Newbie question

[EMTChristian]

Hello my name is Christian and I am an extreme newbie.

Back story first

About 2 months ago I started having issues with snow leopard. Basically my graphics were fine for 2 weeks when I installed, then my screens went black. After a lot of talking with apple and trouble shooting I bought a new Ati Radeon HD 4870 with a Dvi port and a mini port for monitors.

Using the leopard boot disk (10.5.1) I was able to get one screen working but not the mini port. Every time I tried to update anything system software related my screen would go dark again and hibernate. Basic frustration I am sure you can image. A friend of mine suggested I try this operating system.

So I am, my old card was a Geforce 7300 GT I believe, after I installed this software, I tried putting that in for giggles and I got mirror desktops, I poked around a bit on the web and forums and updated from the synaptic updater in admin. After I updated my screens went black again. Fun. I put the Ati Radeon back in and went back to my old configuration and currently using a single screen again. I would really like to have both monitors back. Of course I would like to be able to use programs like WOW and Second life as well.

So I guess the question is. Is there a walk through available or can somebody hold my hand and help me get both monitors running as well as some other programs?

Oh I also got Wine in, but I'll be fried if I can get it to work yet.

Thanks for reading my book.

- Christian

[linuxopjemac]

It looks like the current nVidia driver you are using gives the dual head problem, just like in OSX? Is that the right conclusion ?

I know that for nVidia there is this command to configure:

nvidia-xconfig

for the ATI catalyst driver there is this equivalent (ATI catalyst control center):

sudo amdcccle

[EMTChristian]

I tried both the nvidia-config and got
WARNING: Unable to locate/open X configuration file.


ERROR: Unable to write to directory '/etc/X11'.


The Sudo amdcccle got Command not found.

- Christian

[linuxopjemac]

What kind of card are you using now?

The first is a problem of permissions I think, try:
sudo nvidia-xconfig

The second, you don't have the ATI catalyst driver installed.

[EMTChristian]

Right now I have the Pro Mac version ATI Radeon HD 4870

Now I've downloaded the ATI Catalyst Center file twice, but I can't seem to find the command to install it. I will take a look for the ATI catalyst driver.

- Christian

[linuxopjemac]

sudo apt-get fglrx-amdcccle