Dual Screen Radeon 7000 VE

I purchased a Pentium 4 desktop from the Institute of Child Health yesterday (they were upgrading some of their machines) and have been busily setting it up today as my main server. One of the tricker things to get working is always the dual screen support but luckily it didn't take too long this time.

The computer comes with a Radeon 7000 VE which works with the open source ati driver which Debian detects during the install. First a bit of background. There are three types of DVI connector:

• DVI-D (digital only)
• DVI-A (analog only)
• DVI-I (digital & analog)

Both DVI-D and DVI-A can have single or dual interfaces. The dual interfaces allow two screens to be connected to the single DVI connector using an adaptor. You can tell which DVI interface your card supports by looking at the pins on the connector. The Radeon 7000 VE has a DVI-D dual interface so it can have two monitors plugged in. The wikipedia DVI article has more information and some pin diagrams.

I modified the /etc/X11/xorg.conf so that it used the radeon driver, had dbe loaded, and made use of a composite. Here's the diff:

bose:/home/james# diff -u /etc/X11/xorg.conf.orig /etc/X11/xorg.conf
--- /etc/X11/xorg.conf.orig     2007-05-05 13:13:21.000000000 +0100
+++ /etc/X11/xorg.conf  2007-05-05 20:44:23.000000000 +0100
@@ -43,6 +43,8 @@
        Load    "glx"
        Load    "int10"
        Load    "vbe"
+       Load    "dbe"
+       Load    "type1"
 EndSection

 Section "InputDevice"
@@ -65,7 +67,17 @@

 Section "Device"
        Identifier      "ATI Technologies Inc Radeon RV100 QY [Radeon 7000/VE]"
-       Driver          "ati"
+       Driver          "radeon"
+       Option          "AGPMode" "8"
+       Option          "ColorTiling" "on"
+       Option          "AccelMethod" "XAA"
+       Option          "EnablePageFlip" "on"
+       Option          "XAANoOffScreenPixMaps"
+       Option          "RenderAccel" "true"
+       Option          "MergedFB" "true"
+       Option          "MonitorLayout" "LCD, LCD"
+       Option          "CRT2Position" "LeftOf"
+       Option          "MetaModes" "1280x1024-1280x1024"
        BusID           "PCI:1:0:0"
 EndSection

@@ -102,6 +114,7 @@
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth           24
                Modes           "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
+               Virtual         2560 1024
        EndSubSection
 EndSection

@@ -115,3 +128,7 @@
 Section "DRI"
        Mode    0666
 EndSection
+
+Section "Extensions"
+       Option "Composite" "Enable"
+EndSection

and here is the complete file:

bose:/home/james# cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf
# /etc/X11/xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the /etc/X11/xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man /etc/X11/xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
#   sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "Files"
        FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc"
        FontPath        "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc"
        FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic"
        FontPath        "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic"
        FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled"
        FontPath        "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
        FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/:unscaled"
        FontPath        "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
        FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1"
        FontPath        "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1"
        FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi"
        FontPath        "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi"
        FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi"
        FontPath        "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi"
        # path to defoma fonts
        FontPath        "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
EndSection

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

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Generic Keyboard"
        Driver          "kbd"
        Option          "CoreKeyboard"
        Option          "XkbRules"      "xorg"
        Option          "XkbModel"      "pc105"
        Option          "XkbLayout"     "gb"
EndSection

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

Section "Device"
        Identifier      "ATI Technologies Inc Radeon RV100 QY [Radeon 7000/VE]"
        Driver          "radeon"
        Option          "AGPMode" "8"
        Option          "ColorTiling" "on"
        Option          "AccelMethod" "XAA"
        Option          "EnablePageFlip" "on"
        Option          "XAANoOffScreenPixMaps"
        Option          "RenderAccel" "true"
        Option          "MergedFB" "true"
        Option          "MonitorLayout" "LCD, LCD"
        Option          "CRT2Position" "LeftOf"
        Option          "MetaModes" "1280x1024-1280x1024"
        BusID           "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier      "DELL 1702FP"
        Option          "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier      "Default Screen"
        Device          "ATI Technologies Inc Radeon RV100 QY [Radeon 7000/VE]"
        Monitor         "DELL 1702FP"
        DefaultDepth    24
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth           1
                Modes           "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth           4
                Modes           "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth           8
                Modes           "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth           15
                Modes           "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth           16
                Modes           "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth           24
                Modes           "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
                Virtual         2560 1024
        EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
        Identifier      "Default Layout"
        Screen          "Default Screen"
        InputDevice     "Generic Keyboard"
        InputDevice     "Configured Mouse"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
        Mode    0666
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
        Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection

(view source)