Reading the docs I found that the free radeon driver can operate a dual
head configuration (contrary to nvidia) and I found a radeon 9600 board
with dual DVI (made by HIS, really rare in the ATI world, at least in
the class of affordable adapters) and bought it immediatly to get rid of
nvidia, which caused a lot of trouble.
I configured X according to man radeon. Problem is: When I boot the
system, only the first TFT is active, the second receives no signal. I
have to wait and must not use the system so the DPMS turns the video
off. After hitting any key the system wakes up and both screens start to
operate now and I can work.
Does anyone else had this problem? Does someone know how to avoid it?
Any advice appreciated
Peter
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Here the configuration details:
My xorg.conf is:
------
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "ATI dual head configuration"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection
.....
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "LCD Panel 1280x1024"
# Synchronisation in Digital Mode
HorizSync 31.5 - 67.0
# VertRefresh 50.0 - 75.0
VertRefresh 56.0 - 75.0
Option "dpms"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "radeon"
VendorName "ATI corp."
BoardName "ATI Radeon 9600"
# Option "AGPFastWrite" "on"
Option "MergedFB" "on"
Option "CRT2Position" "RightOf"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
Virtual 2560 1024
EndSubSection
EndSection
Section "DRI"
Group 0
Mode 0666
EndSection
------
In Xorg.0.log I found some error messages I don't know to handle:
----------------
(==) ModulePath set to "/usr/X11R6/lib64/modules"
(WW) Open APM failed (/dev/apm_bios) (No such file or directory)
// I use ACPI, so I suppose it's OK
(II) Module ati: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
compiled for 6.8.2, module version = 6.5.6
Module class: X.Org Video Driver
ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 0.7
.....
(II) Primary Device is: PCI 02:00:0
(--) Assigning device section with no busID to primary device
(WW) RADEON: No matching Device section for instance (BusID PCI:2:0:1)
found
(--) Chipset ATI Radeon 9600 AP (AGP) found
// There is only one card (AGP) with 2 DVI connectors, have I
// to specify a second device section for the second connector
// and how? man radeon doesn't tell anything about it
(II) RADEON(0): EDID data from the display on port 1
----------------------
(II) RADEON(0): Manufacturer: NEC Model: 65df Serial#: 16843009
.....
(II) RADEON(0): EDID data from the display on port 2
-----------------------
(II) RADEON(0): Manufacturer: NEC Model: 65df Serial#: 16843009
// Nebertheless: both screen are correctly identified,
// so I don't need asecond device ??
(II) RADEON(0): Primary:
Monitor -- TMDS
Connector -- DVI-I
DAC Type -- TVDAC/ExtDAC
TMDS Type -- Internal
DDC Type -- DVI_DDC
(II) RADEON(0): Secondary:
Monitor -- TMDS
Connector -- DVI-I
DAC Type -- Primary
TMDS Type -- External
DDC Type -- VGA_DDC
(II) RADEON(0): PLL parameters: rf=2700 rd=12 min=20000 max=40000;
xclk=20300
(II) RADEON(0): DFP table revision: 4
(II) RADEON(0): MergedFB mode forced on.
.....
(II) RADEON(0): Generating MergedFB mode list
(II) RADEON(0): No MetaModes given, linking largest modes by default
(II) RADEON(0): Merged 1280x1024 and 1280x1024 to 2560x1024
(--) RADEON(0): MergedFB: Display dimensions: (680, 270) mm
(--) RADEON(0): MergedFB: DPI set to (95, 96)
// obviously the setup completed, xinerama mode activated
// as desired.
// But:
(--) Depth 24 pixmap format is 32 bpp
(II) do I need RAC? No, I don't.
(II) resource ranges after preInit:
[0] 0 0 0xe3000000 - 0xe300ffff (0x10000) MX[B]
[1] 0 0 0xc0000000 - 0xcfffffff (0x10000000) MX[B]
...
[38] 0 0 0x000003b0 - 0x000003bb (0xc) IS[B](OprU)
[39] 0 0 0x000003c0 - 0x000003df (0x20) IS[B](OprU)
(WW) RADEON(0): Failed to set up write-combining range
(0xc0000000,0x8000000)
(WW) RADEON(0): Direct rendering not yet supported on Radeon 9500 and
newer cards
// As I understand "combining range" is the merged area for
// xinerama, which had been set up correctly before?
**) RADEON(0): DPMS enabled
(II) RADEON(0): Initialized Radeon Pseudo-Xinerama extension
(II) RADEON(0): Pseudo-Xinerama: CRT1 (Screen 0) (0,0)-(1279,1023)
(II) RADEON(0): Pseudo-Xinerama: CRT2 (Screen 1) (1280,0)-(2559,1023)
(II) RADEON(0): Direct rendering disabled
// again, anything seems to be OK
