I need to start running a dual head on one of my machines. Eventual target is CentOS 5.x. Decided to test first on my 4.6 setup (eventually it will achieve 5.x). Both machines are fully up to date.
The test machine is 4.6, 2 radeon video cards. Searched the web, CentOS site, even bugzilla. This bugzilla entry from a 4.2 system), http://bugs.centos.org/view.php?id=1875 had only a WFM response.
I've attached a gzipped text file of pertinent information.
Briefly, kudzu did the right thing when I installed the second card. System-config-display also behaved correctly. X start ok, but will only use one head at a time. Adding a second "BusID" so that both cards are explicitly addressed didn't help. When the 2 "BusID" entries are switched, the active screen doesn't move (it's always "Screen0") and the ignored screen ("Screen1") remains the same. The monitor attached to the video card for "Screen0" becomes the active one.
Q1: Anyone have a two video card CentOS 4.6 setup working?
Q2: Is it working in CentOS 5?
Q3: Anyone see something I'm doing wrong? Suggestions?
TIA,
On Tue, 22 Jul 2008 06:03:16 -0400 "William L. Maltby" CentOS4Bill@triad.rr.com took out a #2 pencil and scribbled:
I need to start running a dual head on one of my machines. Eventual target is CentOS 5.x. Decided to test first on my 4.6 setup (eventually it will achieve 5.x). Both machines are fully up to date.
The test machine is 4.6, 2 radeon video cards. Searched the web, CentOS site, even bugzilla. This bugzilla entry from a 4.2 system), http://bugs.centos.org/view.php?id=1875 had only a WFM response.
I've attached a gzipped text file of pertinent information.
Briefly, kudzu did the right thing when I installed the second card. System-config-display also behaved correctly. X start ok, but will only use one head at a time. Adding a second "BusID" so that both cards are explicitly addressed didn't help. When the 2 "BusID" entries are switched, the active screen doesn't move (it's always "Screen0") and the ignored screen ("Screen1") remains the same. The monitor attached to the video card for "Screen0" becomes the active one.
Q1: Anyone have a two video card CentOS 4.6 setup working?
Q2: Is it working in CentOS 5?
Q3: Anyone see something I'm doing wrong? Suggestions?
TIA,
This was addressed on the list at one point, and marked as solved by the poster.
http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/2007-May/080915.html
Does this help you out? I haven't had occasion to play with dual head yet.
A quick google also turned this up, but it is not directly related to CentOS, I run an nvidia card and can't speak to how well this would work for you.
http://www.linuxine.com/2008/06/how-to-enable-dual-monitors-with-ati-diplay-...
Mind the line wrapping.
HTH
Alex White
At 11:13 AM 7/22/2008, you wrote:
On Tue, 22 Jul 2008 06:03:16 -0400 "William L. Maltby" CentOS4Bill@triad.rr.com took out a #2 pencil and scribbled:
I need to start running a dual head on one of my machines. Eventual target is CentOS 5.x. Decided to test first on my 4.6 setup (eventually it will achieve 5.x). Both machines are fully up to date.
The test machine is 4.6, 2 radeon video cards. Searched the web, CentOS site, even bugzilla. This bugzilla entry from a 4.2 system), http://bugs.centos.org/view.php?id=1875 had only a WFM response.
I've attached a gzipped text file of pertinent information.
Briefly, kudzu did the right thing when I installed the second card. System-config-display also behaved correctly. X start ok, but will only use one head at a time. Adding a second "BusID" so that both cards are explicitly addressed didn't help. When the 2 "BusID" entries are switched, the active screen doesn't move (it's always "Screen0") and the ignored screen ("Screen1") remains the same. The monitor attached to the video card for "Screen0" becomes the active one.
Q1: Anyone have a two video card CentOS 4.6 setup working?
Q2: Is it working in CentOS 5?
Q3: Anyone see something I'm doing wrong? Suggestions?
TIA,
This was addressed on the list at one point, and marked as solved by the poster.
http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/2007-May/080915.html
Does this help you out? I haven't had occasion to play with dual head yet.
A quick google also turned this up, but it is not directly related to CentOS, I run an nvidia card and can't speak to how well this would work for you.
http://www.linuxine.com/2008/06/how-to-enable-dual-monitors-with-ati-diplay-...
Mind the line wrapping.
HTH
Alex White
Good reading, even though I am not doing dual-head at the moment.
First thing that popped in my head upon reading the initial request was check Matrox.. they've always been on the high-end and I knew their graphics cards were well supported in Linux. Shop eBay and see Matrox' site (http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/support/drivers/) to compare whether the card has a Linux driver. Many of their models are dual-head on one card.
Cheers, Glenn
On Tue, 2008-07-22 at 11:45 -0400, Glenn wrote:
At 11:13 AM 7/22/2008, you wrote:
On Tue, 22 Jul 2008 06:03:16 -0400 "William L. Maltby" CentOS4Bill@triad.rr.com took out a #2 pencil and scribbled:
I need to start running a dual head on one of my machines. Eventual target is CentOS 5.x. Decided to test first on my 4.6
<snip>
Briefly, kudzu did the right thing when I installed the second card. System-config-display also behaved correctly. X start ok, but will only use one head at a time. <snip>
Q1: Anyone have a two video card CentOS 4.6 setup working?
Q2: Is it working in CentOS 5?
Q3: Anyone see something I'm doing wrong? Suggestions?
TIA,
This was addressed on the list at one point, and marked as solved by the poster.
http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/2007-May/080915.html
Does this help you out? I haven't had occasion to play with dual head yet.
A quick google also turned this up, but it is not directly related to CentOS, I run an nvidia card and can't speak to how well this would work for you.
http://www.linuxine.com/2008/06/how-to-enable-dual-monitors-with-ati-diplay-...
Mind the line wrapping.
HTH
Alex White
Good reading, even though I am not doing dual-head at the moment.
First thing that popped in my head upon reading the initial request was check Matrox.. they've always been on the high-end and I knew their graphics cards were well supported in Linux. Shop eBay and see Matrox' site (http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/support/drivers/) to compare whether the card has a Linux driver. Many of their models are dual-head on one card.
I'd considered that myself. But being an obstinate bastard with lots of usabe hardwar laying around begging to be used, I tend to do things the hard way. It's surprising how much I've learned over the years that way.
Anyway, I've ATI and Nvidia cards with dual capability (1 analog, 1 digital) and I figured that by now both would be supported even in EL distros. Guessed wrong it seems.
My theory is it's a pure Xorg issue. I'll take the time to wait and see what happens and then decide how to proceed.
Thank you for taking the time and effort.
Cheers, Glenn
<snip sig stuff>
On Tue, 2008-07-22 at 10:13 -0500, Alex wrote:
On Tue, 22 Jul 2008 06:03:16 -0400 "William L. Maltby" CentOS4Bill@triad.rr.com took out a #2 pencil and scribbled:
I need to start running a dual head on one of my machines.
<snip>
The test machine is 4.6, 2 radeon video cards. Searched the web, CentOS site, even bugzilla. This bugzilla entry from a 4.2 system), http://bugs.centos.org/view.php?id=1875 had only a WFM response.
I've attached a gzipped text file of pertinent information.
Briefly, kudzu did the right thing when I installed the second card. System-config-display also behaved correctly. X start ok, but will only use one head at a time. <snip>
Q1: Anyone have a two video card CentOS 4.6 setup working?
Q2: Is it working in CentOS 5?
Q3: Anyone see something I'm doing wrong? Suggestions?
TIA,
This was addressed on the list at one point, and marked as solved by the poster.
http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/2007-May/080915.html
I appreciate the time you've taken to at least try to help. Thank you.
I had seen that in my searches. However, it's 64 bit related. I'm on 32 bit systems. It also gets ATI drivers not provided by CentOS - antithetical to a subset of my goals. It was solving a different problem, unfortunately.
He was trying, IIRC, to solve the problem of spanning desktops. My eventual goal includes that. But step 1 is to try and get both working. I would *like* to stay as much CentOS "pure" as possible, allowing for inclusion of stuff from rpmforge, extras, KB's repo, etc.
This is important enough that I will buy a digital monitor to run on a single video card if I must. But as mentioned, I've got lots of older ones I can use.
Does this help you out? I haven't had occasion to play with dual head yet.
A quick google also turned this up, but it is not directly related to CentOS, I run an nvidia card and can't speak to how well this would work for you.
http://www.linuxine.com/2008/06/how-to-enable-dual-monitors-with-ati-diplay-...
As above, vendor-specific drivers not from a CentOS-related site are a "last resort" option.
<snip>
Alex White
Again, thanks for replying.
Maybe this is something I can beg Dag, Axel (never used his repos yet) or the CentOS crew to provide in extras or some such place.
I wait a little while and see what develops before I go begging or taking a non-CentOS route.
On Tue, 22 Jul 2008 11:54:05 -0400 "William L. Maltby" CentOS4Bill@triad.rr.com took out a #2 pencil and scribbled:
Again, thanks for replying.
Maybe this is something I can beg Dag, Axel (never used his repos yet) or the CentOS crew to provide in extras or some such place.
I wait a little while and see what develops before I go begging or taking a non-CentOS route.
Well fine, if you're going to be sensible about it! =-P
I'll ask a friend of mine that runs dual head on a linux box what he's using and get back with you. I'm not sure what his setup is though.
Sincerely
Alex White
On Tue, 2008-07-22 at 11:13 -0500, Alex wrote:
On Tue, 22 Jul 2008 11:54:05 -0400 "William L. Maltby" CentOS4Bill@triad.rr.com took out a #2 pencil and scribbled:
<snip>
I'll ask a friend of mine that runs dual head on a linux box what he's using and get back with you. I'm not sure what his setup is though.
Well appreciated Alex! Thanks!
Sincerely
Alex White
On Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 8:54 AM, William L. Maltby CentOS4Bill@triad.rr.com wrote:
http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/2007-May/080915.html
I appreciate the time you've taken to at least try to help. Thank you.
I had seen that in my searches. However, it's 64 bit related. I'm on 32 bit systems. It also gets ATI drivers not provided by CentOS - antithetical to a subset of my goals. It was solving a different problem, unfortunately.
He was trying, IIRC, to solve the problem of spanning desktops. My eventual goal includes that. But step 1 is to try and get both working. I would *like* to stay as much CentOS "pure" as possible, allowing for inclusion of stuff from rpmforge, extras, KB's repo, etc.
Oh, my word - how many months ago was that! :-)
Another major difference between what I was doing and what you are doing is that I had a single video card with dual head connectors on it. You are running two cards.
I don't think the problem was 64-bit related - either the card driver works or it does not. I am more convinced that it was an xorg issue, at least in part because the right xorg.conf setup made it work.
You might play around with anything that gives you both monitors and then see what comes up between system-config-display and using the ati configuration program.
But, if you're looking for an all-CentOS solution, try going into system-config-display and set the monitors up to be generic lcd (or crt, if they're that old) with the right resolution settings and see what happens that way. I've found that to work on a number of systems where even the "right" hardware setting did not work the way I wanted/expected it to....
HTH, and ROR (Rots 'O Ruck, as opposed to LOL :-)
mhr
On Tue, 2008-07-22 at 10:16 -0700, MHR wrote:
On Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 8:54 AM, William L. Maltby CentOS4Bill@triad.rr.com wrote:
http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/2007-May/080915.html
<snip>
Oh, my word - how many months ago was that! :-)
Another major difference between what I was doing and what you are doing is that I had a single video card with dual head connectors on it. You are running two cards.
Yep, I'm a "greenie" at heart. *Nothing* goes to the dump until it is properly aged or stinks to bad from the mold that grew on it in a deep, dark, moist storage location. (:-P
I do have an Nvidia and another ATI with the analog and DVI connectors though. So I can move that direction if needed.
I don't think the problem was 64-bit related - either the card driver works or it does not. I am more convinced that it was an xorg issue, at least in part because the right xorg.conf setup made it work.
I also believe it's an xorg issue, even if it's the drivers they provide.
You might play around with anything that gives you both monitors and then see what comes up between system-config-display and using the ati configuration program.
Uh... you missed the start of the thread I guess. That was the point of my OP. I even tried to do everything right - Kudzu, system-config-display, manual massage of xorg.conf after initial failure, googled fairly extensively, ... heck I even checked the CentOS bugzilla! =:-O
But, if you're looking for an all-CentOS solution, try going into system-config-display and set the monitors up to be generic lcd (or crt, if they're that old) with the right resolution settings and see what happens that way. I've found that to work on a number of systems where even the "right" hardware setting did not work the way I wanted/expected it to....
As mentioned, did that to start. Since the two monitors are identical at this point, didn't have to dink with any of that to start. I did tweak them later to suit my preferences.
HTH, and ROR (Rots 'O Ruck, as opposed to LOL :-)
<*chuckle*> From what I've seen I'll needed it.
mhr
<snip sig stuff>
As we say when in Rome - A-rubber-ducky!
On Tue, 2008-07-22 at 10:16 -0700, MHR wrote:
<snip>
SYNOPSIS: In case you missed or lost the start of this thread, I was setting up two displays, one per video card, on my CentOS 4.6. This was testing before applying the same setup to my 5.2 system, upon which I run an application critical to me.
The kudzu detection worked correctly and system-config-display (a symlink to consolehelper) generated a new xorg.conf.
THIS WAS AN ERRONEOUS CONFIGURATION FILE.
In the second Section "Device" it inserted "Screen 1". This is an error *unless* there is a second port on the video card and it is being used. In that case it is mandatory.
HTH, and ROR (Rots 'O Ruck, as opposed to LOL :-)
Well, didn't get it on the net within a reasonable (? excessive knowing me) number of searches and threads read. So I decided to make my own luck.
Genetically, I'm predisposed to banging heads (usually my own, occasionally heads of others) against brick walls. So I naturally started reading man pages. I guess I'm masochistic to some degree.
Anyway, about the third one I looked at, xorg.conf, it started laying out the options and their meanings.
As soon as I saw the description of the "Screen" parameter, I knew because that card I added doesn't have a second port. The primary card does have the standard analogue, DVI and S-video outputs. Maybe the configurator is not intelligent enough to discern between the two cards when they are both the same chip sets.
Anyway, hurdle 1 cleared. Now to get it to do what I want it too - spread one view port across the two monitors.
Thanks to all those who responded and tried to help.
If anyone would test and confirm this is not site-specific, I will post a bug on it. I'll also be doing this on my 5.2 in the near future. I'll be interested to see if the bug exists there also.
mhr
<snip sig stuff>
On Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 06:03:16AM -0400, William L. Maltby wrote:
Q1: Anyone have a two video card CentOS 4.6 setup working?
A few years ago I worked on a setup for an accelerator control room where multi-monitor was essential. After many iterations, we settled on nVidia NVS 400 quadro cards, a couple machines having 2 of these cards and driving 8 monitors (@ 1280x1024 that's 5120x2048 desktop). All this was on SL 4.2 I think.
During testing with various cards (Matrox, ATI Radeon, nVidia) I do recall having all sorts of problems getting 2 ATI cards to work together in one machine. I think I eventually found some documentation (not sure where :-( ) that pointed to an issue where the second ATI card did not initialize properly. In fact, I seem to recall an ATI card would not initialize properly unless it was the primary video card, ie the ATI Radeon 7500 PCI needed to be set as primary in the bios over the Matrox G450 AGP in order for both to work.
Q2: Is it working in CentOS 5?
Did not try, and now am in a new job.
Q3: Anyone see something I'm doing wrong? Suggestions?
After testing the nVidia NVS 400's and settling on them, I did not pursue any further. Sorry.
Good luck. Chris -- Chris Payne chris.payne@triumf.ca TRIUMF ATLAS Tier-1 System Administrator - Networking TRIUMF +1 604 222 7554 4004 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T2A3, CANADA
On Tue, 2008-07-22 at 10:43 -0700, Chris Payne wrote:
On Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 06:03:16AM -0400, William L. Maltby wrote:
Q1: Anyone have a two video card CentOS 4.6 setup working?
<snip>
During testing with various cards (Matrox, ATI Radeon, nVidia) I do recall having all sorts of problems getting 2 ATI cards to work together in one machine. I think I eventually found some documentation (not sure where :-( ) that pointed to an issue where the second ATI card did not initialize properly. In fact, I seem to recall an ATI card would not initialize properly unless it was the primary video card, ie the ATI Radeon 7500 PCI needed to be set as primary in the bios over the Matrox G450 AGP in order for both to work.
Well, that offers hope if I decide to stick it in the machine with the Nvidia. Also, I've and old Diamond S3-based card I could pair up with one of the Radeons, set the Radeon as primary and see what happens (if I can set it in the BIOS - I looked and don't recall seeing a setting for it). If the BIOS has no setting, I could swap slots and see what happens.
Thanks for the thought.
<snip> -- Chris Payne chris.payne@triumf.ca <snip sig stuff>
Thanks for the time and effort Chris!
on 7-22-2008 11:55 AM William L. Maltby spake the following:
On Tue, 2008-07-22 at 10:43 -0700, Chris Payne wrote:
On Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 06:03:16AM -0400, William L. Maltby wrote:
Q1: Anyone have a two video card CentOS 4.6 setup working?
<snip>
During testing with various cards (Matrox, ATI Radeon, nVidia) I do recall having all sorts of problems getting 2 ATI cards to work together in one machine. I think I eventually found some documentation (not sure where :-( ) that pointed to an issue where the second ATI card did not initialize properly. In fact, I seem to recall an ATI card would not initialize properly unless it was the primary video card, ie the ATI Radeon 7500 PCI needed to be set as primary in the bios over the Matrox G450 AGP in order for both to work.
Well, that offers hope if I decide to stick it in the machine with the Nvidia. Also, I've and old Diamond S3-based card I could pair up with one of the Radeons, set the Radeon as primary and see what happens (if I can set it in the BIOS - I looked and don't recall seeing a setting for it). If the BIOS has no setting, I could swap slots and see what happens.
You usually have a setting like "Init display first" with choices of "AGP" or "PCI". WIth 2 PCI cards, I seem to remember it being judged by interrupt, but can't recall if the higher or lower interrupt wins. If for some reason the system sticks both PCI cards with the same interrupt, then all bets are off. (It probably wouldn't work too well anyway, as they would also try to access the same region of buffer space)
-
Alex -
Chris Payne -
Glenn -
MHR -
Scott Silva -
William L. Maltby