5 May, 2007
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
2007-05-07 09:55
Why would a server need dual screen support? Isn't a terminal connection sufficient?
2007-05-07 11:20
Well since this one is actually at home I'm also setting it up as a desktop workstation which is why I'm setting up dual screen support - strictly speaking it isn't just a server.
I agree though, for pure servers a terminal connection is all you need. :URL: http://
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