Dual Monitor (At Wits End!)

[Rob Genung]

Hello All. I have been using Ubuntu Linux for about 3 months now (with other flavours before that). I was using it quite sucessfully. However, I do online school, and decided I wanted another monitor so that notes could be on one, work on another. You are probably going to hate me for saying this, but it worked beautifully in Windows XP after some BIOS tweaking.

I have a S3 ViRGE DX PCI card, and a Intel 82845G/GL (i810) Onboard Graphics Controller. The BIOS is set to boot the S3 ViRGE as primary. If it doesn't do that, the S3 card does not initialize, as it needs to have the BIOS boot through it (some strange thing about onboard BIOS that I don't quite understand).

So as it is, when I turn on my computer, the BIOS and GRUB are shown through the S3 ViRGE and its monitor (which is on the right hand side). When I boot into Windows, the Windows splash screen goes on the S3 ViRGE, and then the Welcome screen appears on the 82845.

Now I want the same setup for Ubuntu (Breezy, of course). I have been hacking away at my xorg.conf file for a long time now, and have finally gotten some X to work. However, it is at 800x600 through the S3 ViRGE only. The 82845 and the Samsung monitor attached are blank, as if the computer is off, and the whole time X is starting they show no signs of starting.

My xorg.conf file is as follows:

# /etc/X11/xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the /etc/X11/xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man /etc/X11/xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
# sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "Files"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/misc"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/cyrillic"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/CID"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi"
# paths to defoma fonts
FontPath "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
FontPath "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/CID"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "GLcore"
Load "i2c"
Load "bitmap"
Load "ddc"
Load "dri"
Load "extmod"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
Load "int10"
Load "type1"
Load "vbe"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "kbd"
Option "CoreKeyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc104"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "virge"
Driver "vesa"
BusID "PCI:1:2:0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "intel"
Driver "i810"
BusId "PCI:0:2:0"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "orchestra"
Option "DPMS"
HorizSync 30-40
VertRefresh 50-90
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "samsung"
Option "DPMS"
HorizSync 30-70
VertRefresh 50-160
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "main"
Device "intel"
Monitor "samsung"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "second"
Device "virge"
Monitor "orchestra"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Option "Xinerama" "on"
Screen 0 "main" 0 0
Screen 1 "second" RightOf "main"
Screen "main"
InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
InputDevice "Configured Mouse"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection

Now I am sure I am missing something in my xorg, or have done something wrong. If it helps, my specs are:

Intel D845GBV Motherboard
Pentium 4 1.60A processor
256MB DDR RAM
Intel 82845G/GL Onboard Graphics
S3 ViRGE DX Graphics
Intel PRO 10/100 Integrated LAN
Intel 537 Modem <-- That is a pain to get working too, I have given up on it!
ATI TV Wonder VE <-- Worked under Mandrake and SuSE, doesn't under Ubuntu
Samsung Syncmaster 750s 17" monitor <--Left hand, what I want to be main
Orchestra Bugle-14 14" monitor <--Right hand, connect to S3

So that is my predicament, my drama, and my story! Any help is greatly appreciated...I am getting too accustomed to Windows for my own tastes, but everything just fits so nicely!

Thanks in Advance for your help!

Rob Genung

[camj]

Unfortunately for me ive had no luck with dual monitors either, after spending hours trying to figure out and a few days without responses on here I tried fedora.

Mine is the same setup apart from I have two head's on the same card. I however, get a picture on the second display, but its just a mirror of the first.

Good luck :)

[ngms27]

Here's my working dual monitor setup. I think the problem is that you have two monitor and two screen sections:

Section "Files"
FontPath "unix/:7100" # local font server
# if the local font server has problems, we can fall back on these
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/CID"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi"
# paths to defoma fonts
FontPath "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
FontPath "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/CID"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "bitmap"
Load "dbe"
Load "ddc"
Load "dri"
Load "extmod"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
Load "int10"
Load "record"
Load "type1"
Load "vbe"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "keyboard"
Option "CoreKeyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "gb"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "NVIDIA Corporation NV18 [GeForce4 MX - nForce GPU]"
Driver "nvidia"
BusID "PCI:2:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Acer AL1912"
Option "DPMS"
HorizSync 24-80
VertRefresh 49-75
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "NVIDIA Corporation NV18 [GeForce4 MX - nForce GPU]"
Monitor "Acer AL1912"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "NvAGP" "0"
Option "HWCursor" "true"
Option "ConnectedMonitor" "CRT-0, CRT-1"
Option "TwinView" "true"
Option "SecondMonitorHorizSync" "31.5 - 81"
Option "SecondMonitorVertRefresh" "75"
Option "MetaModes" "1280x1024, 1024x768; 1280x1024, 1280x1024; 1024x768, 1024x768; 1024x768, 800x600"
Option "TwinViewOrientation" "LeftOf"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 1
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 4
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection



Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen 0 "Default Screen"
InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
InputDevice "Configured Mouse"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection


HTH

JonnyT

[Leopard]

I got mine working, but I have a dual-head card:

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=447036&posted=1#post447036

[Rob Genung]

Thanks for the replies.

Unfortunately I have not had a chance to try any of them. I have recently been very busy with school and other computer stuff (like switching from XP Pro to Server 2003 Enterprise - much faster than XP, oddly enough...).

I will probably have time to reinstall Ubuntu and test some of the new ideas I was given on the weekend.

When I do I will let you know how it went!

[Rob Genung]

Okay, so I have found some spare time. I am trying to get 2 video cards, one onboard, one pci to have a spanned "xinerama" desktop. I cannot use twinview because I do not have nVidia.

Since later on I will have some spare time, I am going to install SuSE 10. SaX2 should spit out a good Xorg.conf file for me, and I will take that and try to make it work with Ubuntu. If anything it will be an interesting experiment.

The problem is I have used 2 monitors now, and I don't want to go back to using 1. It is easier with 2.

[Rob Genung]

UPDATE

Bad news seems to be everywhere with this dual monitor thing.

I installed SUSE...Nothing.

I installed Fedora...Nothing.

However, Fedora did shine some light on my problem. You see, when Fedora boots up it shows something to be. Every distro I tried showed some sort of error message, but I never got a good chance to look at it. However, Fedora gave me a good look at it - and it looked the same as all the other error messages. This error message said:

Cannot allocate resource region 0 of device 0:2:0.

A PCI bus scan indicated that 0:2:0 is my Intel video adapter!

So I went into the BIOS to switch the primary video device. It was set to PCI (the S3 ViRGE is the PCI card). I switched it to AGP (which is, aparantly, the onboard card).

When I booted back into Fedora, I got the error message that said:

Cannot allocate resource region 0 of device 1:2:0...

1:2:0 IS THE S3 VIRGE!

So, I reinstalled Ubuntu, and got identical error messages (it was incredibly hard to see them thought, it went too fast!).

So the problem is when the S3 is the primary boot device (as required for Windows to work with dual monitors, and for the S3 card to "boot up") the Intel adapter cannot allocate resource region 0. When the Intel is the primary video adapter, the S3 cannot allocate resource region 0.

Do I have to manually tell it to allocate resources? Do I have to tell it, I don't know, activate the card or something?

It is starting too look like S3 ViRGE does not mix with Intel onboard cards too well - if at all. Any insight into this problem (which is consistent with all 2.6.x kernels) or solutions on how to fix it would be greatly appreciated!

[sleepkreep]

Here's how you do it. First you need to get the PCI bus ID for your cards. Do that with a simple lspci . It will give you output looking like this:

0000:00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corp. 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) SMBus Controller (rev 02)
0000:00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 02)
0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon RV100 QY [Radeon 7000/VE]

The key things to look for are of course your cards. Now look at the bus ID:

0000:01:00.0

Just concentrate on the last part : 01:00.0

Drop any zeros that are at the beginning, so : 1:00.0

Ok, now you have the PCI ID for you cards. Me personally I have an integrated Intel i810 and a PCI ATI radeon. You can use anything though.

Now let's set up that pesky xorg.conf file. Ignore every section except for device, screen, monitor, and serverlayout. Now create a new device section. This new device will be your new card. It should look something like this:

Section "Device
Identifier "ati radeon"
Driver "radeon"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
Option "BusType" "PCI"
Option "RenderAccel" "true"
Option "OpenGLOverlay" "1"
Option "EnablePageFlip" "true"
Option "MergedFB" "On"
EndSection

Don't forget the BusID with the PCI: in front of the number we determined earlier.
Now let's create a new monitor section. Depending on your monitor you will have different configurations. Since both my monitors are the same, I just copied the monitor section and changed the Identifier. Don't forget to change the Identifier! So it should look like this:

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "New Monitor"
Option "DPMS"
HorizSync 30-65
VertRefresh 50-75
EndSection

Now let's create a new screen section. Create the screen section with a proper Identifier. Next create the line Device with the Identifier of your new device section. VERY IMPORTANT - You must use the same DefaultDepth as your other screen section. So just copy the Depth section of the first screen section. You only have to copy the DefaultDepth of the first screen section. So it should look like this:

Section "Screen"
Identifier "New Screen"
Device "ati radeon"
Monitor "New Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Now for the severlayout section. This is actually pretty easy. DO NOT create a new serverlayout section! We just have to modify the one that's already there. First we modify the Screen option to use 0s and 1s to identify the primary and secondary card. Setup Screen 0 to the Identifier of the Screen section that was already there. Next create a Screen 1 and set it to the identifier of the Screen section we created earlier. On the same line add "RightOf" and then the identifer of Screen 0. So it would look like:

Screen 0 "Default Screen"
Screen 1 "New Screen" RightOf "Default Screen"

Next under the ServerLayour Section add:
Option "Xinerama" "on"

And you're done! Here is the whole thing if you got confused:

# /etc/X11/xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file)

Section "Files"
FontPath "unix/:7100" # local font server
# if the local font server has problems, we can fall back on these
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/CID"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi"
# paths to defoma fonts
FontPath "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
FontPath "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/CID"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "bitmap"
Load "dbe"
Load "ddc"
Load "dri"
Load "extmod"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
Load "int10"
Load "record"
Load "type1"
Load "vbe"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "keyboard"
Option "CoreKeyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc104"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Intel Corporation 82865G Integrated Graphics Device"
Driver "i810"
BusID "PCI:0:2:0"
EndSection

Section "Device
Identifier "ati radeon"
Driver "radeon"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
Option "BusType" "PCI"
Option "RenderAccel" "true"
Option "OpenGLOverlay" "1"
Option "EnablePageFlip" "true"
Option "MergedFB" "On"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Generic Monitor"
Option "DPMS"
HorizSync 30-65
VertRefresh 50-75
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "New Monitor"
Option "DPMS"
HorizSync 30-65
VertRefresh 50-75
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "Intel Corporation 82865G Integrated Graphics Device"
Monitor "Generic Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 1
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 4
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "New Screen"
Device "ati radeon"
Monitor "New Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen 0 "Default Screen"
Screen 1 "New Screen" RightOf "Default Screen"

Option "Xinerama" "on"

InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
InputDevice "Configured Mouse"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection

[hrs]

Hi guys
I also experienced problems with the S3 video card, nor Ubuntu or Debian accepted it for Xserver, I managed to install the graphics with DSL (damn small linux), then I got new video cards and now I run dual monitors

I came to the same conclusion, somthing wrong with the S3. In the we I get home and if I find time I will assemble i pc for a friend, I'll try again with the S3, if something goes I'll let you know