11 Responses to “Dual-head configuration, #2”

1. Tormod on January 24th, 2008 12:52 pm

   Any reason you are not using the open source -ati driver?

2. Gouki on January 24th, 2008 1:16 pm

   Hi Tormod,

   Actually there is. This machine is also used for gaming, and unfortunately, the open source ATI drivers have much slower FPS compared to the proprietary ones.

   Also, *last time I checked*, aticonfig was available with the open source drivers.

   The FPS it’s really the only reason it took me to use it.

3. jon warner on January 24th, 2008 1:22 pm

   I have a radeon 9600 pro in my desktop, and the only way I was able to get a decent spanning setup was with the ‘radeon’ driver (which I /think/ your card will handle). Performance in 3d applications was somewhat poor, however. Wow was kind of terrible to play, compiz was okay, but about 10fps too slow.

   Also, the secret to spanning with the radeon driver is to use option mergedfb for xinerama-like functionality.

   Posted some notes and xorg.conf here:
   http://fleshy.org.nz/yum/2007/10/05/ati-radeon-9600-with-compiz-and-dual-head/

   Also, fwiw I went back to the fglrx driver because there is a hardware limit in those cards preventing 3d textures wider than 2048. Since I wanted two 1280px wide monitors side by side running compiz, that didn’t work so hot. It worked great without compiz, however.

4. Gouki on January 24th, 2008 1:25 pm

   Jon,

   Thanks. Good information there.

5. Jim on January 24th, 2008 1:38 pm

   I just blogged something similar here: http://www.thecrumb.com/2008/01/22/ubuntu-nvidia-and-two-monitors/

   I’m using NVidia… Hopefully the Ubuntu team will make this easier in the future…

6. Gouki on January 24th, 2008 1:46 pm

   Jim,

   Nice. Ever thought about submitting it to UbuntuWeblogs.org? I’d be happy to have you on the Planet.

7. alex on January 25th, 2008 12:41 am

   Want to post your conf, or instructions that worked with the 8.1 for those of us still struggling to get it?

8. Gouki on January 25th, 2008 9:02 am

   Alex, sure. I’ll post my /etc/X11/xorg.conf.

   The steps I took were:

   - Install ATI Catalyst 8.1 Proprietary Linux x86 Display Driver
   - sudo aticonfig –dtop=horizontal

   Done.

   I’m not home right now, but I’ll upload xorg.conf and post a new comment here.

9. Gouki on January 26th, 2008 4:12 pm

   Section “ServerLayout”

   # Uncomment if you have a wacom tablet
   # InputDevice “stylus” “SendCoreEvents”
   # InputDevice “cursor” “SendCoreEvents”
   # InputDevice “eraser” “SendCoreEvents”
   Identifier “Default Layout”
   Screen “Default Screen” 0 0
   Screen “aticonfig-Screen[1]” LeftOf “Default Screen”
   InputDevice “Generic Keyboard”
   InputDevice “Configured Mouse”
   EndSection

   Section “Files”
   EndSection

   Section “Module”
   Load “glx”
   EndSection

   Section “InputDevice”
   Identifier “Generic Keyboard”
   Driver “kbd”
   Option “CoreKeyboard”
   Option “XkbRules” “xorg”
   Option “XkbModel” “pc105″
   Option “XkbLayout” “pt”
   EndSection

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

   Section “InputDevice”
   Identifier “stylus”
   Driver “wacom”
   Option “Device” “/dev/input/wacom”
   Option “Type” “stylus”
   Option “ForceDevice” “ISDV4″# Tablet PC ONLY
   EndSection

   Section “InputDevice”
   Identifier “eraser”
   Driver “wacom”
   Option “Device” “/dev/input/wacom”
   Option “Type” “eraser”
   Option “ForceDevice” “ISDV4″# Tablet PC ONLY
   EndSection

   Section “InputDevice”
   Identifier “cursor”
   Driver “wacom”
   Option “Device” “/dev/input/wacom”
   Option “Type” “cursor”
   Option “ForceDevice” “ISDV4″# Tablet PC ONLY
   EndSection

   Section “Monitor”
   Identifier “Generic Monitor”
   HorizSync 30.0 - 70.0
   VertRefresh 50.0 - 160.0
   Option “DPMS”
   EndSection

   Section “Monitor”
   Identifier “aticonfig-Monitor[1]”
   Option “VendorName” “ATI Proprietary Driver”
   Option “ModelName” “Generic Autodetecting Monitor”
   Option “DPMS” “true”
   EndSection

   Section “Device”
   Identifier “ATI Technologies Inc RV350 AP [Radeon 9600]”
   Driver “fglrx”
   Option “DesktopSetup” “horizontal”
   Option “OverlayOnCRTC2″ “1″
   BusID “PCI:1:0:0″
   EndSection

   Section “Device”
   Identifier “aticonfig-Device[1]”
   Driver “fglrx”
   BusID “PCI:1:0:0″
   Screen 1
   EndSection

   Section “Screen”
   Identifier “Default Screen”
   Device “ATI Technologies Inc RV350 AP [Radeon 9600]”
   Monitor “Generic Monitor”
   DefaultDepth 24
   EndSection

   Section “Screen”
   Identifier “aticonfig-Screen[1]”
   Device “aticonfig-Device[1]”
   Monitor “aticonfig-Monitor[1]”
   DefaultDepth 24
   SubSection “Display”
   Viewport 0 0
   Depth 24
   EndSubSection
   EndSection

   Section “Extensions”
   Option “Composite” “0″
   EndSection

10. hols mutt on January 27th, 2008 11:58 am

    do you even realize what’s in your xorg or your ati driver just created it??

11. Gouki on January 27th, 2008 12:54 pm

    Not sure I understand what you mean, hols mutt.

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