Install and set up nvidia driver for Geforce 7950GX2 dual monitor

[lordofduct]

Hey guys, so quick story, Vista ate dust on me a couple days ago. I've been dual booting Ubuntu 7.1 for some time and decided instead of repairing Vista I'm just going to go straight with Ubuntu and VM Vista. So I upgraded to the latest Ubuntu 8.1 (it came out the same day that I decided this, lucky me!).

On to my problem:

I have the Geforce 7950GX2 dual GPU PCI-e card. That's two GPUs.

I have been running single monitor through out me set up over the last two days and today I'm working on getting both monitors set up. Now I have a DELL 30 inch LCD monitor with native resolution of 2560X1600 and a ProView 22 inch monitor with native resolution of 1680x1050. I don't want to run TwinView because the span across the two is very ugly. So I went with two distinct seperate X Server Displays on each.

This has worked fine with this xorg.conf:



# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings
# nvidia-settings: version 1.0 (buildd@rothera) Mon Oct 13 14:53:48 UTC 2008

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout0"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 1680 0
Screen 1 "Screen1" LeftOf "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 "DELL 3007WFP"
HorizSync 49.3 - 98.5
VertRefresh 60.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
# HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
Identifier "Monitor1"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "Proview"
HorizSync 31.0 - 80.0
VertRefresh 56.0 - 76.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce 7950 GX2"
BusID "PCI:4:0:0"
Screen 0
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Device1"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce 7950 GX2"
BusID "PCI:4:0:0"
Screen 1
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Device0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "TwinView" "0"
Option "metamodes" "DFP-0: 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" "DFP-1: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection


That is my current configuration I am running right now and I get both displays.

BUT, both displays are running on the same GPU... GPU0 on PCI bus 4:0:0, the other GPU is on PCI bus 3:0:0. So in the Device1 section I changed the BusID for the second GPU and restarted X server and I don't get the other display...?

Anyone have any pointers? Is there something else I have to change to make my second display run on the second GPU?

[lordofduct]

Oh and for anyone interested, running Vista in VMware is going wonderful!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v333/lordofduct/MessBoard/vmwareVista.png

I have a core 2 duo so I made the virtual machine a single core... it's a little slow, but **** Vista was slow anyways. It does the job though, and it's really only necessary for stupid little things. All the intensive things I want to do can be done on Ubuntu! I don't play PC video games, so that isn't really necessary anyways.

[lordofduct]

bump,

another thing I've noticed that is weird.

With this dual monitor set up I can only open Firefox on the main display. If I open it on the secondary display Gnome-Panel crashes and an error pops up but the box with the error described is blank... well it isn't blank, but I can't read the text. There is text there because my cursor allows me to highlight text that is there (I get the little text cursor and I can highight across creating the off colour of being highlighted, but nothing shows).

What the heck is that about!?

[lordofduct]

well this is the config file I've tried:



# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings
# nvidia-settings: version 1.0 (buildd@rothera) Mon Oct 13 14:53:48 UTC 2008

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout0"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 1680 0
Screen 1 "Screen1" LeftOf "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 "DELL 3007WFP"
HorizSync 49.3 - 98.5
VertRefresh 60.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
# HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
Identifier "Monitor1"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "Proview"
HorizSync 31.0 - 80.0
VertRefresh 56.0 - 76.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce 7950 GX2"
BusID "PCI:4:0:0"
Screen 0
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Device1"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce 7950 GX2"
BusID "PCI:3:0:0"
Screen 1
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Device0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "TwinView" "0"
Option "metamodes" "DFP-0: 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" "DFP-1: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection


But Device1 fails to operate.

I've swapped them as well and I get an error saying my config won't work and to start in low graphics mode. And if I set them both to 3:0:0 I get the same thing as well. Could there be something wrong with my config? Or worse, could there be something wrong with my second GPU!?

[jlgoolsbee]

bump,

another thing I've noticed that is weird.

With this dual monitor set up I can only open Firefox on the main display. If I open it on the secondary display Gnome-Panel crashes and an error pops up but the box with the error described is blank... well it isn't blank, but I can't read the text. There is text there because my cursor allows me to highlight text that is there (I get the little text cursor and I can highight across creating the off colour of being highlighted, but nothing shows).

What the heck is that about!?

I have this exact issue. I did a bunch of forum hunting, and most of the answers were akin to using a script like this and adding it to your startup programs:

#!/bin/bash
# start compiz
DISPLAY=:0.0 compiz --only-current-screen --replace &
disown $!
sleep 3
DISPLAY=:0.1 compiz --only-current-screen --replace &
disown $!

However, this does not solve the issue. If anybody here knows what's causing this or how to fix it, please let us know!

[lordofduct]

I'd like to bump this thread again. I still have yet to figure out how to get the second monitor to run on the second GPU.

I've been planning getting a third GPU for yet a third monitor. Right now it sits next to my 2 main monitors for my second computer, but I remote desktop into that, so I don't have a need for it over there... so I want to move that one out to the closet where it is intended as a server and get 3 displays here.

But I'm not gonna go through the whole job until I can figure out how to get two monitors running on 2 independent GPUs first.

see:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v333/lordofduct/MessBoard/triple01.jpg

It's my work machine and the extra space would be very nice.

Oh and I'm hoping this doesn't need compiz... I haven't really been fond of it much.