Re: dual monitor support with nvidia card?

I have attached my xorg.conf file. It is a bit of a mess because I have a lot of hacks and time put into it. The important part for the average person is the device section for card0 with the special settings for enabling the second monitor. I have dual SUN workstation monitors that only support a single resolution/frequency so your monitor values will be different. I also have all forms of acceleration disabled, glx, hwcursor, renderaccel. The nvagp option is also uneeded for just about everyone (I have a dual athlon board with known agp bugs). So let me distill this out for you:

Section "Module"
#Load "GLcore" # must be disabled
#Load "dri" # must be disabled
Load "glx"
...
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "nvidia" # must be "nvidia" NOT "nv"
VendorName "nVidia Corporation"
BoardName "geForce 5200 Ultra" # your info here
BusID "PCI:1:5:0" # Fill in your device id here, use lspci
Option "TwinView"
Option "MetaModes" "1280x1024,1280x1024" # fill in your resolutions here
Option "TwinViewOrientation" "LeftOf"
Option "SecondMonitorHorizSync" "61.8-81.1" # fill in your monitor capabilities
Option "SecondMonitorVertRefresh" "66-76" # fill in your monitor capabilities
#Option "SecondMonitorHorizSync" "UseEdidFreqs" # turn this on and it might just detect the second monitors abilities
#Option "SecondMonitorVertRefresh" "UseEdidFreqs" # turn this on and it might just detect the second monitors abilities

# All these options arent that important, you might hack with them later though:
#Option "RenderAccel"
#Option "HWcursor"
#Option "CursorShadow"
#Option "CursorShadowAlpha" "32"
#Option "CursorShadowXOffset" "3"
#Option "CursorShadowYOffset" "3"
# if you want Composite and GLX (they don't cooperate):
#Option "AllowGLXWithComposite"
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
InputDevice "Configured Mouse"
EndSection

Section "Monitor" # an old 19" monitor, good starting point though
Identifier "GemStar"
HorizSync 30-100
VertRefresh 50-85
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
# Option "Xinerama" "true" # nvidia driver provides the xinerama feature
EndSection

Section "DRI"
# Mode 0666 # you do not use dri with nvidia binary driver
EndSection


Obviously there is more to the file, but these are the important pieces. You must of course have the nvidia drivers installed, the ubuntu guide has instructions on how to get that done.

Good luck,
Matt



Matt Patterson wrote:

Forget the matrox card, they are old and out of date. I run dual monitors off of my nvidia card. You basically need to look for "dualhead" or "twinview" cards. You can discern the difference generally because they are larger cards with the second monitor port mounted to pcb and not connected with a wire.
Your concern about the multiple output formats is well founded, there are 4 types: Analog VGA, DVI-I, DVI-A (analog signals available), DVI-Duallink. If you are running analog monitors then you want a card with 2 analog, 1 analog + 1 DVI-A, or 2 DVI-A connectors. The DVI-A connectors can be converted to a standard vga connector with a simple adapter. My card came with an adapter for its DVI-A port. If you are running LCD's with DVI-D connections I would get a card with dual DVI-A or DVI-I connections. Alwasy use the digital DVI connection when available, the image will be better.
As for your xorg configuration, I am not at home, but I would be glad to email you a working xorg.conf if you need it. You must use the nvidia binary drivers (closed source) to use dual head nvidia support. You do get opengl spanning monitors though.
Hope that helps,
Matt


On 3/15/06, *Dave M G* <martin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:martin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:

Ubuntu Users,

I am looking at getting a computer with two monitors, and a graphics
card that can support them. The only cards I have found on the net
that
both support two monitors and have linux drivers provided by the
manufacturer is Matrox.

But the specs of the Matrox card are not as good as the nVidia cards
(?). The nVidia cards seem to have multiple outputs, but not of
the same
type. I'm not clear on the names of the different types of output
connector for video, but there seem to be two on the nVidia cards.

Searching on the web has led to unclear results. Some places seem to
indicate dual monitor support is possible with the nVidia cards,
but I'm
not entirely sure if that's true, and if so, which models.

Is it better to go with two cards? Is Matrox reliable with Linux? Has
anyone here achieved dual monitor support with nVidia?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thank you.

--
Dave M G

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# XF86Config-4 (XFree86 X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the XF86Config-4 manual page.
# (Type "man XF86Config-4" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xfree86 package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xfree86
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following commands as root:
#
# cp /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 /etc/X11/XF86Config-4.custom
# md5sum /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 >/var/lib/xfree86/XF86Config-4.md5sum
# dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86

Section "Files"
FontPath "unix/:7100" # local font server
# if the local font server has problems, we can fall back on these
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/CID"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi"
# paths to defoma fonts
FontPath "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
FontPath "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/CID"
EndSection

Section "Module"
#Load "GLcore"
#Load "dri"
#Load "glx"
Load "bitmap"
Load "dbe"
Load "ddc"
Load "extmod"
Load "freetype"
Load "int10"
Load "record"
Load "speedo"
Load "type1"
Load "v4l"
Load "vbe"
#Load "xtt"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "keyboard"
Option "CoreKeyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xfree86"
Option "XkbModel" "pc104"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
#Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection


#Section "Device"
# ### Available Driver options are:-
# ### Values: <i>: integer, <f>: float, <bool>: "True"/"False",
# ### <string>: "String", <freq>: "<f> Hz/kHz/MHz"
# ### [arg]: arg optional
# #Option "accel" # [<bool>]
# #Option "crt_display" # [<bool>]
# #Option "composite_sync" # [<bool>]
# #Option "hw_cursor" # [<bool>]
# #Option "linear" # [<bool>]
# #Option "mmio_cache" # [<bool>]
# #Option "test_mmio_cache" # [<bool>]
# #Option "panel_display" # [<bool>]
# #Option "probe_clocks" # [<bool>]
# #Option "reference_clock" # <freq>
# #Option "shadow_fb" # [<bool>]
# #Option "sw_cursor" # [<bool>]
# Identifier "Card0"
# Driver "ati"
# VendorName "ATI"
# BoardName "Rage XL"
# ChipSet "ati"
# ChipId 0x4752
# ChipRev 0x27
# BusID "PCI:0:14:0"
#EndSection

#Section "Device"
# ### Available Driver options are:-
# ### Values: <i>: integer, <f>: float, <bool>: "True"/"False",
# ### <string>: "String", <freq>: "<f> Hz/kHz/MHz"
# ### [arg]: arg optional
# #Option "SWcursor" # [<bool>]
# #Option "HWcursor" # [<bool>]
# #Option "NoAccel" # [<bool>]
# #Option "ShadowFB" # [<bool>]
# #Option "UseFBDev" # [<bool>]
# #Option "Rotate" # [<str>]
# #Option "VideoKey" # <i>
# #Option "FlatPanel" # [<bool>]
# #Option "FPDither" # [<bool>]
# #Option "CrtcNumber" # <i>
# Option "NvAGP" "0"
# Identifier "Card1"
# Driver "nvidia"
# VendorName "nVidia Corporation"
# BoardName "Nvidia GeForce 2"
# BusID "PCI:1:5:0"
#EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "nVidia Corporation"
BoardName "geForce 5200 Ultra"
BusID "PCI:1:5:0"
Option "NvAGP" "2"
#Screen 0
Option "TwinView"
Option "MetaModes" "1280x1024,1280x1024"
Option "TwinViewOrientation" "LeftOf"
Option "SecondMonitorHorizSync" "61.8-81.1"
Option "SecondMonitorVertRefresh" "66-76"
#Option "SecondMonitorHorizSync" "UseEdidFreqs"
#Option "SecondMonitorVertRefresh" "UseEdidFreqs"
#other options I recommend:
#Option "RenderAccel"
#Option "HWcursor"
#Option "CursorShadow"
#Option "CursorShadowAlpha" "32"
#Option "CursorShadowXOffset" "3"
#Option "CursorShadowYOffset" "3"
#if you want Composite and GLX (they don't cooperate):
#Option "AllowGLXWithComposite"
EndSection

#Section "Device"
# ### Available Driver options are:-
# ### Values: <i>: 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 "DMAForXv" # [<bool>]
# #Option "ForcePCIMode" # [<bool>]
# #Option "CCEPIOMode" # [<bool>]
# #Option "CCENoSecurity" # [<bool>]
# #Option "CCEusecTimeout" # <i>
# #Option "AGPMode" # <i>
# #Option "AGPSize" # <i>
# #Option "RingSize" # <i>
# #Option "BufferSize" # <i>
# #Option "EnablePageFlip" # [<bool>]
# #Option "Display" # <str>
# #Option "PanelWidth" # <i>
# #Option "PanelHeight" # <i>
# #Option "ProgramFPRegs" # [<bool>]
# #Option "UseFBDev" # [<bool>]
# #Option "VideoKey" # <i>
# #Option "ShowCache" # [<bool>]
# Identifier "Card2"
# Driver "r128"
# VendorName "ATI Technologies Inc"
# BoardName "Rage 128 PP/PRO TMDS [Xpert 128]"
# BusID "PCI:0:10:0"
#EndSection

#Section "Device"
# ### Available Driver options are:-
# ### Values: <i>: 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 "DMAForXv" # [<bool>]
# #Option "ForcePCIMode" # [<bool>]
# #Option "CCEPIOMode" # [<bool>]
# #Option "CCENoSecurity" # [<bool>]
# #Option "CCEusecTimeout" # <i>
# #Option "AGPMode" # <i>
# #Option "AGPSize" # <i>
# #Option "RingSize" # <i>
# #Option "BufferSize" # <i>
# #Option "EnablePageFlip" # [<bool>]
# #Option "Display" # <str>
# #Option "PanelWidth" # <i>
# #Option "PanelHeight" # <i>
# #Option "ProgramFPRegs" # [<bool>]
# #Option "UseFBDev" # [<bool>]
# #Option "VideoKey" # <i>
# #Option "ShowCache" # [<bool>]
# Identifier "Card3"
# Driver "tdfx"
# VendorName "3dfx"
# BoardName "Voodoo 3000"
# BusID "PCI:0:9:0"
#EndSection


Section "Monitor"
Identifier "GemStar"
HorizSync 30-100
VertRefresh 50-85
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Sun"
HorizSync 61.8-81.1
VertRefresh 66-76
Option "DPMS"
EndSection


#Section "Screen"
# Identifier "ScreenLeft"
# Device "Card3"
# Monitor "GemStar"
# DefaultDepth 16
# SubSection "Display"
# Depth 1
# Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
# EndSubSection
# SubSection "Display"
# Depth 4
# Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
# EndSubSection
# SubSection "Display"
# Depth 8
# Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
# EndSubSection
# SubSection "Display"
# Depth 15
# Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
# EndSubSection
# SubSection "Display"
# Depth 16
# Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
# EndSubSection
# SubSection "Display"
# Depth 24
# Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
# EndSubSection
#EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Card0"
Monitor "Sun"
DefaultDepth 16
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768"
EndSubSection
EndSection

#Section "Screen"
# Identifier "ScreenRight"
# Device "Card1"
# Monitor "Sun"
# DefaultDepth 16
# SubSection "Display"
# Depth 1
# Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768"
# EndSubSection
# SubSection "Display"
# Depth 4
# Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768"
# EndSubSection
# SubSection "Display"
# Depth 8
# Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768"
# EndSubSection
# SubSection "Display"
# Depth 15
# Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768"
# EndSubSection
# SubSection "Display"
# Depth 16
# Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768"
# EndSubSection
# SubSection "Display"
# Depth 24
# Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768"
# EndSubSection
#EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
InputDevice "Configured Mouse"
EndSection

#Section "ServerLayout"
# Identifier "Default Layout"
# Screen "ScreenRight"
## Screen 0 "ScreenLeft" 0 0
## Screen 1 "ScreenRight" RightOf "ScreenLeft"
# InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
# InputDevice "Configured Mouse"
#EndSection


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


Section "DRI"
# Mode 0666
EndSection

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