How Do You Run Multiple Monitors On Linux

TJ213

Sep 9 2005, 12:52 AM

I have a Nvidia card on my desktop that allows me to run 2 montors on one card, which is great in windows, but when I go to linux, I can't figure out how to set it up that way (so it is extended, not cloned) I am running the last free distribution of Red Hat Linux. (which wouldn't even work with my video card at first, wierd)

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)

xboxrulz

Sep 9 2005, 02:17 AM

you may need Fedora Core 4, which it has the xorg X11 server, which is easier to configure. If you do have Fedora Core, install the Linux drivers for it. Then configure with nvidia-settings.

xboxrulz

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)

TJ213

Sep 9 2005, 02:30 AM

I heard that the Fedora Core wasn't stable, is this still true? If not, what do you think whould be the best distribution?

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)

vizskywalker

Sep 9 2005, 02:51 AM

Fedora Core 4 is the latest stable version, ersion 5 is still in developement and not stabel, but I run 4 and have few problems with it, but onyl because I'm new to Linux. And if you haven't started using Linux yet, definitely start wth RedHat or Fedora (they are essentially the same, Fedora is the newer RedHats) and then if you are not satisfied switch to Mandrke, SuSe or Ubuntu.

~Viz

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)

TJ213

Sep 9 2005, 03:02 AM

okay, thanks. When I stopped upgrading linux, fedora was still unstable. If I run 5, since it is unstable, might it also mess up my windows XP boot, or is that safe. Also, will the install for Fedora Core 4 take care of setting up a new dual boot, and let me delete or install over the old red hat partitions, since my desktop only has 200gig hard drive space (which I filled up in 5 weeks)

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)

vizskywalker

Sep 9 2005, 03:31 AM

As long as your entire HD is not filled with a windows partition, Core 4 installation can overwrite the others to make a dual boot very easily. Otherwise, you can manually run disk druid form redhat9 to do it (I don't remember the particulars, but the redhat site has a tutorial that is very helpful (install guide)). If you run Core 5, there is a .01% chance that it would mess up windows, but most likely, if you encounter a bug, it'd just cras Linux, however, if you aren't going to actively develop Core 5, don't download it, and go for Core 4, you can upgrade easily later.

~Viz

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)

mastercomputers

Sep 9 2005, 07:42 AM

Fedora Core 4 is not unstable, it's my main distribution I use and have been using FC since it's first core release, far greater improvement over RH9.

I feel Fedora is quite bloated though, but every installation I do with FC is minimal and then I just install what I want via the internet, so I have quite a clean FC4 with only the tools/programs I use in it.

When you install FC4, you will need to download the nvidia driver (I usually suggest updating your packages first via yum before installing additional things), the easiest would be grabbing the driver from rpm.livna.org and installing the RPM for it.

Have a look at http://www.fedorafaq.org/ which will help you get started, especially for multimedia side of things.

Going by memory, you'll get the nvidia configuration tool in the main System Tools menu if running a GUI, there should also be a commandline version of this tool, something like nvidia-*.

It will allow you to run dual monitors from what I've seen by looking through it. How successful it is? I am not sure, I've never tried it.

Cheers,

MC

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)

qwijibow

Sep 9 2005, 10:07 AM

This feature is called xinerama in linux.
programs you want to be abkle to use both monitors need to be comppiled with support for it.

its un-likely that such an old server distro would have been compiled with such a desktop feature.

google for xinerama, and how to add support to your distro.. in Gentoo, you would just add the word to your USE flags, but different distro's will do it different ways.

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)

hatim

Sep 15 2005, 12:20 PM

I have an NVIDIA GeFOrce 4 MX , builtin to my nforce2 motherboard. I am using Nvidia Drivers (one avialable on their site..)

atleast GeForce4 MX has a thing called TwinView. It is another way to create dual boot system for Nvidia cards with 2 outputs. The configuration of TwinView is fairly simple , but it will only work with the provided Nvidia drivers ..and not with built in drivers.

One bad point about twin view is that unlike well configured xinerama..it will split an OpenGl app in full screen ..like UT2004 into 2 halves. This is un-uasble on my system which has a 21 and 17 inch screen. Having said that here are some relevnt sections of my xorg.conf (or XF86Config file as it used to be called)

CODE

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "Unknown monitor"
HorizSync 31.5 - 67.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 75.0
Option "dpms"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "Videocard vendor"
BoardName "NVIDIA GeForce 4 MX (generic)"
Option "NvAgp" "1"
Option "NoLogo" "1"
BusID "PCI:3:0:0"
Screen 0
Option "TwinView"
Option "SecondMonitorHorizSync" "31-82"
Option "SecondMonitorVertRefresh" "55-120"
Option "TwinViewOrientation" "RightOf"
Option "MetaModes" "1280x1024,1024x768; 1024x768,1024x768"
Option "ConnectedMonitor" "crt,crt"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 16
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 16
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
#Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Group 0
Mode 0666
EndSection
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Screen0"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Note this is not the complete conf file. And also note my differnet resiolutions of two monitors in MetaModes. i have a 1280x1024 in left 21 inch monitor and 1024x768 in 17 inch right monitor.

Hope this helps.

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)