On Wed, 24 Nov 2004, David Dawes wrote:
I've been reworking the multi-monitor configuration support that I started a while ago, and I have a patch relative to the latest XFree86 snapshot (4.4.99.17) that implements it. This provides a better way of handling the multi-monitor configuration than the current "mergedfb" methods. It does so by allowing multiple Monitor entries in the Screen sections, and allowing per-Monitor Display subsections for providing per-monitor parameters.
The patch implements the configuration changes and some helper functions that drivers can use to access the new data. The implementation is backward-compatible in the sense that existing drivers will continue to function without knowledge of these changes.
An example of how the configuration looks is as follows:
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Multi-Monitor Demo Screen"
Device "Multi-Monitor Device 1"
Monitor 1 "My Monitor"
Monitor 2 "My Monitor"
Monitor 3 "My Other Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "Screen Option" "Value"
SubSection "Display"
Monitor 1
Modes "1024x768" "800x600"
Virtual 1024 768
Option "MonitorOption" "val1"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Monitor 2
Modes "1280x1024"
Option "MonitorOption" "val2"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Monitor 3
Modes "1600x1200"
Option "MonitorOption" "val3"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
# Screen-wide display parameters
EndSubSection
EndSection
Although my broader goal is to eliminate the need for complete static configuration, this patch also serves to provide associations between the relevant data internally in a more consistent way than is used for the current multi-monitor solutions.
The patch is available at:
http://www.x-oz.com/multimonconfig-1.0.diff.gz
Comments and feedback are welcome.
I gather the main intent is to associate monitor sections with display subsections, rather than screen sections. The driver would then decide which display subsection(s) to activate. Correct?
If so, what are these monitor numbers for? It seems more intuitive to simply name a monitor in a display subsection and have that specification override the monitor in the screen section.
Also, the notion of a monitor-specific virtual resolution (in a multimon situation) confuses me a bit, as virtual resolutions are screen attributes. I assume a screen section still represents a single X screen, so this confusion arises with other attributes as well (depth, default visual, etc.).
Or is the driver expected to somehow meld the display subsections it activates before presenting the screen to DIX? Or, perhaps, more screen attributes are to be used to decide which display subsections to activate?
I think setting policy is unavoidable if we still want consistent behaviour amongst drivers.
Marc.
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