Joerg Bruehe wrote:
Hi all!
I am searching for some general info regarding the general use of the VGA and DVI ports on my graphics card (chip: nVidia FX 5200 on AGP). My machine has SuSE 8.2 installed (I could upgrade if needed), I use XFree86-4.3.0-120, but I have no special "nv" or "nVidia" driver installed yet (according to "rpm -qa"). The machine's purpose is software development + office applications, so I need no 3D stuff.
I have a Philips 15" TFT (1024x768@60) connected to the VGA port, that runs fine. I now bought a BenQ 19" TFT (intended: 1280x1024@60 with DVI interface) and connected it to the card's DVI port.
When the PC boots, both screens display the BIOS + boot messages. I have the penguin logo at boot, so AIUI this means I am using framebuffer? As soon as the X server starts, the DVI-connected screen goes blank. As I have not changed the X configuration yet, this is to be expected?
I intend to operate both screens simultaneously. I do not need overlapping windows, and I probably also can do without reassigning windows between the two screens.
Can I do that with the "standard" X software as delivered by SuSE, or do I need to install the software from nVidia's homepage? (I have a preference to remain SuSE-only, as I expect this will cause less versioning problems. I repeat: I do not need 3D!)
The dual-heading Howto I found describes only the case of using separate cards - is there something available for dual-heading from single card? (I have another card, a Matrox G200 for PCI, but would prefer doing without it, as I assume with a single card it is easier to fall back onto any single screen if one fails or is needed at other places - correct?)
Thank you for all hints, Joerg Bruehe
You might wanne look at the Xinerama howto... Under SUSE 9.1 it's located under /usr/share/doc/html/en/Xinerama-howto.html. Or something that look like it.... Done this for a ASUS laptop with ATI Mobility M7, running SUSE 7.2 and hand compiled XFree 4.3.0.... Can't find the XFree config at the moment, if I still got.... Currently fighting ATI 9600 Pro with same thing... Hope this helps, Stefan...