Core 5 multi display support

[Hadders]

Hi all,
   I'm thinking it would be nice to program with multi monitors.  In 
particular, one running VMWare and Windows so I can test the web app 
programs I develop. Currently I use two boxes to achieve this. But the 
constant twisting and turning isn't probably the best, yes age catches 
up with us all.

However, I prefer Linux as a programming environment (especially seeing 
that I do SQL development too (love that middle click copy/paste)), but 
was wondering if it (Core 5) easily supports multi display and the 
nvidia nView stuff, or is that a Windows only thing?  Perhaps someone 
can make a recommendation on cards etc?

Any help or comments would be appreciated...

Was thinking of getting this card, 
http://tw.giga-byte.com/Products/VGA/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=2235  
a solid performer, but not excessive...
This was the blurb on the nvidia site about nView 
http://www.nvidia.com/object/feature_nview.html

Cheers.
  H

[Lonni J Friedman]

On 7/2/06, Hadders  wrote:
> Hi all,
>    I'm thinking it would be nice to program with multi monitors.  In
> particular, one running VMWare and Windows so I can test the web app
> programs I develop. Currently I use two boxes to achieve this. But the
> constant twisting and turning isn't probably the best, yes age catches
> up with us all.
>
> However, I prefer Linux as a programming environment (especially seeing
> that I do SQL development too (love that middle click copy/paste)), but
> was wondering if it (Core 5) easily supports multi display and the
> nvidia nView stuff, or is that a Windows only thing?  Perhaps someone
> can make a recommendation on cards etc?
>
> Any help or comments would be appreciated...
>
> Was thinking of getting this card,
> http://tw.giga-byte.com/Products/VGA/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=2235
> a solid performer, but not excessive...
> This was the blurb on the nvidia site about nView
> http://www.nvidia.com/object/feature_nview.html

nview is a windoze thing.  any videocard with an nvidia GPU and two
display device connectors can do xinerama and/or twinview with the
nvidia X driver.

[Hadders]

Lonni J Friedman wrote:
> nview is a windoze thing.  any videocard with an nvidia GPU and two
> display device connectors can do xinerama and/or twinview with the
> nvidia X driver.

So is this something the livna nVidia driver provides?
Do I need to install additional packages (xinerama/twinview) too?

Thanks

[Hadders]

Hadders wrote:
> Lonni J Friedman wrote:
> > nview is a windoze thing.  any videocard with an nvidia GPU and two
> > display device connectors can do xinerama and/or twinview with the
> > nvidia X driver.
>
> So is this something the livna nVidia driver provides?
> Do I need to install additional packages (xinerama/twinview) too?
>
> Thanks

Okay, dumb questions. Just looking under Display Settings > Hardware I 
see that my PCX 5900 has "use dual head" as an option.

I assume it's simply as easy as checking the boxes and making the 
selections....which would be nice ;-)

H

[Lonni J Friedman]

On 7/2/06, Hadders  wrote:
> Hadders wrote:
> > Lonni J Friedman wrote:
> > > nview is a windoze thing.  any videocard with an nvidia GPU and two
> > > display device connectors can do xinerama and/or twinview with the
> > > nvidia X driver.
> >
> > So is this something the livna nVidia driver provides?
> > Do I need to install additional packages (xinerama/twinview) too?
> >
> > Thanks
>
> Okay, dumb questions. Just looking under Display Settings > Hardware I
> see that my PCX 5900 has "use dual head" as an option.
>
> I assume it's simply as easy as checking the boxes and making the
> selections....which would be nice ;-)

I'm not aware of any RH/FC provided tools which will configure an
nvidia GPU correctly for more than a single display device.

[Hadders]

<snip>
> > selections....which would be nice ;-)
>
> I'm not aware of any RH/FC provided tools which will configure an
> nvidia GPU correctly for more than a single display device.

See attached screen shot (assuming it doesn't get bounced)

[Hadders]

<snip>
> I'm not aware of any RH/FC provided tools which will configure an
> nvidia GPU correctly for more than a single display device.

I'd sent a screenshot, but that hasn't come through, no attachment 
policy I assume.

Anyway, that widget was under System > Administration > Display

Then it brings up a dialog with three tabs for me Settings | Hardware | 
Dual Head, Dual Head has the options.

I already have a PCX5900, so if I buy the new card, it should be a case 
of install, select from list and we're done.

H

[Lonni J Friedman]

On 7/2/06, Hadders  wrote:
> <snip>
> >
> > I'm not aware of any RH/FC provided tools which will configure an
> > nvidia GPU correctly for more than a single display device.
> >
> >
>
> I'd sent a screenshot, but that hasn't come through, no attachment
> policy I assume.
>
> Anyway, that widget was under System > Administration > Display
>
> Then it brings up a dialog with three tabs for me Settings | Hardware |
> Dual Head, Dual Head has the options.
>
> I already have a PCX5900, so if I buy the new card, it should be a case
> of install, select from list and we're done.

That's not the way things are in reality.  As I've already stated,
there are no tools that ship with FC which will let you configure the
nvidia X driver.  And the 'nv' X driver doesn't support multiple
display devices on the same GPU.

[Rob Brown-Bayliss]

On 7/3/06, Hadders  wrote:
> I already have a PCX5900, so if I buy the new card, it should be a case
> of install, select from list and we're done.

Hi, I have been running an nvidia card with dual head for a little
over a year and it's a breeze to set up.  Hell I was not even aware of
the abbility to run two monitors from one card untill a windows user
told me about it so I went home and did some reading on the web and
had it running in a few minutes.

Here is my xorg.conf which might help, but in general search on "Nvida
twinview" and read nvidias own docs.

# XFree86 4 configuration created by pyxf86config
#Section "Extensions"
#        Option  "Composite" "Enable"
#EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "TwinView"
    Screen      0  "Default Screen" 0 0
    InputDevice    "Generic Keyboard"
    InputDevice    "Configured Mouse"
    Option	    "AllowDeactivateGrabs" "1"
    Option	    "AllowClosedownGrabs" "1"
    Option	    "Xinerama" "off"
EndSection

Section "Files"

# RgbPath is the location of the RGB database.  Note, this is the name of the
# file minus the extension (like ".txt" or ".db").  There is normally
# no need to change the default.
# Multiple FontPath entries are allowed (they are concatenated together)
# By default, Red Hat 6.0 and later now use a font server independent of
# the X server to render fonts.
    ModulePath   "/usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/nvidia"
    ModulePath   "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
    FontPath     "unix/:7100"
EndSection

Section "Module"
    Load  "i2c"
    Load  "bitmap"
    Load  "ddc"
    #Load	"dri"
    Load  "extmod"
    Load  "freetype"
    Load  "int10"
    Load  "type1"
    Load  "vbe"
    Load  "glx"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier  "Generic Keyboard"
    Driver      "kbd"
    Option	    "CoreKeyboard"
    Option	    "XkbModel" "pc104"
    Option	    "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier  "Configured Mouse"
    Driver      "mouse"
    Option	    "CorePointer"
    Option	    "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
    Option	    "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
    Option	    "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
    Option	    "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"

Identifier   "Direction L7"
 ### Comment all HorizSync and VertSync values to use DDC:
    HorizSync    28.0 - 64.0
    VertRefresh  43.0 - 60.0
    Option	    "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "NVIDIA Corporation NV31 [GeForce FX 5600XT]"
    Driver      "nvidia"
    Option	    "RenderAccel" "true"
    Option	    "Backingstore" "true"
#	Option      "AllowGLXWithComposite" "true"
    Option	    "NvAgp" "2"
    Option	    "CursorShadow" "1"
    Option	    "Coolbits" "1"
    Option	    "ConnectedMonitor" "crt, crt"
    Option	    "TwinView" "1"
    Option	    "Metamodes" "1280x1024,1280x1024; 1024x768,1024x768;
1280x1024,NULL; 1024x768,NULL"
#	Option		"Metamodes" "1280x1024,1024x768 @1024x1024;
1024x768,1024x768; 1280x1024,NULL; 1024x768,NULL"
    Option	    "SecondMonitorHorizSync" "31-70"
    Option	    "SecondMonitorVertRefresh" "50-120"
    BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Default Screen"
    Device     "NVIDIA Corporation NV31 [GeForce FX 5600XT]"
    Monitor    "Direction L7"
    DefaultDepth     24
    SubSection "Display"
    	Viewport   0 0
    	Depth     24
    	Modes    "1280x1024" "1024x768"
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
    Mode         0666
EndSection

[Lonni J Friedman]

On 7/2/06, Hadders  wrote:
> Lonni J Friedman wrote:
> > nview is a windoze thing.  any videocard with an nvidia GPU and two
> > display device connectors can do xinerama and/or twinview with the
> > nvidia X driver.
>
> So is this something the livna nVidia driver provides?

the livna nvidia RPM is a repackaging of the nvidia X driver.
> Do I need to install additional packages (xinerama/twinview) too?

No, just the nvidia X driver.  Read its README for information on how
to configure X.

[Les Mikesell]

On Sun, 2006-07-02 at 18:14, Hadders wrote:
> Hi all,
>    I'm thinking it would be nice to program with multi monitors.  In 
> particular, one running VMWare and Windows so I can test the web app 
> programs I develop. Currently I use two boxes to achieve this. But the 
> constant twisting and turning isn't probably the best, yes age catches 
> up with us all.
>
> However, I prefer Linux as a programming environment (especially seeing 
> that I do SQL development too (love that middle click copy/paste)), but 
> was wondering if it (Core 5) easily supports multi display and the 
> nvidia nView stuff, or is that a Windows only thing?  Perhaps someone 
> can make a recommendation on cards etc?
>
> Any help or comments would be appreciated...

Not quite what you asked for, but in some ways nicer as long as you
already have the other box: http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/.
 yum install synergy
on the FC5 side; download and install the windows version and
pick one the other keyboard to use all the time.  It will make
the two machines work like one double-headed host and even
cut and paste will work across them.  I run it with 2 monitors
on my desktop and have it configured so when my laptop is
on the network it also connects and is controlled by the
same keyboard/mouse just by moving the mouse pointer off that
side of the center screen.