Re: [PLUG] dual monitors with ubuntu

[Gordon Dexter <gordon@texasdex.com>]

I have dual-screen working under Kubuntu 8.04.  The trick is to use an NVidia card.  That's basically the hardest part.  Install their binary blob driver (there are distro-specific ways to do this so it is updated with the kernel) and then once you get that working just run their little "nvidia-settings" utility and it has an option for it called TwinView.

I wouldn't normally recommend getting new hardware to accomplish something that should be possible with your current hardware, but since you indicated you were already looking I figured I'd steer you in the right direction.

--Gordon

Jason Harlow wrote:

It can take a bit of tweaking of the Xorg.conf file...here's a good
forum post on doing it with the ATI drivers (I've only ever used the
NVidia ones...but it's similar):

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=158686

Can you get a single screen working with the fglrx driver? That would
be a good start. You'd then just need to add a second "Device" and
"Screen" and have it extend over to that.

i.e.:

Section "Device"
	Identifier  "Device0"
	Driver      "fglrx"
	Option	    "DesktopSetup" "horizontal"
	Option	    "OverlayOnCRTC2" "1"
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier  "Device1"
	Driver      "fglrx"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier "Screen0"
	Device     "Device0"
	Monitor    "Monitor0"
	DefaultDepth     24
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier "Screen1"
	Device     "Device1"
	Monitor    "Monitor1"
	DefaultDepth     24
EndSection

Just be sure and back up any working Xorg.conf files before messing
around and remember ctrl-alt-backspace to restart X and ctrl-alt-F1 to
get to a terminal (To replace w/a working /etc/X11/Xorg.conf)


If you still have trouble, posting your Xorg.conf file (or at least
the relevant sections) would help debug.
On Fri, Dec 26, 2008 at 1:09 PM, Eric <eric@lucii.org> wrote:
  

This Christmas Santa Claus (disguised as my sister) delivered to me the
second widescreen monitor that I'd been wanting.
Background: the system has both on-board video (ASUS integrated VIA
DeltaChrome GPU) and an added PCI-e 1X video card (Diamond Radeon
X600/X550 series).
The Diamond card uses the ATI Radeon chip(s) so I run the fglrx video
driver to take advantage of the acceleration in the card.

The dual monitors are working with Ubuntu 8.10 (both attached to the
Diamond card) but, alas, without the fglrx driver.

How do I get the panel to span both screens?  There appears to be no
setting for that under System->Preferences->Screen Resolution :-(

Also, this video card is "okay" but I'd like a better one that would
support dual monitors AND 3-D/acceleration.  Any recommendations?  I'd
like to not have to spend more than $100 but that's somewhat flexible
for the right solution :-)


Eric

--
#  Eric Lucas
#
#                "Oh, I have slipped the surly bond of earth
#                 And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings...
#                                        -- John Gillespie Magee Jr

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___________________________________________________________________________
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Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion  --   http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug