Arandir wrote:
>
> On Tue, 20 Jul 1999, Lang Zhi wrote:
> > Hi,
> > Can Linux or X11 support 2 or more graphics card at once , like the
> > Windoze98 idea ?
>
> You mean like "multihead". Sure. You can do whatever you want! (After all,
> you can have multiple people using the the same system simultaneously.) Take a
> look at "Xinerama", a project of Mandrake (of E fame). You can drag windows from
> screen A to screen B. Xinerama is supposed to be included in XFree86 4.0. I
> don't know how to do it, but a slightly different thing I've seen is having a
> monitor for "X", and another monochrome monitor for a console.
>
> Not being able to afford the luxury of a superflous (for me) monitor, I don't
> have any details.
There is quite a bit of information about this on the Xi Graphics
web site http://www.xig.com makers of Accelerated X, a competitor
to XFree86.
But in a nutshell, it sounds easy provided you have either:
1. A VGA card and a Monochrome MGA card. This should work with
*most* computers, and it should work with the present XFree86
as well.
2. Two compatible VGA cards. There are only a few that will
work. Apparently they are special in that most VGA cards will
do only one i/o and interrupt, whereas the special cards can be
set with jumpers to use a different i/o and interrupt. With
this setup, and the Multiheaded software from Xi Graphics, you
can have two color monitors (and presumably two keyboards and
either one or two users etc).
If I may be so bold as to make a suggestion. I would not do
the Multiheaded twin VGA. It sounds expensive and I bet thate
there are going to be quirks. For instance, I cannot but
imagine that each X windows application will need to be told
which display to use, etc.
Instead, I would use two computers networked together. With
Xwindows running in both, you can have computer B display
programs running in A. This is standard X-Windows, and is
supported with the hardware you now have. Easiest way to
do this is with ssh although rlogin and telnet may work.
For instance, say I am sitting at computer B, and want to
run Netscape in computer A but display it in B.
I open an xterm in B, and ssh to A and start the program.
promptB $ ssh machineA.com
password: peanut
promptA $ netscape &
and presto, Netscape displays on B, not A.
In fact, machine A does not even need to be running X...or
have X windows installed.
It works "satisfactorily" with a 10 mbps ethernet, but is
really truly wonderful with 100 mbps ethernet or those fiber
optic network cards.
Think carefully about this because the cost of 100 mbps
ethernet cards is a lot less than the two special VGA cards
you will need for the dual-headed computer, and the flexibility
is a lot better. Just make sure to use a 100 mbps crossover
cable or a 100 mbps hub and verify you have a useful 100 mbps
link. A lot of machines that have 100 cards only put out 10
for one reason or another.
--
Ramon Gandia ================= Sysadmin ================ Nook Net
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