Tales of installation Woes Dual vid card dual monitor nvidia

[Lessss]

Ok I'm new to linux and this dual monitor thing is just a royal pain. There needs to be a recover GUI utility on your installation cds! Something that will restore the defaults of the installation for video card and software drivers for it without having to completely reinstall.

I've tried 4 different tutorials on how to set-up dual monitors and all 4 have left my system without a GUI. My not knowing enough about linux has left me unable to recover it thus needing to completely re-install and re-download updates. UGhh what a PAIN.

Any graphically based operating system must be capable of detecting the hardware installed in the machine without having to run special scripts.
I've an Asus VSTA 775 dual core with an Nvidia 6200 and Nvidia 8500

Product Name: 775Dual-VSTA Version: 1.00


(--) PCI:*(0@1:0:0) nVidia Corporation NV44A [GeForce 6200] rev 161, Mem @ 0xd8000000/0, 0xa0000000/0, 0xd7000000/0, BIOS @ 0x????????/131072
(--) PCI: (0@3:0:0) nVidia Corporation GeForce 8500 GT rev 161, Mem @ 0xde000000/0, 0xc0000000/0, 0xdc000000/0, I/O @ 0x0000cc00/0, BIOS @ 0x????????/131072


What I want is one desktop on both monitors with apps able to be moved between them (Twinview I think you call it). I want to run SFBOnline.com or run one app on one monitor and use my tv card on the other monitor.

[Lessss]

hmm just tried a single monitor setup activated recommend 177 nvidia driver - - reboot and - - no GUI.

[Lessss]

I tried this
sudo apt-get install nvidia-177-modaliases
sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx-177

it told me already installed

so I try 180 then back to 177

it tells me the primary device is not PCI WTF??

[Lessss]

Here is lspci

[Lessss]

Ok I ran the install inside windows to get some info then uninstalled it... this killed my XP MBR - I can recover that but now I need to figure how to put grub back in without reinstalling UBUNTU again.

The reason I don't weant to reinstallubuntu is because I stumbled on how to use the 173 driver.

Once the GUI was blown away by trying to install the driver inside ubuntu and rebooting I used
sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf
then used info from another post to edit the file for
Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
BusId "1:0:0"
Driver "nvidia"
Vendorname "nvidia corporation"
end section

Section "screen"
Identifier "screen0"
Device "device0"
Monitor "monitor0"
Defaultdepth 24
subsection "display"
depth 24
endsubsection
endsection

better resolution and GUI are working now.

Now to figure out how to input Grub again after fixing my XP MBR grrrr....
Then get the second monitor working

[Lessss]

Ok I reinstalled ubuntu again
I have the 177 driver running with graphic effects.

Upon boot I activated 177 and the progress bar didn't move as usual, eventually it went away, I deactivated 177 then reativated it but did not reboot. I did
sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf
and made the previous posts changes saved adn rebooted.
GUI comes up.

It's as if the activate deavticate isn't puttin the neede information into Xorg!! Thus the need to do it manually. Rights issue???


Ok Surprise System - Administration - - Nvidia X server now appears on menu - I open it and it is detecting the second monitor.
I activate it bu no twinview option so I use seperate X and try to save, It says unable to parse file but lets me view what the file would look like. So I open Xorg manually and re-write the file save and reboot

Xorg now looks like this.....

# xorg.conf (X.Org 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 xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man 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.
#
# Note that some configuration settings that could be done previously
# in this file, now are automatically configured by the server and settings
# here are ignored.
#
# 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

# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings
# nvidia-settings: version 1.0 (buildd@palmer) Mon Nov 3 08:46:46 UTC 2008

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout0"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
Screen 1 "Screen1" RightOf "Screen0"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "dbe"
Load "extmod"
Load "type1"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
Option "Xinerama" "0"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
# generated from default
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
# generated from default
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
# HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "SYM LCD TV"
HorizSync 30.0 - 85.0
VertRefresh 58.0 - 75.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
# HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
Identifier "Monitor1"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "Acer AT3201W"
HorizSync 30.0 - 80.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 85.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce 6200"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Device1"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce 8500 GT"
BusID "PCI:3:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Device0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "TwinView" "0"
Option "TwinViewXineramaInfoOrder" "CRT-0"
Option "metamodes" "nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen1"
Device "Device1"
Monitor "Monitor1"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "TwinView" "0"
Option "metamodes" "1360x768_60 +0+0"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection


reboot and dual monitors is working but not as twinview.


hmm now to look into twinview cause seperate X doe not allow apps to be moved between windows but mouse will.

[Lessss]

Well I seem to have hit a wall here. Can't seem to get the system to switch from seperate X to twinview.
I probably have something stupid in the xorg.conf.

Any ideas?

[Lessss]

whistling winds and tumbleweeds

[Lessss]

Sand drifts begin to form

[banjo man]

well, I'm not as up on hardcore linux modding, but I can help you to prevent losing your gui (which I ran into alot when editing xorg.conf)

first, when you have a working gui, this command backs up your xorg.conf so you can recover from command line

sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf_BACKUP

there, now you have a backup of xorg so you can go to town with editing...


if you get the No GUI problem when you reboot, wait. CTRL-ALT-F1, login to the terminal with your creds, then do this:


sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf_BACKUP /etc/X11/xorg.conf

and you should have your old settings back, then reboot or start gdm...

useful gdm commands:

stop gnome desktop manager

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop

start gnome desktop manager

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start



now, to restore grub from the ubuntu live cd:

boot the cd to desktop, open a terminal and:


sudo grub

this command finds where your linux and grub partition is, I get (hd0,0)

find /boot/grub/stage1


use the drive designation from above to do this (your's may be different):

root (hd0,0)


then to install grub (this will install to mbr):

setup (hd0)


now, to the video drivers (which I don't know much about, ubuntu finds my Inspiron 1720 nvidia8600gt drivers just fine)

I'd say if the system's driver-finder majjig doesn't work, try installing envyng http://albertomilone.com/envyngfaq.html

good luck!

[Lessss]

Thanks. That's one of the tutorials I tried that nuked my GUI/MBR.

I discovered the restore commands for xorg myself(not soon enough), although not the grub restore.

Neat thing about that tut is the command
sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop
it will once executed kick you out of the GUI you are reading the tutorial in :-)

[Lessss]

9.10 twinview is working upon installation. Xinerama isn't however. That just leaves me looping at bootup infinately.

[Lessss]

Thanks Banjoman. I tried ubuntu again and is working out of the box 9.1. twinview works no issue but Xinerama doesn't.

That recover grub should be an option on the live CD! :-)

[jimpr13]

good job i had the same problem and i fixed it;)

[Lessss]

Thanks Banjoman. I tried ubuntu again and is working out of the box 9.1. twinview works no issue but Xinerama doesn't.

That recover grub should be an option on the live CD!

[Lessss]

del