Dual head setup.

[CP]

I'm getting another monitor tomorrow, and I want to run a dual head setup(dual 17in *drools*). My primary graphics card is an GeForce2, and for secondary I have a Voodoo 3. To set this up what do I need to do? Is it possible with the graphics cards I have? I'm using Slack 9.0beta, which has XFree86-4.2.1.1, and I'm running KDE-3.1 on top of that. Thanks for you help
CP

[Schotty]

yeah, pretty simple actually.

Configure all of the devices == both VGA cards and monitors.

Then in the server layout part,

           Section "ServerLayout"
               Identifier  "Layout 1"
               Screen      "MGA 1"
               Screen      "MGA 2" RightOf "MGA 1"
               InputDevice "Keyboard 1" "CoreKeyboard"
               InputDevice "Mouse 1"    "CorePointer"
               InputDevice "Mouse 2"    "SendCoreEvents"
               Option      "BlankTime"  "5"
           EndSection

You setup the orientation of the screens. man XF86Config had that snippet.

[gorn]

http://www.linuxjunior.org/cgi-bin/p...play&id=78

[CP]

Thanks guys, I just got my monitor, its a second have Philips Brilliance 107MP, got it off the university and it cost me $115, roughly $55 US.

[CP]

Ok, it kinda works, I just can't drag windows from one monitor to the other if I drag it off the edge of the screen it just dissappears and then once my mouse in on the other monitor the window is on the opposite side of the original monitor. Any ideas why?
Cheers
CP

[praetorian]

Right now you're running two displays, but they're two different X sessions. You can't drag from one X session to the other. I run my box this way because both I've got two differnet types of video cards in there. GLX causes problems because the nVidia card uses it, and the ATI card doesn't. Anyway....to fix your problem:

Either insert this in your XF86Config file

Section "ServerFlags"
Option "Xinerama" "true"
EndSection

or

type startx -- +xinerama

[CP]

Ummm, that didn't work at all. It just made both screens go blank, and then on the voodoo monitor I got some D's in the middle of it.
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen 1"
Device "NVIDIA GeForce"
Monitor "Philips"
DefaultDepth 24

Subsection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480" "640x400"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480" "640x400"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480" "640x400"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen 2"
Device "Voodoo 3"
Monitor "Mon 2"
DefaultDepth 16
Subsection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1024x768"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout 1"
Screen "Screen 1"
Screen "Screen 2" RightOf "Screen 1"
InputDevice "Mouse1" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard1" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Thats the config I've got. The voodoo is using the tdfx driver and the Geforce is using the nvidia driver. Anything wrong with those?
Cheers
CP

[Schotty]

IIRC doesnt the xinerama module need to be loaded too? See if you have that.

[CP]

There isn't the module xinerama, but there is the option. When I enabled the option before all hell broke loose. Neither screen switched on, and on the voodoo monitor I got a few random D's in the middle. From what praetorian said, I assume this is from the Geforce and the Voodoo conflicting. I just did a fresh install last night, and don't have the nvidia drivers installed yet and it works OK. What I'm wondering now is, if I install the drivers its going to f*ck it up again isn't it? Also how can I make it so it stays exactly the way it was, but allowing me to drag windows across. Before there was a background image on each monitor, now I've just got one stretched across the two. Is this just what happens with xinerama? If so is there no other way to do this?
Cheers
CP

[praetorian]

AFAIK there is no way to really have a background on each monitor. Since Xinerama makes both of your screens act as one, the wallpaper is going to span both screens.

It might be a problem with the different 3D drivers on both screens. I think it's best to run Xinerama with the same video cards powering each monitor so you don't get conflicts like I have. I disabled GLX on the nVidia card last night, and changed my driver from nvidia to nv, so now I've got a working Xinerama setup. I'd like to keep it like this, but I'll have to go back just because I need to run 3D apps.

The thing about the ServerFlags section is something I got by doing a quick search on Google. Just look for yourself and make sure it's for XFree86 4.x (something I didn't do).