[Solved] Ati Radeon HD & dual monitors - one monitor detected

Ecky · 2011-11-15 18:28:15

Fresh Arch install, installed the xf86-video-ati driver, graphics card is an XFX RadeonHD 6850

Only one of my monitors is getting detected properly as HDMI-0 according to xrandr

$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1440 x 900, maximum 16384 x 16384
DisplayPort-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DisplayPort-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-0 connected 1440x900+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 410mm x 256mm
1440x900 59.9*+
1280x1024 75.0 70.0 60.0
1280x960 60.0
1152x864 75.0
1024x768 75.1 72.0 70.1 60.0
832x624 74.6
800x600 72.2 75.0 70.0 60.3 56.2
640x480 72.8 75.0 66.7 60.0
720x400 70.1
DVI-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DVI-1 unknown connection (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
1024x768 60.0
800x600 60.3
640x480 59.9
512x384 120.0
400x300 120.6
320x240 120.1

I've looked at the Arch Xorg wiki, nothing I found there has made any difference (even though I used the arch xorg wiki to get the monitors working properly on opensuse with this card), I have thought about installing the catalyst control center driver but as the arch wiki recommends using the opensource driver I thought I'd hold off on that and see if anyone here can help me get it working on the opensource one first

Other than creating a 10-monitor.conf file as per the wiki I haven't fooled around with things as I wanted to see what recommendations I got here first. I'm not new to linux but am new to arch so I don't as yet know much about the way most people find the most success setting up this sorta stuff on arch and I'm quite happy for people to treat me as a total newbie as I'm trying to learn 'the arch way'

Any advice to get me started on working out the monitor problem?

Last edited by Ecky (2011-11-19 02:50:37)

oliver · 2011-11-15 18:38:51

this may be dumb, but try unplugging the monitor and running xrandr again to see if anything changed. Every other reboot (not consistent) I have to power-cycle my DVI monitor to make it work in a dual-head configuration. I'm assuming it's EDID related

Ecky · 2011-11-15 19:17:26

Have to pop out right now oliver but I will try that when I get back, can't see it being a temperamental monitor situation though as I have no issues like that under opensuse 11.4 or debian squeeze which are also installed on this machine

Cheers for the reply

Ecky · 2011-11-15 23:49:02

Had some fun with it, decided to give the catalyst control driver a go, dropped into runlevel 3 and ran the installer, then I ran 'aticonfig --initial' which created an /etc/X11/xorg.conf file as per usual, so I then restarted the machine.

X failed to start reporting that the fglrx module does not exist, and also glx, a whereis fglrx reported two locations, can't remember exactly where they were (I'm booted into opensuse at the moment). I couldn't get X to start again using the opensource radeon driver either so I installed xf86-video-vesa just to try getting a desktop back and rebooted the machine

Interesting thing happened, using the vesa driver I now have display on both screens (cloned), it's also got a 1600x1200 resolution on vesa whereas the radeon driver only gave me 1440x900 which surprised me a little. In opensuse monitor 1 gets 1600x1200 and monitor 2 1440x900

Things 'should' run better with the fglrx driver so I would like to get that working if anyone can give me any pointers, but if that fails I could live with it on vesa if I can get the desktop to stretch across both screens, I don't really care about 3d effects so it wouldn't be the end of the world if I end up having to stick with vesa, guess my next step is a refresher on how to get xinerama working

Ecky · 2011-11-18 12:37:25

Been difficult to find time for revisiting this as my dad got taken into hospital for a kidney transplant but I finally got at it this morning and I've had no luck whatsoever

Consulted the Arch wiki on xorg, it has an nvidia example (nothing for ati cards) which I tried as a starting point, I have a working dual monitor setup on this machine in opensuse and tried the confs from that as a starting point, everything I've learned from past experiences plus much googling I tried in both cases to no avail

I cannot get X to start using the opensource radeon driver or the ati fglrx driver, it will only start using vesa, whether or not I'd have more luck getting the twin monitors working in xinerama or twinview I don't know

This is the graphics card as listed per lspci:

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Barts XT [ATI Radeon HD 6800 Series]

In the past when trying to solve display issues I've started by running xrandr to identify the displays and cvt to get the modelines, but when I run xrandr I get:

# xrandr
No protocol specified
Can't open display :0

Whether the same thing that's causing issues like only working on vesa and can only get cloned mode on the screens is preventing me from getting the usual xrandr output I have no idea

I have to hold my hand up and say that I've exhausted the small amount of knowledge I have in this area plus everything I could think of trying in case 'it might work' and I really don't think I'm gonna get anywhere without some assistance from a person or persons more knowledgeable than me

It would be a shame to ditch Arch just because I can't get the screens setup correctly because so far I really like it, but I really can't do without my desktop extended across both screens so would be eternally grateful to anyone that could throw me a lifeline here

Ecky · 2011-11-19 02:51:27

Solved thanks to the info provided by 7etc/ on this here thread: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=130315

Arch Linux

#1 2011-11-15 18:28:15

[Solved] Ati Radeon HD & dual monitors - one monitor detected

#2 2011-11-15 18:38:51

Re: [Solved] Ati Radeon HD & dual monitors - one monitor detected

#3 2011-11-15 19:17:26

Re: [Solved] Ati Radeon HD & dual monitors - one monitor detected

#4 2011-11-15 23:49:02

Re: [Solved] Ati Radeon HD & dual monitors - one monitor detected

#5 2011-11-18 12:37:25

Re: [Solved] Ati Radeon HD & dual monitors - one monitor detected

#6 2011-11-19 02:51:27

Re: [Solved] Ati Radeon HD & dual monitors - one monitor detected

Board footer