Second monitor only works partially with desktop effects enabled

[aksival]

It's much easier to show you what's happening than it is to briefly explain it. For the most part, this is a 9.01 system with dual-monitors enabled. With desktop effects turned off, the display is perfect, but with effects turned on the second monitor only displays for about 25% of the screen, and the rest is -- well, see for yourself:

Screenshot of Ubuntu 9.01 dual screen problem

I'm not using any of the restricted drivers -- this happened right out-of-the-box. The video card is an ATI Radeon X600, which by far anything new (the card is about three years old).

I'm at a loss here. When desktop effects are enabled, they work fine, less the problem shown above.

Is there anything I should post to help troubleshoot this, or has anyone seen something similar?

[aksival]

Also, I'm wondering if manually installing the ATI driver from their website is a good option at this point.

Anyone have any luck getting duals working with a similar card?

[Dotsona]

I am having the same exact issue as you, I am using an ATI 9550

http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/8664/screenshot.png

when I lower the monitor resolution to like 1040 * 768 it goes away, I have no clue what the issue is.

[Dotsona]

Here is my xorg.conf file, the screen rendering error only occurs when compiz is enabled.


I used compiz check to see if there were any errors, here is the thread for the application:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=799070

I revived the following error

Gathering information about your system...

 Distribution:          Ubuntu 9.04
 Desktop environment:   GNOME
 Graphics chip:         ATI Technologies Inc RV350 AS [Radeon 9550]
 Driver in use:         radeon
 Rendering method:      AIGLX

Checking if it's possible to run Compiz on your system...

 Checking for texture_from_pixmap...               [ OK ]
 Checking for non power of two support...          [ OK ]
 Checking for composite extension...               [ OK ]
 Checking for FBConfig...                          [ OK ]
 Checking for hardware/setup problems...           [FAIL]

There has been (at least) one error detected with your setup:
 Error: Your current resolution is too high to run Compiz. 

Would you like to know more? (Y/n) Y

 Your resolution is 2880x900 but the maximum 3D texture size that your
 graphics card is capable of is 2048x2048. Thus Compiz will not be able to run
 on this setup. You have to decrease the resolution first (in case you are
 using a dual-head setup, try disabling one monitor and run the script again).

The weird part is, it works when compiz is disabled, does this simply mean that my card isnt good enough for running compiz? I was reading that compiz converts the screen into a texture to achieve effects, so possibly that is the reason. I have read that others are having the same issue, perhaps our cards are just simply outdated. Any comments on this subject would greatly be appreciated.

# 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

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier	"Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier	"Default Screen"
	Monitor		"Configured Monitor"
	Device		"Configured Video Device"
	SubSection "Display"
		Virtual	2880 900
	EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier	"Configured Video Device"
EndSection

Thanks for taking the time to look,
Andrew

[Dotsona]

Bump

[aksival]

I can confirm that this happens at all resolutions, from 640x480 up to the native 1680x1050 on my Dell 22" monitors. I thought that this may be due to a lack of memory in the card, but it seems as though it is indeed a bug.

I also read somewhere that the card in this machine is now considered a "legacy" card (thanks, ATI), so I'm completely relying on open drivers to power the displays.

I guess I'll just hold my breath until a fix can come out [hopefully] in the next set of updates.

[aksival]

After two updates that included X Server and other video-related packages, I'm still having the exact same problem with desktop effects enabled.

View Screenshot