Dual Monitors. just to start

[korrka]

Hello, people,

Maybe someone could help with the very basic
question about dual monitors in Mandrake 10.1.

I have the ASUS P4c800 E motherboard and the
ASUS 9200 SE video card.

First question: would it work at all??

I will have 2 CRT monitors of different max resolutions and would like to maintain these
max resolutions for both.

I do not want one display extended two two monitors,
but two different screens, say editing PDF files in text mode on one screen, and viewing the resuls on the other.

Many thanks for any help!!

Ivan

[madcompnerd]

Does your hardware support dual head, or just have a DVI and VGA port?
And yes, you can do it without xinerama, which gives you an xserver on each display.

[bwkaz]

Is that an ATI or nVidia video card?

If it's nVidia, look into their drivers, and read their README:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux.html

(You want IA32 drivers.)

If it's ATI, you can get dual-head if the hardware and drivers support it. But I'm not sure which chips from ATI support it, and I also don't know which drivers support it.

[korrka]

Hi,

This is an ATI card.

I am sure that it has the VGA port,
since I know how it looks, but not sure about the DVI. There is a small black round port
(TV out?) and a 3*8-square holes-female plug
which maybe is DVI.

(On the other hand the monitor which I am going to buy has only the vega D-sub 15 male plugs, hope it does not contradict the dvi?)


They say in the manual that:

"ASUS Radeon graph. card include a multi-monitor feature through the Hydravision multiple monitor management software... etc"

unfortunately all their indications are for WIndows.

so do you still think it will work,
and if yes what should I do to make it work?

Thanxxx!

Ivan

[bwkaz]

Originally posted by korrka
There is a small black round port
(TV out?) Probably, yes. It might be S-video (if it has 4 pins), or it might be one of those odd connectors that will either take an S-video plug directly, or will take an RCA cable if you use an adapter (I think they have something like 7 pins in them).

and a 3*8-square holes-female plug
which maybe is DVI. If it's white, then yeah, it's DVI. Make sure it's DVI-I, though, for reasons given below. DVI-I has all 24 pins in the grid, plus a horizontal wider connector over on the left side, plus 4 more pins in a 2x2 grid around that horizontal connector. (It might also have a vertical connector intersecting the horizontal one, to make a + sign.)

There are actually 3 versions of DVI. DVI-D is digital only -- you can only plug that into a monitor supporting digital signalling. DVI-A is analog only. You can either plug that into a DVI-A monitor plug, or get an adapter to turn it into VGA, to use with any normal monitor. DVI-I has both sets of pins on it, so you can either plug in a digital device, or use a VGA adapter.

(On the other hand the monitor which I am going to buy has only the vega D-sub 15 male plugs, hope it does not contradict the dvi?) Shouldn't be a problem, as long as you have the adapter from the video card box that converts the DVI-I into a VGA plug. Unless this card came with the computer? Then you might have some difficulty finding one of those -- computer manufacturers like to cut 3 cents off the cost of the machine by not giving you stuff like that.

"ASUS Radeon graph. card include a multi-monitor feature through the Hydravision multiple monitor management software... etc"

unfortunately all their indications are for WIndows.

so do you still think it will work, I think the hardware supports it, yes. I don't know which ATI drivers do, though...

[korrka]

Hi, and many thanks!

I checked the DVI port:
it has indeed one horizontal pin, and 2 (not 4!) pins in a vertical row
between this horizontal one and the 24 smaller pins.

The color is white. Do you think it is DVI - I?

I did not find any suitable cable to connect this one with
the VGA port in the video card set.

I bought the parts and assembled the computer myself
(but did not think about this dual-monitor possibility, alas!)

Do you think one can buy the transfer cable ?

I tried the ASUS tech support about the dual-mon's options
but it is not too efficient.

Is there any site about ATI drivers?

Many thanxxx

Ivan

[korrka]

I have just realized, that this is ATI responsible for the product, and not ASUS

It was not so obvious, since ASUS is written everywhere in big letters,
and ATI small and hidden; so I shall try to figure out at
ATI site what should I do.

Also it is clear from some pics that the transfer DVI-VGA supported by the card,
so the card should be available somewhere,

I shall write back about the results,

Happy New Year!!!!!!!!

Ivan

[bwkaz]

Which of the 2 white connectors at this page:

http://www.mycableshop.com/3rd_Level/Video-Flat.htm

does it look like? From your description, I'd guess the second one (which is DVI-D), but I don't want to say that for sure unless you look at them yourself.

If it is DVI-D, then -- AFAIK anyway -- you can't plug a VGA monitor into it (and therefore it makes sense that you don't have one of the adapters).

[korrka]

I checked the page you indicated, and indeed

my plug resembles definitely the DVI - D

(which contradicts to the explanations in the leaflet in the video card box)

they say I can t join it with VGA except with a very expensie cable.

Well maybe in this case it will be reasonable to buy another graphics
card which will be better adapted to LINUX? actually the procedure
which they describe in the RTI site is not so easy, in any case it does not
seem to work effortlessly with Mandrake which I have.

What is your opinion?

Thanks
Ivan

[bwkaz]

If you want to change video cards, any current nVidia card should support dual monitors. Though you'd want to double check that with whichever one you're looking at.

If 3D performance isn't a big deal (and never will be), then you can get an FX5200 for really cheap these days. All of the FX cards that I've seen do dual monitors (they all have DVI-I, S-video, and VGA connectors), including the FX5200s. Or, there's an FX5200 Ultra, which does a lot better with 3D.

Otherwise, if you want a current card, there's the 6800 series. But those are a few hundred dollars, so it may make more sense to get a DVI capable flat panel instead. ;) Anyway, the 6800 is the bottom-end of that series, the 6800 GT is really close to the top end, and the 6800 Ultra is the top end. As far as bang for the buck goes, the 6800GT wins (among the 6800s anyway).

There are also 6600 cards, but most of them are PCI-X, not AGP.

If the 6800s are too much, then maybe try the 5900 XT or 5950 cards. They're not too bad performance wise (though they are NV3x chips, so they suffer a few of the issues that nVidia had with that series), and they're cheaper than the 6800s because they're older.

Whatever you look at, read reviews of it. ;)

The card you have now is running about $55 or so, depending where you look. The equivalent nVidia card (as far as price goes, anyway) is the FX 5200 (not Ultra) -- but its 3D is horrifically slow. With a few dollars more, you can get an FX 5600, but IIRC, those had more issues (again, read reviews). In that price range, there isn't much that has good performance, unfortunately. :(

This is all assuming you do want to replace the card, of course. That's your first decision.

What I don't get, though, is why it says on Asus' product page (http://usa.asus.com/products/vga/r9200se-td/overview.htm) that the card supports a "2nd VGA output" (it also says "DVI-D", so I think you're right there). I think I'd try asking them about that feature first of all.

[korrka]

I sent an e-mal to ASUS
about the second VGA output, let us
see what they will say.

In the leaflet they suggest to connect the second VGA
through the DVI, although as you say it is not possible
through DVI D, so now I am sort of lost
with their system.

My needs about the video card are as follows:
I would like a real good quality for video like mpeg's, avi's
and all sort of these.
Same for the pdf, ps, jpeg files.
Since I am going to buy
the IIyama CRT with 2048*1536@90H
I would be OK to spend maybe about 100 dollars
for the video card
to obtain all what this machine can suggest.

Also I would like the VCR connector -- I have an idea to
play the Video cassettes on the comp., and I heard that it
is possible, or it will be possible quite soon for Linux users.

On the other hand I am not much into games,
and I even do not know if
many games are available for Linux.
I do not know what is 3D, but maybe 3D is involved in the video quality?

Is it easy to get the Nvidia cards to produce the dual output under Linux?
the procedure for Radeon which they describe in their site is
not that easy, and I am afraid that i'll get stusk at some moment,

for example, their advice is designed for Redhat, and i have Mandrake

Thankx and have a great New Year!

Ivan

[davisfactor]

Dual head NVidia cards work great under Linux. Or you can go the cheap route like I did and use two single head cards.

I've got an NVidia 32 meg GeForce 2 MX 400 and a peice of junk I pulled out of a box (16 meg S3Virge). I've got two Dell M782's connected to them and they work great. The only problem is that my NVidia is set at 1280*1024 and the S2 can only get to 1024*768 so I have to turn Xinerama off so the desktop doesn't stretch between the two.

I have never had a problem with video quality out of my NVidia, and it plays most 3d games very well.

If you're looking for something mid-range, I hear a lot of people talking about the NVidia 5700LE. It has a DVI and a VGA output on it along with TV out.

[korrka]

Hi Davis,

It may be a great idea for me, since after all
I have one card already.

Would be OK to buy one more, say Nvidia to change
(now I have ATI radeon).

Can u get 2 independant displays? - this is what I
want. and 2 indep. resolutions.

The Radeon is quite nice for the moment,
and there was nothing to install with Linux, all was automatic. the only
prob is that I do not know how to handle the 2 head display

Ivan

[davisfactor]

Mine is setup now with two displays. You can set different resolutions for each of them as well as different backgrounds.

However, you can't move applications from one monitor to the other. You have to close it and open it again on the other screen.

[korrka]

Is it possible in your setting to edit a file on one
screen, and then see the result on the other?

for example edit a PDF file manually, or a TEX file, this often needs the whole surface of the desktop,

and view the result with Ghostscript of acrobat
in the other screen?

Does it work? ifyes I do not need much more than that
-------

another mode would be to work on one screen and
watch movies on the other one.
does it work??

[davisfactor]

Originally posted by korrka
Is it possible in your setting to edit a file on one
screen, and then see the result on the other?

for example edit a PDF file manually, or a TEX file, this often needs the whole surface of the desktop,

and view the result with Ghostscript of acrobat
in the other screen?

Does it work? ifyes I do not need much more than that
-------

another mode would be to work on one screen and
watch movies on the other one.
does it work??

Definitely for both.