Ubuntu

Dual Head config problems on rather complex laptop...

Asked by R0sbif

Hi all,

I am running Kubuntu 6.10 on an Alienware Aurora m9700 laptop. This thing is incredible and has dual SLI Geforce 7900GS graphics cards.

I am currently dual booting with Windows, although I must say, my windows usage is going down considerably now :-)

However, I am used to using a dual monitor setup. The Laptop has a massive 1920x1200 resolution and I have an Acer AL2016W on the right of the laptop with a resolution of 1680x1050.

If I boot Kubuntu with the Acer screen plugged in, I get all pre Xwindows on both screens and then X starts in the Acer screen only, but with the 1920x1200 resolution. so it scans round when I move the mouse to the screen edges etc.

If I boot without the Acer screen attached then all seems normal on the laptop screen.

I have correctly installed the nvidia drivers by following instructions from another user's ticket on this support system. I have the Nvidia splash screen on startup and 3D acceleration seems to work OK.

I suspect that I have managed to mess up the xorg.conf file somehow and cannot seem to be able to get my head around it.

I have tried to configure everything using the system settings and the nvidia X server settings application but I can't seem to be able to get both monitors working simultaneously - or even the LPL to work on it's own with the Acer plugged in. I have even tried to manually adjust the xorg.conf but no success, probably because I don't understand the file syntax.

It is difficult to know how exactly the gfx cards are working, and which screens are attached to which one etc. because being a laptop, i can't easily (without getting very scared anyway) open it and have a gander.

Could someone possibly point me in the right direction on this one please? I understand that this does work, so I suspect that I've got some interesting tinkering to do :)

Thank you very much indeed

Best regards

Rich

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Revision history for this message
Alan Pope 🍺🐧🐱 🦄 (popey) said : 		#1

Ok, there's two separate things in your laptop.
Dual head support can be done with one card.
SLI requires two cards.

So to enable dual head support ("TwinView" as NVidia call it) is nothing to do with SLI - that's a separate issue. You don't have to use TwinView, you can use Xinerama and/or have two separate X servers, one per screen. There are advantages and disadvantages to each.

For example I have a desktop which has two 7900GTs in SLI with two 20" screens, but I can take one card out and both screens continue to function. ( see http://gallery.popey.com/gallery/misc/dsc02499 and http://gallery.popey.com/gallery/screenshots/Screenshot_003 )

To get TwinView you can actually just use the nvidia-settings program, in which you setup the dual head config and then it can write out an xorg.conf for you. See the following two screenshots of nvidia-settings:-

http://gallery.popey.com/gallery/screenshots/Screenshot_NVIDIA_X_Server_Settings
http://gallery.popey.com/gallery/screenshots/Screenshot_NVIDIA_X_Server_Settings_1

Note you can grab hold of the screens and move them around in that window. Here are some useful sections from my xorg.conf:-

The Monitor section - I only have one of these.

Section "Monitor"
    # HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
    Identifier "Monitor0"
    VendorName "Unknown"
    ModelName "ViewSonic VA2012wSERIES"
    HorizSync 30.0 - 94.0
    VertRefresh 50.0 - 75.0
    Option "DPMS"
EndSection

The Device section - note only one of these even though I have two cards (I do not have SLI working at the moment) - (note also the "Options" are for 3d funky desktop groovyness beryl).

Section "Device"
    Identifier "Videocard0"
    Driver "nvidia"
    VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName "GeForce 7900 GT/GTO"
    BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
    Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"
    Option "RenderAccel" "True"
EndSection

The Screen section. Note the important bit is the "metamodes" which is where you can setup the resolutions of the two screens - useful if they happen to be different sizes as yours are.

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen0"
    Device "Videocard0"
    Monitor "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth 24
    Option "TwinView" "1"
    Option "metamodes" "CRT-0: 1680x1050 +1680+0, CRT-1: nvidia-auto-select +0+0; CRT-0: 1152x864 +0+0, CRT-1: nvidia-auto-select +1152+0; CRT-0: 1024x768 +0+0, CRT-1: nvidia-auto-select +1024+0; CRT-0: 800x600 +0+0, CRT-1: nvidia-auto-select +800+0; CRT-0: 640x480 +0+0, CRT-1: nvidia-auto-select +640+0"
    SubSection "Display"
        Depth 24
        Modes "1600x1200" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
    EndSubSection
EndSection

These are posted just for your sanity, I'd use the nvidia-settings thing myself.

Revision history for this message
R0sbif (richard-crontek) said : 		#2

Alan,

Thanks for your rapid response.

Yes i'm sorry. SLI is totally different, although I thought it relevant to mention that I have 2 cards (and obviously i can't remove one of them) and it is twin view that I am interested in. SLI I will tackle later, as this is less important for now.

I have played around a lot with the Nvidia X server settings and when I plug in the Acer, hit detect displays, it appears, but disabled.

Then I hit Configure, select Twinview and then Apply.

I get the following error:
____________________________________________________
Failed to set MetaMode (4) 'DFP-0: 1920x1200 @1920x1200 +0+0, CRT-0: nvidia-auto-select @1680x1050 +1920+0' (Mode 3600x1200, id: 55) on X screen 0

Would you like to remove this MetaMode?
____________________________________________________

When I hit Yes, it then changes the size of LPL to 1280x768.

I hit apply to test it and this time i get:

____________________________________________________
Failed to set MetaMode (3) 'DFP-0: 1280x768@60 @1280x768 +0+0, CRT-0: nvidia-auto-select @1680x1050 +1280+0' (Mode 2960x1050, id: 52) on X screen 0

Would you like to remove this MetaMode?
_____________________________________________________

So for a laugh I press yes and then try all the other options and a similar message comes out.

I am about to try the Separate X Screen option, but I need to restart X so I'll be back in a sec with the results.

Thanks once again, Alan.

Best regards

Rich

Revision history for this message
R0sbif (richard-crontek) said : 		#3

Hi again,

I just restarted and only the Acer screen is back on, with the 1920x1200 resolution... I'm just going to revert back. Here is the business end of my xorg.conf. by the way - And having looked at that again, even I can see that it's a bit messed up. For example there are 2 devices with driver "nv" - shouldn't this be "nvidia" like the first one ?

Is there a way of scratching it and starting again?

Do you have a url for a guide on how to translate this file? I have had a look but not found anything concise..

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier "Default Layout"
    Screen 0 "Default Screen" 0 0
    InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
    InputDevice "Configured Mouse"
    InputDevice "stylus" "SendCoreEvents"
    InputDevice "cursor" "SendCoreEvents"
    InputDevice "eraser" "SendCoreEvents"
EndSection

.....

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier "Generic Monitor"
    VendorName "Generic"
    ModelName "Flat Panel 1920x1200"
    HorizSync 31.5 - 90.0
    VertRefresh 60.0
    Gamma 1.22 1.17 0.88
    ModeLine "800x600@60" 40.0 800 840 968 1056 600 601 605 628 +hsync +vsync
    ModeLine "1280x768@60" 80.1 1280 1344 1480 1680 768 769 772 795 -hsync +vsync
    ModeLine "1600x1024@60" 136.4 1600 1704 1872 2144 1024 1025 1028 1060 -hsync +vsync
    ModeLine "1680x1050@60" 147.1 1680 1784 1968 2256 1050 1051 1054 1087 -hsync +vsync
    ModeLine "1920x1200@60" 193.2 1920 2048 2256 2592 1200 1201 1204 1242 -hsync +vsync
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier "monitor1"
    VendorName "Generic"
    ModelName "Flat Panel 1920x1200"
    HorizSync 31.5 - 90.0
    VertRefresh 60.0
    Gamma 1
    ModeLine "800x600@60" 40.0 800 840 968 1056 600 601 605 628 +hsync +vsync
    ModeLine "1280x768@60" 80.1 1280 1344 1480 1680 768 769 772 795 -hsync +vsync
    ModeLine "1600x1024@60" 136.4 1600 1704 1872 2144 1024 1025 1028 1060 -hsync +vsync
    ModeLine "1680x1050@60" 147.1 1680 1784 1968 2256 1050 1051 1054 1087 -hsync +vsync
    ModeLine "1920x1200@60" 193.2 1920 2048 2256 2592 1200 1201 1204 1242 -hsync +vsync
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
 #
    Identifier "monitor2"
    Gamma 1
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier "NVIDIA Corporation NVIDIA Default Card"
    Driver "nvidia"
    VendorName "NVIDIA"
    BoardName "NVIDIA GeForce 6800 (generic)"
    BusID "PCI:7:0:0"
    Screen 0
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier "device1"
    Driver "nv"
    VendorName "NVIDIA"
    BoardName "NVIDIA GeForce 6800 (generic)"
    BusID "PCI:6:0:0"
    Screen 0
EndSection

Section "Device"
 #
    Identifier "device2"
    Driver "nv"
    VendorName "NVIDIA"
    BoardName "NVIDIA GeForce 6800 (generic)"
    BusID "PCI:7:0:0"
    Screen 1
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Default Screen"
    Device "NVIDIA Corporation NVIDIA Default Card"
    Monitor "Generic Monitor"
    DefaultDepth 24
    SubSection "Display"
        Virtual 1920 1200
        Depth 24
        Modes "1920x1200@60" "1680x1050@60" "1600x1024@60" "1280x768@60" "800x600@60"
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"

  #
    Identifier "screen1"
    Device "device1"
    Monitor "monitor1"
    DefaultDepth 24
    SubSection "Display"
        Depth 24
        Modes "800x600@60" "1280x768@60" "1600x1024@60" "1680x1050@60" "1920x1200@60"
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
 #
    Identifier "screen2"
    Device "device2"
    Monitor "monitor2"
    DefaultDepth 24
EndSection

Revision history for this message
R0sbif (richard-crontek) said : 		#4

Hi again...

For some reason, after I reconfigured the WLAN on my laptop, I couldn't boot X... All I got was the flashing cursor. So I'm trying to reconfigure all that now. I assume that it has something to do with my rather confused Xorg.conf. So I will go away and try to figure it out.

In the xorg.conf am I right in assuming:

"Screen" is what you can actually see printed on the monitor(s) and not the actual monitor?

and in order to use dual head, do tht emonitors have to be the same size and resolution?

Although this request is not technically solved, it should probably be closed until I can figure out why I can't see any X on my laptop's monitor any more.

Thanks for your help and patience anyway,

best regards

Rich

Revision history for this message
Best R0sbif (richard-crontek) said : 		#5

Hi,

I think I kinda solved this myself. Although I don't think I understand why. I ran the nVidia settings program to configure the screen. I hit apply.. and it just worked. So I saved the xorg.conf, then backed it up.

I rebooted the machine and it went back to where we were at the beginning of all this. so I copied the backed up good xorg.conf and restarted... exactly the same.

Fearing the worst, i went back into the nVidia settings program and reorganised everything and it all worked fine. It's just that it doesn't seem to matter what I save to the xorg.conf. every time, it resets to the "crt1" only display.

I think this is useable until I can figure it out a bit more so I reckon this is solved and I can stop pestering you :)

Thanks again for your time and patience.

Cheers

Rich