Triple monitors, 2 video cards

evilgold · 2008-12-28 09:43:43

Hello everyone,

I currently have a dual monitor setup connected to my arch desktop with a PCI-E Gefroce 7600. I would like to add a third monitor and have it run off the onboard intel video card on my system. I'm wondering what the best way to do this would be. I would prefer to keep the xorg.conf editing to a minmal, and since i currently have things configured between my two current screens just the way i like, i dont want to do anything too automatic that might affect them. I'm guessing the onboard video would require a seperate Xorg session, which im fine with, but please correct me if im wrong. Is it possible to have two seperate xorg.conf's somehow (one for each card). I would like to share inputs for all 3 screens for now, but im also curious if its possible to have completley seperate xsessions, with seperate input devices too. From what i've read on xorg.conf this seems like it is possible although probably not practical..

thomasknowles · 2008-12-28 11:04:57

You can't have 2 xorg.conf's, you just edit the name and BUS ID of the cards, found below is my xorg.conf and I use 2 7600GT's for triple display, this may push you in the right direction, though I haven't set it to use randr yet.

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "X.org Configured"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    Screen      1  "Screen1" 1280 0
    Screen      2  "Screen2" RightOf "Screen1"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"
    ModulePath      "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/misc"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi:unscaled"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi:unscaled"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/TTF"
#    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/Type1"
EndSection

Section "Module"
    Load           "glx"
    Load           "extmod"
    Load           "dri"
    Load           "dbe"
    Load           "xtrap"
    Load           "freetype"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
    Option         "AutoAddDevices" "0"
    Option         "Xinerama" "1"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "SEG RM170"
    HorizSync       30.0 - 80.0
    VertRefresh     58.0 - 75.0
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor1"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "WYT MNT-ANALOG"
    HorizSync       31.5 - 80.0
    VertRefresh     56.0 - 75.0
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor2"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "SEG RM170"
    HorizSync       30.0 - 80.0
    VertRefresh     58.0 - 75.0
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce 7600 GT"
    BusID          "PCI:5:0:0"
    Screen          0
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device1"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce 7600 GT"
    BusID          "PCI:5:0:0"
    Screen          1
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device2"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce 7600 GT"
    BusID          "PCI:4:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "TwinView" "0"
    Option         "TwinViewXineramaInfoOrder" "CRT-0"
    Option         "metamodes" "CRT-0: 1280x1024 +0+0; CRT-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen1"
    Device         "Device1"
    Monitor        "Monitor1"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "TwinViewXineramaInfoOrder" "CRT-0"
    Option         "TwinView" "0"
    Option         "metamodes" "CRT-1: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

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

Last edited by thomasknowles (2008-12-28 11:07:52)

Super Jamie · 2008-12-28 22:59:45

you can't load the nvidia and intel drivers at the same time

what you want to do is not possible with the state of linux drivers at the moment

thomasknowles · 2008-12-29 00:04:05

Super Jamie wrote:

you can't load the nvidia and intel drivers at the same time
what you want to do is not possible with the state of linux drivers at the moment

Well that's news to me, so I've learnt something today.

dr_te_z · 2008-12-29 11:51:46

Perhaps it is possible to use the 3rd monitor for your CLI (tty1 thru tty6) sessions?

Arch Linux

#1 2008-12-28 09:43:43

Triple monitors, 2 video cards

#2 2008-12-28 11:04:57

Re: Triple monitors, 2 video cards

#3 2008-12-28 22:59:45

Re: Triple monitors, 2 video cards

#4 2008-12-29 00:04:05

Re: Triple monitors, 2 video cards

#5 2008-12-29 11:51:46

Re: Triple monitors, 2 video cards

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