2 GPUs and 5 monitors

securitybreach · 2018-09-16 13:02:56

I am trying to get my fifth monitor working but my current Nvidia GTX 970 can only drive 4 monitors. If I try to enable the fifth, I get the following error:

MetaMode 1 of Screen 0 has more than 4 active display devices.

That tells me that it is a hardware limitation of the card. I also have an older Nvidia Quadro K5000 as well so I installed that. Nvidia-settings will only let me use it as a second Xorg or Xinerama. I can somewhat get to the 5th monitor using Xinerama but it treats all the monitors as one which is not usable.

comhack@Cerberus ~ % xrandr --listproviders
Providers: number : 1
Provider 0: id: 0x1b9 cap: 0x1, Source Output crtcs: 4 outputs: 9 associated providers: 0 name:NVIDIA-0

comhack@Cerberus ~ % lspci | grep VGA      
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GM204 [GeForce GTX 970] (rev a1)
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GK104GL [Quadro K5000] (rev a1)

Here is my xorg.conf:

# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings
# nvidia-settings:  version 396.51  (builduser@svenstaro)  Sun Aug 12 20:40:20 CEST 2018

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig:  version 381.22  (buildmeister@swio-display-x86-rhel47-02)  Thu May  4 01:29:00 PDT 2017

Section "ServerLayout"

# Removed Option "Xinerama" "0"
# Removed Option "Xinerama" "1"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    Screen      1  "Screen1" 300 431
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
    Option         "Xinerama" "0"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "HP Z30i"
    HorizSync       24.0 - 98.0
    VertRefresh     50.0 - 70.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor1"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "Acer X203H"
    HorizSync       31.0 - 83.0
    VertRefresh     56.0 - 76.0
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce GTX 970"
    BusID          "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device1"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "Quadro K5000"
    BusID          "PCI:2:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"

# Removed Option "metamodes" "DP-0: nvidia-auto-select +1920+1080, HDMI-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+1340, DP-3: nvidia-auto-select +2240+0, DP-5: nvidia-auto-select +4160+0"
# Removed Option "metamodes" "DP-0: nvidia-auto-select +1920+1080, HDMI-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+1340, DP-5: nvidia-auto-select +4160+0, DP-2: nvidia-auto-select +2240+0"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "Stereo" "0"
    Option         "nvidiaXineramaInfoOrder" "DFP-2"
    Option         "metamodes" "DP-0: nvidia-auto-select +1920+1080, HDMI-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+1340, DP-5: nvidia-auto-select +4160+0, DP-2: nvidia-auto-select +2240+0; HDMI-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+0; HDMI-0: 1920x1080_60_0 +0+0; HDMI-0: 1920x1080_50 +0+0; HDMI-0: 1680x1050 +0+0; HDMI-0: 1600x900 +0+0; HDMI-0: 1440x900 +0+0; HDMI-0: 1280x1024 +0+0; HDMI-0: 1280x800 +0+0; HDMI-0: 1280x720 +0+0; HDMI-0: 1280x720_60_0 +0+0; HDMI-0: 1280x720_50 +0+0; HDMI-0: 1024x768 +0+0; HDMI-0: 800x600 +0+0; HDMI-0: 720x576 +0+0; HDMI-0: 720x480 +0+0; HDMI-0: 640x480 +0+0; HDMI-0: 640x480_60_0 +0+0; HDMI-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+0 {viewportin=1366x768, viewportout=1920x1079+0+0}"
    Option         "SLI" "Off"
    Option         "MultiGPU" "Off"
    Option         "BaseMosaic" "off"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen1"
    Device         "Device1"
    Monitor        "Monitor1"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "Stereo" "0"
    Option         "metamodes" "nvidia-auto-select +0+0 {AllowGSYNC=Off}"
    Option         "SLI" "Off"
    Option         "MultiGPU" "Off"
    Option         "BaseMosaic" "off"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

nvidia-settings: https://i.imgur.com/b7YOUiV.png

I only started messing with this because I will be getting a 27" 4k monitor next week. The smaller Acer monitor is just there for testing purposes.

What are my options at this point? I thought about usb graphics as I have an HP graphics adapter but I haven't had any luck getting it working on Arch.

I appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks

Last edited by securitybreach (2018-09-16 14:57:07)

securitybreach · 2018-09-16 13:43:52

So I tried the HP USB Graphics Adapter and the system sees it just fine but xrandr does not. I installed the displaylink package from AUR and even rebooted but still no avail. I started following the directions from https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/DisplayLink but stopped at the xrandr part as noted below:

 comhack@Cerberus ~ % dmesg | tail                                                                                                                       :(
[  109.224295] usb 2-8: Product: HP USB Graphics Adap
[  109.224299] usb 2-8: Manufacturer: DisplayLink
[  109.224302] usb 2-8: SerialNumber: 015152
[  109.230063] [drm] vendor descriptor length:22 data:22 5f 01 00 20 05 00 01 03 04 02
[  109.386837] checking generic (f1000000 130000) vs hw (0 0)
[  109.387080] udl 2-8:1.0: fb1: udldrmfb frame buffer device
[  109.413392] [drm] Supports vblank timestamp caching Rev 2 (21.10.2013).
[  109.413394] [drm] No driver support for vblank timestamp query.
[  109.413420] [drm] Initialized udl 0.0.1 20120220 for 2-8:1.0 on minor 2
[  109.413422] [drm] Initialized udl on minor 2

comhack@Cerberus ~ % xrandr --listproviders
Providers: number : 1
Provider 0: id: 0x1b9 cap: 0x1, Source Output crtcs: 4 outputs: 9 associated providers: 0 name:NVIDIA-0

comhack@Cerberus ~ % lsmod | grep udl
udl                    36864  0
usbcore               294912  9 xhci_hcd,udl,ehci_pci,usbhid,usb_storage,ehci_hcd,xhci_pci,uas
drm_kms_helper        200704  4 udl,evdi,nvidia_drm,nouveau
drm                   479232  12 udl,drm_kms_helper,evdi,nvidia_drm,ttm,nouveau

comhack@Cerberus ~ % ls /dev/ | grep fb
fb0
fb1

Thoughts?

Last edited by securitybreach (2018-09-16 13:44:42)

securitybreach · 2018-09-17 03:01:39

I figured out what to do. I set up the 5th monitor using the second video card and nvidia-settings to make a new Xorg session. I can launch an application using export DISPLAY=:0.1 && pcmanfm but certain things do not act right. Like I can launch urxvt but I can't type in the window but I can use the mouse to click on things in pcmanfm. I must be missing something but I am making progress.

malcontent · 2018-09-22 03:02:01

You shouldn't have to run a second X server to use 5 monitors. A single X server should be able to handle them just fine.

Have you tried turning on your monitors with xrandr?

securitybreach · 2018-09-22 03:22:42

malcontent wrote:

You shouldn't have to run a second X server to use 5 monitors. A single X server should be able to handle them just fine.
Have you tried turning on your monitors with xrandr?

The GTX 970 will not allow you to use over 4 outputs at a time.

Arch Linux

#1 2018-09-16 13:02:56

2 GPUs and 5 monitors

#2 2018-09-16 13:43:52

Re: 2 GPUs and 5 monitors

#3 2018-09-17 03:01:39

Re: 2 GPUs and 5 monitors

#4 2018-09-22 03:02:01

Re: 2 GPUs and 5 monitors

#5 2018-09-22 03:22:42

Re: 2 GPUs and 5 monitors

Board footer