Guest KDH Posted January 16, 2006 Report Share Posted January 16, 2006 I'm trying to set up my second monitor but I have no idea where to start. My cards are: Integrated Intel Extreme Graphics GeForce FX 5500 PCI (set as default in BIOS) And the monitors: On Intel Card: an old WYSE that I have no information on other than what it supports (up to 1024 x 768 @ 32-Bit Color and 60Hz) On the GeForce: Packard Bell PnP 7480 (up to 1280 x 1024 @ 32-Bit Color and 60 Hz) I'd like to have them both at their full capabillities as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverSurfer60 Posted January 16, 2006 Report Share Posted January 16, 2006 Hi KDH, the place to start is NVIDIA website. I have run an FX5200 in dual screen mode for about 6 months now on a couple of MDK releases. I must assume the FX5500 will give a better performance than the FX5200. Be prepared to do a bit of searching and find the NVIDIA drivers for your card. In the package is a very good README which you will need to read and understand. It will guide you through the process. You don't really need the Intel card as the FX series are dual head. However I'm sure someone with the knowledge will describe what can be done with two cards as I have not done this setup. I would think using 2 cards will take a big chunk from your resources as you will need two drivers, controllers and memory blocks for redraw etc. Whereas using just the Nvidia card you use a lot less resources. I Hope this is of assistance to you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted January 16, 2006 Report Share Posted January 16, 2006 Above is the simple way... You really need to decide how you want the twin screens to function. Using the NVIDIA on twin screens will split its memory between the two... but only require one driver (which is reasonably large) The advantage is they can have the same resolution which should be as high as is comfortable anyway. This translates into being able to have a seamless desktop across them. There are two ways to do this.. nvidia's TWINVIEW (see the readme file recommended above) which is a native nvidia mode OR xinerama which is an xorg way to do it... A third way (I use for my projector) is to have TWO seperate xservers running. I have two desktops with the (for me) KDE menu bar etc. The advantage here is the second screen is a completely different geometry (widescreen) and is used for watching movies I share the mouse and keyboard between the two screens BUT I have a wacom tablet only on the primary screen.. in other words the desktop acts continuous for the mouse but the wacom tablet has its bounds on one desktop which stops it loosing resolution ... Which one you want is up to what you want to do... If you use say GIMP and want the menu's on the second screen then the first 2 methods (twinview and xinerama) are best but if you want to use the screens independently then the seperate xserver is best! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest KDH Posted January 17, 2006 Report Share Posted January 17, 2006 Actually the FX 5500 (the one I have atleast) is only single head, so I do need the Integrated Intel card. I think I'll use xinerama. Can the monitor's use different resolutions with that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest KDH Posted January 17, 2006 Report Share Posted January 17, 2006 (edited) I think I messed up. I tryed installing the latest XFree86 (every guide I read said I had to), but it didn't work, I couldn't get into X. So I restored the backups I put onto a CD before beggining, but I still can't get into X. It keeps giving me an error (I'll post it later, had to boot into Windows to post this, and forgot to write it down). Alright heres exactly what happens when I boot using the option the normally gets me to the Mandriva GUI login: GUI Login doesn't start, I log in in text mode. I type "startx" the following error shows up: xauth: Creating new authority file /home/<name>/.serverauth.6314 xinit: No such file or directory (errno 2): No server "X" in path Use the -- option, or make sure that /usr/X11R6/bin is in your path and that "X" is a program or link to the right type of server for your display. Possible server names include: Xorg X.Org displays (nothing shows up for several seconds) giving up. xinit: Connection refused (errno 111): Unable to connect to X server xinit: No such process (errno 3): Server error Prompt shows up. Is there any easy way to get it back to the way it was, or should I just re-install? Edited January 17, 2006 by KDH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest KDH Posted January 18, 2006 Report Share Posted January 18, 2006 Eh nevermind. I'll just reinstall. I put some stuff I didn't really want on it anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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