Twinview Setup

[Steck!]

As my last attempt at setting up twinview ended in a reinstall of ubuntu, i thought this time i would ask for some assistance.

here is my proposed xorg.conf, i would greatly appreciate if someone could take a look and see if use of it would throw off the earth's rotation, sending us crashing into the sun.

alternately, if someone could post up a working twinview config using twin GPU's, that would also make my day great.


# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings
# nvidia-settings: version 270.29 (buildd@allspice) Fri Feb 25 14:42:07 UTC 2011

Section "ServerFlags"
Option "RandR" "on"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"

# HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "Samsung SyncMaster"
HorizSync 30.0 - 81.0
VertRefresh 56.0 - 75.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"

# HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
Identifier "Monitor1"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "ProView/EMC/PTS MLT3221"
HorizSync 31.0 - 70.0
VertRefresh 56.0 - 85.0
Option "DPMS"
Option "FlatPanelProperties" "native"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce GTX 295"
BusID "PCI:7:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Device1"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce GTX 295"
BusID "PCI:6:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "screen"
Device "Device0"
Device "Device1"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "TwinView"
Option "MetaModes" "Monitor0: 960x720 @960x768, Monitor1: 1024x768"
Option "TwinViewOrientation" "Monitor1 RightOf Monitor0"
Option "HorizSync" "Monitor0: 30.0 - 81.0; Monitor1: 31.0 - 70.0"
Option "VertRefresh" "Monitor0: 56.0 - 75.0; Monitor1: 56.0 - 85.0"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

[Steck!]

Anybody?

[tnt533]

Im running 2 8800gtx cards with the recommended open source driver installed by the restricted driver applet and did ZERO manual config. I have two flat panels hookup to dvi on the same card and configured twinview through nVidia's setting manager.

Did you try that and have issues?

[Steck!]

No, I'm using this computer as a bastardized htpc and the only way to get sound to my surround sound receiver is through my TV through HDMI. Unfortunately the 295 runs the HDMI port off of one card, and the 2 dvi ports from the other. I'm not sure if its because of this set up, a bug in the drivers, or what, but twinview is greyed out in the settings GUI. I've also had some trouble getting changes to stick when made in the GUI, so I've been doing everything through the config file.

[tnt533]

Well I'm afraid that I would be of no use to you in this situation but I can tell you that you should never have to reinstall the OS because of an Xorg issue.

Always backup the working file you're editing with

$ sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf xorg.conf.bak

and you can always login when X fails and restore the old *known to work* version by simply reversing the cp command above or edit the file with

$ sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf

and change the driver to vesa which almost always loads.

also, if you have not already, check this out

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/NvidiaTVOut

I would also suggest that in order to use the box as an HTPC there really is no need for dual video cards and that may be what is actually causing the issues if you're trying to run the setup in SLI and also using TVout. SLI support is still somewhat shaky in Linux.

Good luck and post back here if you figure it out!

[Steck!]

I had my xorg backed up, but i'm not sure what happened. when it went to load, all I got was lines of text. I could type and it would show up on the screen, but it wasnt a command prompt, it wouldnt accept anything.

anyway, i did actually find an answer to my question on the nvidia forums. Apparently twinview doesn't support one desktop across multiple gpu's, so i'm going to have to redesign my entire setup and try to figure something out.

Thanks for you help!

[tnt533]

Is there a reason as to why you can't power both displays with one card?

Just curiosity killing the cat...