Arch Linux

turok

Member

Registered: 2013-06-23

Posts: 1

Two external monitors with laptop with switchable graphics

Hi all,

I would like to connect two external monitors to my HP dv6 with switchable graphics (extending the display, not mirroring each other):

lspci | grep VGA
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Whistler [Radeon HD 6730M/6770M/7690M XT]

Setup information: There is an HDMI port and a VGA port. They are right next to each other (to the point where they can't normally be plugged in at the same time, but I have cut a jackpost off of the VGA connector in order to make it fit.)

Is this even possible? Here's the link to my card specs:

http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/ … iew.aspx#2

Which mentions

Native support for up to 5 simultaneous displays.

Does this mean 5 displays mirroring each other?

Also, the Eyefinity technology page says this:

To enable more than two displays, or multiple displays from a single output, additional hardware such as DisplayPort-ready monitors or DisplayPort 1.2 MST-enabled hubs may be required.

At present, I don't even think my Radeon card is being used (how do I check this/enable the card? I say this because phoronix-test-suite only detects the Intel card). At most, I can have two monitors on with unique displays. Issuing an xrandr to turn on the third:

xrandr --output VGA1 --auto

fails, returning

xrandr: cannot find crtc for output VGA1

etc.

I have looked into the hybrid graphics page on the Wiki (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Hybrid_graphics), but the only thing I could find that might present a solution is using the proprietary drivers, but I really don't want to downgrade Xorg.

Also, I am using

xf86-video-intl
xf86-video-ati

which are the open source drivers for my hardware.

Last edited by turok (2013-06-23 18:11:45)