP"
       HorizSync    30-81
       VertRefresh  56-76
       Option       "UseDisplayDevice" "DFP-0"       <------
       Option       "AllowDDCCI" "on"
       Option       "DPMS" "true"
       Option       "BackingStore" "On"
EndSection

# Philips 201B4
Section "Monitor"
       DisplaySize      406   305     # mm
       Identifier  "Monitor1"
       VendorName  "Philips"
       ModelName   "201B4"
       HorizSync    30-115 # DDC-probed
       VertRefresh  50-160 # DDC-probed
       Option      "UseDisplayDevice" "CRT-1"    <--------
       Option      "DPMS"  "true"
       Option      "BackingStore" "On"
EndSection

You find the DFP-0 and CRT-1 names by looking in the /var/log/Xorg.0.log for 
the part of it where the monitors are detected. Then of course you would need 
a second Screen section like below.

Section "Screen"
        Identifier "Screen0"
        Device     "Card0"
        Monitor    "Monitor0"
        DefaultDepth  24
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth     24
                Modes     "1680x1050"
        EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier "Screen1"
        Device     "Card1"
        Monitor    "Monitor1"
        DefaultDepth 24
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth     24
                Modes     "1600x1200"
        EndSubSection
EndSection

The rest of the config sections of the xorg.conf should be usable as is to be 
reused in a new xorg.conf for dual head.

> gr.
> tinus

Stephen

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