Re: [SLUG] Dual head question
This one time, at band camp, Kevin Saenz wrote: I would like to configure my machine so that can have 2 monitors hanging off one machine. Am I correct in assuming that I would need to buy another video card which will send signals to the second monitor? Would I experience some issue with running pci and agp graphic together? Ideally I would need to have identical graphic cards. Or are there cards that have 2 monitor outputs? Yes to all the above. I started multihead by using an old PCI card next to an AGP card and it worked well. The PCI card was of course incredible slow and thus doing anything on the second head was painful, but it worked. Since then I've gotten myself a Matrox G400Max card which has two video outs, and is supported well under Linux and XFree86 for both 3d acceleration and dualhead. At work I use a Matrox G450 in dualhead mode. The matrox drivers, however, do not support both hardware accelerated 3D and dualhead at the same time, I have a feeling that this is a restriction in the hardware. If you have two cards, then you will be able to do dualhead and hardware acceleration at the same time; but unless you have two AGP ports on your motherboard, you are going to find that one card is going to suck. Finding PCI graphics cards these days is going to be difficult too. Second hand stalls at computer markets will be the best bet; but quality and performance will certainly be out of the picture. I believe James Gregory is running a recent Nvidia card with dualhead at home, though I may be wrong. I am also lead to believe that these new fangled DVI video cards are capable of driving two VGA plugs off of one DVI port; which means on a dual DVI card you can run 4 monitors! I currently have nothing to back that up except for something I heard once, so I'd appreciate some more information about that. Dual head cards start at about $300 and can go up to the debts of small nations. -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://spacepants.org/jaq.gpg -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] Dual head question
quote who=Jan Schmidt There were some patches on the dri-devel mailing list recently to have 3D work across both desktops on dual-output cards like this. Last time I saw them, they worked, with wrinkles. It may appear in the DRI trunk sometime soon, or not. On G400-and-similar chipsets? That would basically mean software 3d on the second head (ughily slow), as they can't do hardware accelerated 2d or 3d at all. Some other dual head cards are basically two separate video chipsets and outputs on the one card, so they should be fine. - Jeff -- linux.conf.au 2004: Adelaide, Australia http://lca2004.linux.org.au/ Everything I knew about TCP/IP I had downloaded the same day I started hacking the net code. - Alan Cox -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] Dual head question
At 12:49 pm, Wednesday, August 13 2003, Dave Airlie mumbled: my Nvidia 3ds away fine, the other card of course doesn't.. I'm not sure you can get a secondary card to do 3d and Xinerama... I might be getting a PCI radeon soon.. not sure.. Radeons completly refuse to do DRI when Xinerama is enabled. -- Steve StevenK Overfiend: She could translate most of it, but since Polish grammar is so different from English, she said where she would place the technical terms wouldn't probably make sense. StevenK Er, s/\(wouldn't\) \(probably\)/\2 \1/ Overfiend StevenK: hey, cool; most complex sed expression I've seen used to correct oneself on IRC :) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] Dual head question
On Wed, Aug 13, 2003 at 02:39:41PM +1000, Jan Schmidt wrote: quote who=Jeff Waugh quote who=Jan Schmidt There were some patches on the dri-devel mailing list recently to have 3D work across both desktops on dual-output cards like this. Last time I saw them, they worked, with wrinkles. It may appear in the DRI trunk sometime soon, or not. On G400-and-similar chipsets? That would basically mean software 3d on the second head (ughily slow), as they can't do hardware accelerated 2d or 3d at all. Some other dual head cards are basically two separate video chipsets and outputs on the one card, so they should be fine. No idea, I just remember seeing a discussion of using a single large framebuffer for both viewports and then setting up the card to send a portion out each interface, so you would get the same hardware acceleration on both screens. It only worked for cards with 2 outputs, i.e. not multiple cards, and I can't remember which cards they were talking about. This is the way that nvidia is set up. They can overlap partially or completely. cheers, Woody -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] Dual head question
quote who=Jeff Waugh quote who=Jan Schmidt There were some patches on the dri-devel mailing list recently to have 3D work across both desktops on dual-output cards like this. Last time I saw them, they worked, with wrinkles. It may appear in the DRI trunk sometime soon, or not. On G400-and-similar chipsets? That would basically mean software 3d on the second head (ughily slow), as they can't do hardware accelerated 2d or 3d at all. Some other dual head cards are basically two separate video chipsets and outputs on the one card, so they should be fine. No idea, I just remember seeing a discussion of using a single large framebuffer for both viewports and then setting up the card to send a portion out each interface, so you would get the same hardware acceleration on both screens. It only worked for cards with 2 outputs, i.e. not multiple cards, and I can't remember which cards they were talking about. J. -- Jan Schmidt [EMAIL PROTECTED] Karaoke bars combine two of the nation's greatest evils: people who shouldn't drink with people who shouldn't sing. -Tom Dreesen -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] Dual head question
Quite a few cards support dual (matrox does a triple) head on card, I have a GeForce4 MX 440 which has tv out which I have configured as a second monitor. You can get say a LeadTek GeForce4 4200 MyVivo for about $230 which has t monitor outputs (DVI and VGA) and TV in and out. With the nvidia binary drivers you can specify just about any configuration you could think of (clone, zoom, adjacent) You can even run 2 X servers on the one card which would let two people use the computer independantly if you had enough keyboards and mice I guess. It can treats the two screens as one X display, so you don't need Xinerama. It's very nice to use when you have two monitors. Even good TVs start to look blurry at about 800x600. cheers, Woody On Wed, Aug 13, 2003 at 11:58:37AM +1000, Jon Biddell wrote: Try having a look at the Xinerama FAQ at TLDP - http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Xinerama-HOWTO/ Jon -= -Original Message- -= From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -= [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Pete de Zwart -= Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2003 11:39 AM -= To: Kevin Saenz -= Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -= Subject: Re: [SLUG] Dual head question -= -= -= What video cards were you considering on using? -= -= Matrox has some nice dual headed cards. -= -= NVidia only likes doing dual head set up with other NVidia -= cards, if you can prove me wrong, please let me know how you did it. -= http://www.tldp.org/ has some good documents about it. Pete de Zwart. Around about 1104h 13/08/2003, Kevin Saenz emitted the following wisdom: I would like to configure my machine so that can have 2 monitors hanging off one machine. Am I correct in assuming that I would need to buy another video card which will send signals to the second monitor? Would I experience some issue with running pci and agp graphic together? Ideally I would need to have identical graphic cards. Or are there cards that have 2 monitor outputs? Matrox, or ATI would be the way to go for dual head on one card. -- The real cause of your computer problem according to the BOFH: Unfortunately we have run out of bits/bytes/whatever. Don't worry, the next supply will be coming next week. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug -- Woody -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] Dual head question
Around about 0258h 13/08/2003, Dave Airlie emitted the following wisdom: I've got my Nvidia dual heading with an el-cheapo SiS PCI card, Are you using the nvidia driver or the nv driver? I've found that the nvidia driver segfaults when probing the other cards. didn't do anything special.. using the nvidia drivers and XFree86 4.2 from RH80 and the SiS driver from XFree4.2...Xinerama works.. I've noticed some odd issue with xemacs that I'm blaming on Xinerama, but it might be something else.. So you got it doing 3D in a multi headed configuration with other cards Could you be so kind as to post the perternant sections of your conf file to the list? Pete de Zwart. -- The real cause of your computer problem according to the BOFH: it has Intel Inside -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] Dual head question
quote who=Jeff Waugh quote who=Jamie Wilkinson Since then I've gotten myself a Matrox G400Max card which has two video outs, and is supported well under Linux and XFree86 for both 3d acceleration and dualhead. At work I use a Matrox G450 in dualhead mode. The matrox drivers, however, do not support both hardware accelerated 3D and dualhead at the same time, I have a feeling that this is a restriction in the hardware. Yeah, the second head is just a hack, basically using a chunk of memory to fake a second output, which means you can't do anything funky with it. Works well enough in most cases, though. There were some patches on the dri-devel mailing list recently to have 3D work across both desktops on dual-output cards like this. Last time I saw them, they worked, with wrinkles. It may appear in the DRI trunk sometime soon, or not. J. -- Jan Schmidt [EMAIL PROTECTED] I came for the quality. I stayed for the freedom. -- Sean Neakums -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] Dual head question
At 11:40 am, Wednesday, August 13 2003, Pete de Zwart mumbled: NVidia only likes doing dual head set up with other NVidia cards, if you can prove me wrong, please let me know how you did it. I had a GeForce4 AGP and a Radeon 7000 PCI hanging off my workstation, working just fine. Using the binary-only drivers for the NVidia, and the the ati driver for X 4.2. Cheers, -- Steve * StevenK laughs at Joy's connection. * Joy spits on StevenK * StevenK sees the spit coming at him slowly and ducks in time. jaiger StevenK: how did you do that? you moved like *them* StevenK jaiger: Can you fly that thing? *points* jaiger not yet jaiger apt-get install libpilot-chopper -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] Dual head question
This one time, at band camp, Jeff Waugh wrote: quote who=Jan Schmidt There were some patches on the dri-devel mailing list recently to have 3D work across both desktops on dual-output cards like this. Last time I saw them, they worked, with wrinkles. It may appear in the DRI trunk sometime soon, or not. On G400-and-similar chipsets? That would basically mean software 3d on the second head (ughily slow), as they can't do hardware accelerated 2d or 3d at all. Some other dual head cards are basically two separate video chipsets and outputs on the one card, so they should be fine. Well currently I have software 3D on both heads, and movies only play on the first head because of some direct draw thing that just doesn't like xinerama (probably due to the way xinerama works, it's not writing to the window on both screens). So, having hardware 3D on head #1 and software on head #2 is still a step up. And that way I can play games *and* keep my request tracker window visible at the same time, and feign work ;-) -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://spacepants.org/jaq.gpg -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] Dual head question
I've got my Nvidia dual heading with an el-cheapo SiS PCI card, didn't do anything special.. using the nvidia drivers and XFree86 4.2 from RH80 and the SiS driver from XFree4.2...Xinerama works.. I've noticed some odd issue with xemacs that I'm blaming on Xinerama, but it might be something else.. Dave. On Wed, 13 Aug 2003, Pete de Zwart wrote: What video cards were you considering on using? Matrox has some nice dual headed cards. NVidia only likes doing dual head set up with other NVidia cards, if you can prove me wrong, please let me know how you did it. http://www.tldp.org/ has some good documents about it. Pete de Zwart. Around about 1104h 13/08/2003, Kevin Saenz emitted the following wisdom: I would like to configure my machine so that can have 2 monitors hanging off one machine. Am I correct in assuming that I would need to buy another video card which will send signals to the second monitor? Would I experience some issue with running pci and agp graphic together? Ideally I would need to have identical graphic cards. Or are there cards that have 2 monitor outputs? Matrox, or ATI would be the way to go for dual head on one card. -- David Airlie, Software Engineer http://www.skynet.ie/~airlied / [EMAIL PROTECTED] pam_smb / Linux DECstation / Linux VAX / ILUG person -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
RE: [SLUG] Dual head question
Kevin - I'm running PCI and AGP together under Ahem Evilware XP and it works fine. Under Linux I believe you have to look at the Xinerama extensions to X - which I haven't been able to get working yet. Jon -= -Original Message- -= From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -= [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Kevin Saenz -= Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2003 11:04 AM -= To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -= Subject: [SLUG] Dual head question -= -= -= I would like to configure my machine so that can have 2 -= monitors hanging off one machine. -= Am I correct in assuming that I would need to buy another -= video card which will send signals to the second monitor? -= Would I experience some issue with running pci and agp -= graphic together? Ideally I would need to have identical -= graphic cards. Or are there cards that have 2 monitor outputs? -= -= -- -= SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ -= More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug -= -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
RE: [SLUG] Dual head question
Try having a look at the Xinerama FAQ at TLDP - http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Xinerama-HOWTO/ Jon -= -Original Message- -= From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -= [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Pete de Zwart -= Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2003 11:39 AM -= To: Kevin Saenz -= Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -= Subject: Re: [SLUG] Dual head question -= -= -= What video cards were you considering on using? -= -= Matrox has some nice dual headed cards. -= -= NVidia only likes doing dual head set up with other NVidia -= cards, if you can prove me wrong, please let me know how you did it. -= http://www.tldp.org/ has some good documents about it. Pete de Zwart. Around about 1104h 13/08/2003, Kevin Saenz emitted the following wisdom: I would like to configure my machine so that can have 2 monitors hanging off one machine. Am I correct in assuming that I would need to buy another video card which will send signals to the second monitor? Would I experience some issue with running pci and agp graphic together? Ideally I would need to have identical graphic cards. Or are there cards that have 2 monitor outputs? Matrox, or ATI would be the way to go for dual head on one card. -- The real cause of your computer problem according to the BOFH: Unfortunately we have run out of bits/bytes/whatever. Don't worry, the next supply will be coming next week. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] Dual head question
quote who=Anthony Wood With the nvidia binary drivers you can specify just about any configuration you could think of (clone, zoom, adjacent) You can even run 2 X servers on the one card which would let two people use the computer independantly if you had enough keyboards and mice I guess. It can treats the two screens as one X display, so you don't need Xinerama. Aha, someone who knows about Nvidia stuff. :-) Do you know if the Free nv driver can support multihead (sans all the proprietary Nvidia features)? (I'm stuck battling with an Nforce2 box at the moment. It amazes me that even the NIC driver is proprietary. Who cares about 10/100 NIC trade secrets anymore?!) :-) - Jeff -- linux.conf.au 2004: Adelaide, Australia http://lca2004.linux.org.au/ The Motif interface, with chunkier controls, felt more like a ghetto blaster. - Liam Quin -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] Dual head question
quote who=Jamie Wilkinson Since then I've gotten myself a Matrox G400Max card which has two video outs, and is supported well under Linux and XFree86 for both 3d acceleration and dualhead. At work I use a Matrox G450 in dualhead mode. The matrox drivers, however, do not support both hardware accelerated 3D and dualhead at the same time, I have a feeling that this is a restriction in the hardware. Yeah, the second head is just a hack, basically using a chunk of memory to fake a second output, which means you can't do anything funky with it. Works well enough in most cases, though. I am also lead to believe that these new fangled DVI video cards are capable of driving two VGA plugs off of one DVI port; which means on a dual DVI card you can run 4 monitors! I currently have nothing to back that up except for something I heard once, so I'd appreciate some more information about that. It's not something you get automagically, the hardware has to support it. The new Matrox Parhalia (or whatever) cards have one DVI and one VGA socket; you can plug a special cable into the DVI to let you drive two VGAs [1]. That's probably what you heard once. ;-) - Jeff [1] Which they think is very cool for playing FPS games and reading PDFs and web pages, or large spreadsheets, which sounds like a hokey sales pitch to get business users to upgrade. ;-) Oh, they also do hardware-accelerated text anti-aliasing, which also sounds horrifically hokey. But I still have a love for Matrox. ;-) -- linux.conf.au 2004: Adelaide, Australia http://lca2004.linux.org.au/ The Irish were next, being the only people who could credibly be accused of lowering the tone of a society of convicts. - Guy Rundle -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] Dual head question
What video cards were you considering on using? Matrox has some nice dual headed cards. NVidia only likes doing dual head set up with other NVidia cards, if you can prove me wrong, please let me know how you did it. http://www.tldp.org/ has some good documents about it. Pete de Zwart. Around about 1104h 13/08/2003, Kevin Saenz emitted the following wisdom: I would like to configure my machine so that can have 2 monitors hanging off one machine. Am I correct in assuming that I would need to buy another video card which will send signals to the second monitor? Would I experience some issue with running pci and agp graphic together? Ideally I would need to have identical graphic cards. Or are there cards that have 2 monitor outputs? Matrox, or ATI would be the way to go for dual head on one card. -- The real cause of your computer problem according to the BOFH: Unfortunately we have run out of bits/bytes/whatever. Don't worry, the next supply will be coming next week. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
