[gentoo-amd64] Re: xorg Dual-Head Layout with nv-Driver?

[Duncan]

Marcel Treis posted <42D2498D.90001@×××××××××.de>, excerpted below,  on
Mon, 11 Jul 2005 12:27:25 +0200:

> since my machine crashes very often especially when emerging, wich seems
> to be some problem between gentoo-amd64 and nvidia-kernel, i have decided
> to go "nv" until the issue is resolved. My problem is that i have a
> dual-monitor-setup, wich i dont seem to configure right. Does anybody of
> you have
>
> a) a dual-monitor-setup using the generic "nv"-driver and could send me
> the xorg.xonf?

I run dual monitor here, but switched from Nvidia to ATI some time ago, 
because I decided proprietaryware kernel drivers were no longer acceptable
to me, with idealism and practicality both playing a role, and NVidia
simply doesn't provide enough specifications for their chips to make any
of the fancier functions, including dual output, work very well if at all
in the open source drivers.

More directly to your setup, you say you have dual monitors, but don't
mention whether that's on dual cards, or dual outputs on the /same/ card
(aka "twinview"). As far as I am aware, the open "nv" driver doesn't
support dual outputs on the same card /at/ /all/, again, because NVidia's
implementation is proprietary and the required info to interface with
it in dual output mode simply hasn't been available, altho it's possible
someone has reverse engineered a bit more, recently, and that's changed,
since I used the drivers back in the XFree86 4.0 to 4.1 era.  If you have
dual cards, each with its own output, that may work or not.  It depends on
the open source driver, not on NVidia so much.  (However, note that it's
possible some of the better driver devs have chosen not to work with
NVidia because NVidia is so obstinate about working with them.  Of course,
there are always other options available to the developer skilled enough
in both hardware and software to be good at drivers, and if they feel they
are beating their head against the wall, they could easily find other more
fruitful ways to spend their time.  Thus, even where the problem isn't
direct NVidia interference, it could be that the open drivers for them
remain very minimalistic and basic, comparatively, simply because those
that can improve them don't find it worth their while to do so.)

Anyway, dual output ATI Radeon 9200s (or the 9200SEs, as I have) are now
pretty cheap, less than $50 @ Fry's when I got mine a year ago and they've
dropped to < $40 since then, when I checked a couple months ago, and the
open source native xord drivers for them are **MUCH** better and **MUCH**
better supported, so if you can spare $40, that's very possibly the better
route to go.

Alternatively, as I said, try multiple boards.  Otherwise, from my
experience up until the switch to xorg at least, support for twinview is
/only/ available in the proprietary drivers.  Again, it's possible that
has changed with newer xorg, but if so, I've seen no hint of it in posts
or elsewhere, and I'd certainly note it if I did, because I follow
multi-monitor mode developments quite closely, when I see them.  Of
course, I could still have entirely missed this one, but...

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman in
http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2004/12/22/rms_interview.html


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