Ubuntu 12.04, Nvidia 295 GTX, and 3 monitors

[Aerivan]

Hi!

I had high hopes for getting my triple monitor setup working in Ubuntu when I heard Ubuntu 12.04 was supposed to be great for multi-monitor setups. Oneiric does bring some cool features to the table but unfortunately for me, making a fresh install didn't quite solve any of the issues I had.

I get as far as having all three monitors sort-of working but with a few issues:


The dash and the application bar isn't transparent but black.
If I try to move the pointer from the leftmost screen to the middle, the pointer instead jumps to the rightmost screen. Going from right to left however works flawlessly.
Windows doesn't use the set theme but some kind of minimal greyish, Windows-95:ish theme.
Trying to enter "System Settings" -> "Displays" gives me the message "RandR extension is not present".

I have the latest nvidia driver (295.40) installed and has used "NVIDIA X Server Settings" to create my xconfig in it's present state.




# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings
# nvidia-settings: version 295.33 (buildd@allspice) Fri Mar 30 15:25:24 UTC 2012

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout0"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 1920 0
Screen 1 "Screen1" 0 0
Screen 2 "Screen2" 3840 0
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
Option "Xinerama" "1"
EndSection

Section "Files"
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 "Monitor2"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "DELL U2412M"
HorizSync 30.0 - 83.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 61.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
# HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
Identifier "Monitor1"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "DELL U2412M"
HorizSync 30.0 - 83.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 61.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
# HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "DELL U2412M"
HorizSync 30.0 - 83.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 61.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Device2"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce GTX 295"
BusID "PCI:4:0:0"
Screen 1
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Device1"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce GTX 295"
BusID "PCI:3:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce GTX 295"
BusID "PCI:4:0:0"
Screen 0
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen2"
Device "Device2"
Monitor "Monitor2"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "TwinView" "0"
Option "metamodes" "DFP-1: 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 "TwinViewXineramaInfoOrder" "DFP-0"
Option "metamodes" "nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

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

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Disable"
EndSection

I read somewhere that the xinerama option breaks openGL and unity3D so I'm hoping all of my issues can be solved with a better config.


Powerful graphics performance in Ubuntu isn't really my goal, I just want to get a good looking, usable system for coding and browsing.


I've wished for this setup to work for a long time now without being able to do anything about it myself so I'd really appreciate someone more skillful than I taking a stab at it. :)

[Aerivan]

Exciting development! :KS

Sifting through the internet I came across this post

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1917385#post11654716

which did an almost :p decent job of setting up the screens. All screens work with 3D acceleration however it all lags terribly. It said somewhere that the base mosaic option was only supported by quadro cards, I'd say though that this works better than something completely unsupported? Further, I read somewhere else that nowadays, twinview should be available for more than two monitors - though this isn't reflected in the nvidia-settings. Anyone who can say for sure what to make of these rumors?

Anyhow, following the above post I removed my xorg.conf completely and entered:



nvidia-xconfig --base-mosaic --metamodes="GPU-0.DFP-0: 1920x1200+0+0, GPU-0.DFP-1: 1920x1200+1920+0, GPU-1.DFP-0: 1920x1200-1920+0"
which generates the following xorg.conf:



# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig: version 295.40 (buildmeister@swio-display-x86-rhel47-06.nvidia.com) Thu Apr 5 22:40:54 PDT 2012

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

Section "Files"
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"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "Unknown"
HorizSync 28.0 - 33.0
VertRefresh 43.0 - 72.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Device0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "BaseMosaic" "True"
Option "MetaModes" "GPU-0.DFP-0: 1920x1200+0+0, GPU-0.DFP-1: 1920x1200+1920+0, GPU-1.DFP-0: 1920x1200-1920+0"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

As I mentioned earlier, this gives me a "perfect" setup as long as you don't mind the extreme lag. ;)

[Aerivan]

I should perhaps mention that if I limit myself to any two monitors, regardless if they\re run on the same gpu or different, it all works very nice. In this case I change the line below accordingly and the unused monitor goes black.



Option "MetaModes" "GPU-0.DFP-0: 1920x1200+0+0, GPU-0.DFP-1: 1920x1200+1920+0"


Using base mosaic in this way also seems to allow me to enter the display settings (earlier it said "RandR extension is not present" and denied me access). This means I could configure sticky edges, application bar placement and such things. I therefor would recommend using the base mosaic method for two monitors if someone else has issues with twinview option in nvidia settings.

[Aerivan]

Aren't there any people out there that knows their way around an xorg.conf? Or is this such a strange issue that noone has even a sliver of an idea? I'm at my witts end here... :p

[haqking]

no single GPU Nvidia card can support 3 monitors.

nothing to do with Xorg or Linux, your card dont support 3 monitors ;)

Peace

Edit: I just saw that your card does have Dual GPU, however this has been an ongoing issue if you search online for your card with 3 monitors, everyone says the same.

Most people tend to use SLI with another card for triple screens.

http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2354 not sure if it will work in Linux though

Good luck getting it to work if you can ;)

Peace

[sgbirch]

Aren't there any people out there that knows their way around an xorg.conf? Or is this such a strange issue that noone has even a sliver of an idea? I'm at my witts end here... :p

I have just discovered your thread and this isn't such a strange issue, it is hugely irritating. My system is a high end professional Dell (Precision T7500) with two NVidia Quadro FX 1800 cards driving three Ultra sharp 24 inch monitors. I chose Linux because it is (was) the highest quality operating system.

Since there are three monitors I use xinerama, twinview is not an option. Before Ubuntu started the Unity nightmare the system ran like a dream. Now it is like going back 10 years and putting up with irritating bugs.

Right now there is a jumping cursor, blue faces on youtube, incorrect target for drag and drop, and a crashing browser when playing flash.

I have been a committed Linux user since 1997 (RH 4.2) but am now seriously considering moving to a Mac. The machine I use professionally MUST be reliable and stable.

The 12.04 LTS bugs mentioned above have all been reported:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/xorg-server/+bug/884678
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity-2d/+bug/986835
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/adobeflashplugin/+bug/967091
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gtk+2.0/+bug/157319

I really love Linux and hope these bugs are addressed, but I am not holding my breath.

Unhappy camper,
Steve

[haqking]

I have just discovered your thread and this isn't such a strange issue, it is hugely irritating. My system is a high end professional Dell (Precision T7500) with two NVidia Quadro FX 1800 cards driving three Ultra sharp 24 inch monitors. I chose Linux because it is (was) the highest quality operating system.

Since there are three monitors I use xinerama, twinview is not an option. Before Ubuntu started the Unity nightmare the system ran like a dream. Now it is like going back 10 years and putting up with irritating bugs.

Right now there is a jumping cursor, blue faces on youtube, incorrect target for drag and drop, and a crashing browser when playing flash.

I have been a committed Linux user since 1997 (RH 4.2) but am now seriously considering moving to a Mac. The machine I use professionally MUST be reliable and stable.

The 12.04 LTS bugs mentioned above have all been reported:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/xorg-server/+bug/884678
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity-2d/+bug/986835
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/adobeflashplugin/+bug/967091
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gtk+2.0/+bug/157319

I really love Linux and hope these bugs are addressed, but I am not holding my breath.

Unhappy camper,
Steve

The OP has a single card and you have 2, also different cards so not the same issue.

Also if it worked before why upgrade ? ;-)

Peace

[Aerivan]

haqking, sgbirch: Thanks for replying! Much appreciated! :KS

About my card not supporting 3 monitors: I'm aware that it isn't really supposed to handle 3 monitors as two of the connectors are tied to a single gpu. However, in Windows it works resonably well - the trade-off being sometimes slightly laggy performance on the third screen. I was hoping it would be possible to configure it to work in Ubuntu as well, but I guess that's not an option.

The only option I have left then seems to be uppgrading my hardware to a dual card setup. Do you have any idea what manufacturer is the most linux friendly? A couple of years ago I came under the impression that nvidia was the way to go for linux - which is why I've opted ever since for nvidia graphics in my computers. Does this still hold true?

[haqking]

haqking, sgbirch: Thanks for replying! Much appreciated! :KS

About my card not supporting 3 monitors: I'm aware that it isn't really supposed to handle 3 monitors as two of the connectors are tied to a single gpu. However, in Windows it works resonably well - the trade-off being sometimes slightly laggy performance on the third screen. I was hoping it would be possible to configure it to work in Ubuntu as well, but I guess that's not an option.

The only option I have left then seems to be uppgrading my hardware to a dual card setup. Do you have any idea what manufacturer is the most linux friendly? A couple of years ago I came under the impression that nvidia was the way to go for linux - which is why I've opted ever since for nvidia graphics in my computers. Does this still hold true?

Well if your using dual cards that will be in SLI mode, the cards need to be the same to do that.

It is called crossfire if you use ATI cards.

I have always used Nvidia and never had any major issues apart from maybe having to blacklist nouveau as i use the proprietary drivers and have always worked for me, others have different experiences.

I use dual monitors though not triple.

I make my life easy and run the same dual monitors, where as others tend to use different screens then complain about the issues ;)

Best of luck with your goals.

Peace

[sgbirch]

Also if it worked before why upgrade ? ;-)
Peace
I like to upgrade to get the new features and programs, that is one of the joys of Linux, things keep getting better.

Or, they did!

Steve

[haqking]

I like to upgrade to get the new features and programs, that is one of the joys of Linux, things keep getting better.

Or, they did!

Steve

You dont need to upgrade a distro to get new programs.

However if you want the new "features" then yes i understand, but it seems you are having issues ;)

As for Unity and its nightmares, feel free to not use it and choose any one or more of the mulitple DE and WM out there.

The blue on youtube is a flash/nvidia thing.

Right click on the video and choose settings then choose to disable "use hardware acceleration"

Cheers

[zaziork]

z

[Aktrop]

I read this thread with great interest as I'm having similar problems:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1963938

I had accepted defeat and just given up on trying to get three monitors working. But having seen your xorg.conf give me some idea of what to try now... One problem though, whereas all your screens are identical, my third screen differs from the other two -- I'm not sure what to do with that.

I had really hoped that 12.04 would finally make multi-monitors just work. But it hasn't.

[Aerivan]

I read this thread with great interest as I'm having similar problems:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1963938

I had accepted defeat and just given up on trying to get three monitors working. But having seen your xorg.conf give me some idea of what to try now... One problem though, whereas all your screens are identical, my third screen differs from the other two -- I'm not sure what to do with that.

I had really hoped that 12.04 would finally make multi-monitors just work. But it hasn't.


For starters, my graphics card has two gpu's while yours only seem to have one? I would expect that to make a difference but I'm not an expert in any way. According to nvidia your card should be fine for up to 4 monitors somehow though so I guess it should work.

Anyhow, I would try removing your xorg (probably a good idea to back it up first though) and run an edited version of this command:



nvidia-xconfig --base-mosaic --metamodes="GPU-0.DFP-0: 1920x1200+0+0, GPU-0.DFP-1: 1920x1200+1920+0, GPU-0.DFP-2: 1920x1200-1920+0"


I believe that GPU-X (rather obviously) means which gpu should be driving the monitor and DFP-X I guess represents the connector where it should send the monitors signals (DFP = Display F* Port?). If you're lucky, it should be enough for you to change the specified resolutions to what you need and position them properly (<x-res>x<y-res>+<x-pos>+<y-pos>). Notice that for positioning the pixels are counted from 0. (Meaning that if your display is 1920 pixels wide, the pixels will be counted 0...1919 and 1920 will be the start pixel of your next display)

I hope that's clear enough ^^

Another trick that you might have already learnt but I'll put here anyway since it might benefit someone else is that as long as you keep a backup of a working xorg.conf there's no reason to be afraid of messing the graphics up. All you have to do if that happens is hit the e-key in grub at startup which will let you edit the start command. Where you see "quiet splash" write "text" next to it and when you hit F10 to boot it'll send you straight into a terminal without starting up a graphical interface. From the terminal it's then a piece of cake to replace the bad xorg with the backup. :)

I actually have to do this not only when playing with xorg but every time I reinstall since my graphics card won't play nice at all until I install the proprietary nvidia drivers. :p

Anyhow, that's about as much knowledge I have to offer in these matters, hope something becomes useful to you or someone else!

[pingaan]

I have been having the same problem.. Just installed 12.04 and been trying your xorg.conf out!
I too have a GTX295 and after weeks of trying to sort it out in 11.10 I had to go back to win7, which was a downer..

Anyway, Aerivan: The topic says [SOLVED], as far as I can see it's not?

[Jagoly]

An Idea may be to try the latest nvidia beta drivers. Very recently, nvidia began to support Xrandr 1.2 or 1.3 extensions or something. I really haven't read too much into it; it just came up in a phoronix article.

Basically, before now, nvidia used a nvidia-only multi-monitor solution (twinview). Now it uses the Xrandr stuff to implement multiple monitors. So, a big advantage of this is that you can use ubuntu's default multi-monitor application. Among other things that I really don't know much about.

I'm using it on my desktop (560ti with two screens) and it works great.

I haven't really thouroughly read about what your current situation is, but this information may help. just add the xorg-edgers ppa and have a go.

[pingaan]

Good to know.. You wouldn't happen to have a repository link lying about? ;-)

[Aerivan]

I have been having the same problem.. Just installed 12.04 and been trying your xorg.conf out!
I too have a GTX295 and after weeks of trying to sort it out in 11.10 I had to go back to win7, which was a downer..

Anyway, Aerivan: The topic says [SOLVED], as far as I can see it's not?

"Resolved" might have been a better tag. After struggeling with this issue for quite some time I've basically given up hope on getting this to work (the closest thing I've ever got is using the base mosaic thing mentioned above). I consider the "solution" to be buying two new graphics cards - which is kind of a downer. (Although, if you can afford it, buying hardware is pretty fun! ^^)

[zaziork]

I was experiencing very bad issues with my GeForce 9600M GT card; crashes out of X whenever I connected an external monitor. This issue seemed irresolvable regardless of what I attempted, both on installs of 12.04 and Linux Mint (Ubuntu edition, Lisa). I narrowed down the issue to the "current" Nvidia drivers, without question.

First resolved my issue by downgrading drivers, forcing version to "280.13-Oubuntu5.1 (oneiric-security)", which appeared to work ok. However, there were a few other issues with my instillation, so I decided to move away from Ubuntu for the first time in many years, and installed Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) - with the very latest beta Nvidia drivers. System is now working like a dream.

So I'd endorse the above suggestion to give the new beta nvidia drivers a go, before moving back to Windows. Either that, or force version to older drivers.

[mips]

no single GPU Nvidia card can support 3 monitors.

The newer GTX680 and future cards based on the Kepler chipset support 4 or 3 monitors from a single GPU ;)

http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/articles/nvidia-surround-on-the-geforce-gtx-680/#1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_600_Series#New_features

[haqking]

The newer GTX680 and future cards based on the Kepler chipset support 4 or 3 monitors from a single GPU ;)

http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/articles/nvidia-surround-on-the-geforce-gtx-680/#1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_600_Series#New_features

Thats true forgot about the recent cards.

Though requires 3D surround setup doesnt it ? not sure how well thats supported in Linux ? Never looked at it to much to be honest, my dual screen and 580gtx does me fine, i boot into Windows for games ;)

Peace

[Jagoly]

Good to know.. You wouldn't happen to have a repository link lying about? ;-)

https://launchpad.net/~xorg-edgers/+archive/ppa

but be careful using it, it can bork your install if your not careful.

[pingaan]

Hi!

I had high hopes for getting my triple monitor setup working in Ubuntu when I heard Ubuntu 12.04 was supposed to be great for multi-monitor setups. Oneiric does bring some cool features to the table but unfortunately for me, making a fresh install didn't quite solve any of the issues I had.

I get as far as having all three monitors sort-of working but with a few issues:


The dash and the application bar isn't transparent but black.
If I try to move the pointer from the leftmost screen to the middle, the pointer instead jumps to the rightmost screen. Going from right to left however works flawlessly.
Windows doesn't use the set theme but some kind of minimal greyish, Windows-95:ish theme.
Trying to enter "System Settings" -> "Displays" gives me the message "RandR extension is not present".

I have the latest nvidia driver (295.40) installed and has used "NVIDIA X Server Settings" to create my xconfig in it's present state.




# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings
# nvidia-settings: version 295.33 (buildd@allspice) Fri Mar 30 15:25:24 UTC 2012

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout0"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 1920 0
Screen 1 "Screen1" 0 0
Screen 2 "Screen2" 3840 0
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
Option "Xinerama" "1"
EndSection

Section "Files"
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 "Monitor2"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "DELL U2412M"
HorizSync 30.0 - 83.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 61.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
# HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
Identifier "Monitor1"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "DELL U2412M"
HorizSync 30.0 - 83.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 61.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
# HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "DELL U2412M"
HorizSync 30.0 - 83.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 61.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Device2"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce GTX 295"
BusID "PCI:4:0:0"
Screen 1
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Device1"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce GTX 295"
BusID "PCI:3:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce GTX 295"
BusID "PCI:4:0:0"
Screen 0
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen2"
Device "Device2"
Monitor "Monitor2"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "TwinView" "0"
Option "metamodes" "DFP-1: 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 "TwinViewXineramaInfoOrder" "DFP-0"
Option "metamodes" "nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

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

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Disable"
EndSection

I read somewhere that the xinerama option breaks openGL and unity3D so I'm hoping all of my issues can be solved with a better config.


Powerful graphics performance in Ubuntu isn't really my goal, I just want to get a good looking, usable system for coding and browsing.


I've wished for this setup to work for a long time now without being able to do anything about it myself so I'd really appreciate someone more skillful than I taking a stab at it. :)

Good news, Aerivan..

With the new drivers this works like a charm! ;)
Hope you never got out to buy that new GFX card!

Thanks a ton for the flawless xorg.conf!!

[Aerivan]

Good news, Aerivan..

With the new drivers this works like a charm! ;)
Hope you never got out to buy that new GFX card!

Thanks a ton for the flawless xorg.conf!!

Exciting! I'll try it as soon as possible and let you guys know how it went. :D

[pingaan]

Hmm.. I can't seem to get openGL to work..

edit: Hardware accelerated/OpenGL desktop, not working? What's the command line to enter in xorg.conf?

edit:
Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection

Did not make any difference..

edit: When trying to start of f.ex. XBMC it says:
'XBMC needs hardwareaccelerated OpenGL rendering.
Install the appropriate graphics driver."
Might there be something wrong with the drivers? Hmm..

[pingaan]

Sigh... Sorry to get your hopes up, turns out that once I got OpenGL running the freeze lag was back! :(
I got this far with the old drivers and running 11.10, as well! :((

Back to square one!

Here's a thread I started some time ago now, maybe you can see something useful in there that I missed:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1884138

Cheers..

[Aerivan]

Sigh... Sorry to get your hopes up, turns out that once I got OpenGL running the freeze lag was back! :(
I got this far with the old drivers and running 11.10, as well! :((

Back to square one!

Here's a thread I started some time ago now, maybe you can see something useful in there that I missed:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1884138

Cheers..


Your exicitedness got me tinkering some more but unfortunately it didn't lead anywhere. However, I guess the way nvidia-settings configures things is somewhat alright. It gives me three usable monitors but no composition and a graphics card working at full power. This doesn't work long term though, so I'll be looking into new hardware for my setup. I'll post the best working xorg.conf I've managed to create here though.

A big thanks to everyone that's been helping me though! Lots and lots and lots of thanks! :KS



# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings
# nvidia-settings: version 295.33 (buildd@allspice) Fri Mar 30 15:25:24 UTC 2012

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout0"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 1920 0
Screen 1 "Screen1" LeftOf "Screen0"
Screen 2 "Screen2" RightOf "Screen0"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
Option "Xinerama" "1"
EndSection

Section "Files"
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 "Monitor2"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "DELL U2412M"
HorizSync 30.0 - 83.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 61.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
# HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
Identifier "Monitor1"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "DELL U2412M"
HorizSync 30.0 - 83.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 61.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
# HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "DELL U2412M"
HorizSync 30.0 - 83.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 61.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Device2"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce GTX 295"
BusID "PCI:4:0:0"
Screen 1
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Device1"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce GTX 295"
BusID "PCI:3:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce GTX 295"
BusID "PCI:4:0:0"
Screen 0
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen2"
Device "Device2"
Monitor "Monitor2"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "TwinView" "0"
Option "metamodes" "DFP-1: 1920x1200 +0+0"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen1"
Device "Device1"
Monitor "Monitor1"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "TwinView" "0"
Option "metamodes" "nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Device0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "TwinView" "0"
Option "TwinViewXineramaInfoOrder" "DFP-0"
Option "metamodes" "DFP-0: 1920x1200 +0+0"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Disable"
EndSection

[miststlkr]

Using xinerama will make a maximized window extend across all three monitors, yes? I am really trying to get three monitors working the way twinview works. Two on twinview and one on an independent x session would work if it cam edown to it, but I have been tinkering on this problem for a while without luck. I was also really hoping that 12.04's vaunted multi-monitor support improvement would help.

[pingaan]

Correct me if I'm wrong but with xinerama active OpenGL won't work.. So using xinerama is out of the question..

[Jagoly]

No, with xinemera OpenGL works perfectly fine. Even to the point where you can extend games over all screens. It's unity that does not work, however unity 2d works fine.

But unless the cards are in sli mode, the OpenGL on each screen is done by whatever card it's plugged into. So the monitor that isn't sharing a card will be faster.

This is what I learned when using 3 screens over a 560ti (2 screens) and a 550ti (1 screen). That was on 11.10, nvidia stable drivers, and I at no point touched the xorg.conf manually, all configuration was done in the nvidia settings app. I played a lot of minecraft stretched over the three 22" 1680x1050 screens. I've since had to return two of the screens and the 550ti to the rest of my family :-p

[JustinHart]

You dont need to upgrade a distro to get new programs.

However if you want the new "features" then yes i understand, but it seems you are having issues ;)

As for Unity and its nightmares, feel free to not use it and choose any one or more of the mulitple DE and WM out there.

The blue on youtube is a flash/nvidia thing.

Right click on the video and choose settings then choose to disable "use hardware acceleration"

Cheers

I don't mean to be rude.. but this is silly. Upgrading your OS shouldn't break things that used to work. I've *also* got a 4 monitor setup that worked just fine under 11.10, and is completely broken under 12.04. Unity did not work, Gnome did. Now Gnome is broken, and Unity supports 2 monitors.

It's not too much to ask that working features not be broken in future releases. It's silly to act like what people are pointing out is unreasonable. This is especially true when there are multiple tracked bugs regarding these issues.

[CrazyDymond88]

The only thing that is bugging me at this point is that the mouse pointer skips my entire center monitor when moving from the left monitor (over the unity bar). So every time I want to move a window from the left monitor, I have to movie to the right monitor then move it back to the center, HIGHLY annoying!

[JustinHart]

The only thing that is bugging me at this point is that the mouse pointer skips my entire center monitor when moving from the left monitor (over the unity bar). So every time I want to move a window from the left monitor, I have to movie to the right monitor then move it back to the center, HIGHLY annoying!

I fiddled with the configuration files and got 4 monitors back up and running (granted, as 2 TwinView screens, which is annoying).

[arjenzwerver]

I found a solution and posted it over here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1999966

[Aerivan]

I found a solution and posted it over here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1999966

Unfortunately, while I'm glad that worked for you, it doesn't work with my internal-SLI card so the hunt is on. I will however bookmark your thread in case I manage to lay my hands on two new cards. :)

[jxd]

I stumbled onto this thread because I was having an issue with my NVidia dual monitor setup using the GT430 2GB card.

I don't game much but I use this setup for virtualization and development, and, I was having the mouse cursor issue many people described where going left was fine, but going right would result in the mouse jumping directly from the right-end of screen one all the way to the right-end of screen 2 (no way to smoothly drag anything without it jumping to the right side of screen 2!)

So, I first looked at everyone's xorg.conf files, then, something occurred to me. Yes, there is a bug here... and software settings don't seem to solve it... so how about I just swap the physical cables between both my monitors?

I swapped the cables over, re-ran the nvidia-xconfig to setup the screen I wanted on the left, and guess what, NO MORE MOUSE ISSUE =D

What I figure is, for you guys with this annoying mouse problem... there is a specific hardware order from the videocard (device) that must be followed, and, once you figure that out, if you wire the screens probably, you can get proper mouse useage.

There may be an easier software fix, but, this did it for me :)

Cheers!

[EDIT] I am using Xinerama. Also, only swapped the HDMI cables between my monitors, the point is to leave the connections to the video card alone and change the order of the monitors manually. Luckily for me, both my cables terminated in HDMI heads, for those with various cable types, this won't be so easy to accomplish!

[EDIT 2] If the menu bar auto-hides, then, the mouse cursor begins jumping again... so, menu bar must always be visible for this to work.

:popcorn: :popcorn: