i have just setup a three head display on my system a few days ago. and after some tweaking of the x config i managed to get everything up and going quite nicely. i have a geforce4 ti4200 agp card driving two 19 crts @ 1280x1024 each. and a geforce6 6200 (that i got for $25) driving a 19" widecreen lcd @ 1440x900.. they are all functioning as one large desktop, and everything is working great except for the video performance. there is a great deal of lag when moving windows from one desktop to another, and also a `ps` shows the X server with anywhere from 20-50 cpu usage. i disabled xinerama and there is no lag at all, but i would really like xinerama. i have to be missing something.
here is what i have come up with so far. i
found that the GPUs should be the same, or close, for open gl to be available on all screens. which they are not, but i dont care.. i get this message in X logs
Code:
(WW) NVIDIA(1): The GPU driving screen 1 is incompatabile with the rest of the
(WW) NVIDIA(1): GPUs composing the desktop. OpenGL rendering will be
(WW) NVIDIA(1): disabled on screen 1.
the only question is, would that cause lag on normal non gl operation??
i have also found
this site which really got my hopes up .. i tried the suggestions such as removing AGPGART support from the kernel and passing the params to the nvidia module.. but i dont see any difference..
i also saw in some docs for X11R7.1 that the xinerama code has been rewritten. i guess it could help me, but i dont really want to do that unless necessary.
there isnt a wealth of info on this subject, i just hope that someone has some detailed first hand experience. here is my x config, and also some output from /proc/drivers ..
Code:
# **********************************************************************
# Refer to the XF86Config(4/5) man page for details about the format of
# this file.
# **********************************************************************
################################################
Section "Module"
Load "dbe"
Load "extmod"
Load "type1"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
EndSection
################################################
Section "Files"
RgbPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic/"
# ModulePath can be used to set a search path for the X server modules.
# The default path is shown here.
# ModulePath "/usr/X11R6/lib/modules"
EndSection
################################################
Section "ServerFlags"
Option "Xinerama" "on"
EndSection
################################################
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard1"
Driver "kbd"
EndSection
################################################
Section "InputDevice"
# Identifier and driver
Identifier "Mouse1"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "imps/2"
Option "Device" "/dev/mouse"
#Option "ChordMiddle"
Option "Buttons" "5"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection
################################################
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "MonitorOne"
HorizSync 31.0 - 95.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 160.0
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "MonitorTwo"
HorizSync 30.0 - 80.0
VertRefresh 56.0 - 76.0
# 1440x900 @ 75.00 Hz (GTF) hsync: 70.50 kHz; pclk: 136.49 MHz
Modeline "1440x900_75.00" 136.49 1440 1536 1688 1936 900 901 904 940 -HSync +Vsync
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "MonitorThree"
HorizSync 31.0 - 95.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 160.0
EndSection
################################################
Section "Device"
Identifier "Geforce4"
Driver "nvidia"
Option "RenderAccel" "true"
Option "NoLogo" "on"
# Option "TwinView"
BoardName "Nvidia GeForce 4 Ti4200"
BusID "PCI:03:00:0"
VideoRam 131072
Option "NvAGP" "3"
Screen 0
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Geforce41"
Driver "nvidia"
Option "RenderAccel" "true"
Option "NoLogo" "on"
BoardName "Nvidia GeForce 4 Ti4200"
VideoRam 131072
BusID "PCI:03:00:0"
Screen 1
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Geforce6"
Driver "nvidia"
Option "RenderAccel" "true"
Option "NoLogo" "on"
VideoRam 131072
BusID "PCI:01:07:0"
Screen 0 # this could be a problem
Option "EnablePageFlip" "on"
EndSection
################################################
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen 0"
Device "Geforce4"
Monitor "MonitorOne"
DefaultDepth 24
Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600"
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 32
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubsection
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen 1"
Device "Geforce6"
Monitor "MonitorTwo"
DefaultDepth 24
Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1440x900_75.00"
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 32
Modes "1440x900"
EndSubsection
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen 2"
Device "Geforce41"
Monitor "MonitorThree"
DefaultDepth 24
Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600"
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 32
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubsection
EndSection
################################################
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Simple Layout"
Screen "Screen0" 0 0
Screen "Screen 1" RightOf "Screen 0"
Screen "Screen 2" RightOf "Screen 1"
InputDevice "Mouse1" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard1" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection
Code:
!? cat /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/status
Status: Enabled
Driver: NVIDIA
AGP Rate: 8x
Fast Writes: Enabled
SBA: Enabled
!? cat /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/card
Fast Writes: Supported
SBA: Supported
AGP Rates: 8x 4x
Registers: 0x1f000e1b:0x1f004312
!? cat /proc/driver/nvidia/cards/0
Model: GeForce 6200
IRQ: 5
Video BIOS: 05.44.a2.07.61
Card Type: PCI
!? cat /proc/driver/nvidia/cards/1
Model: GeForce4 Ti 4200 with AGP8X
IRQ: 12
Video BIOS: 04.28.20.05.00
Card Type: AGP
!? cat /proc/driver/nvidia/registry
VideoMemoryTypeOverride: 1
EnableVia4x: 0
EnableALiAGP: 0
NvAGP: 3
ReqAGPRate: 7
EnableAGPSBA: 1
EnableAGPFW: 1
SoftEDIDs: 1
Mobile: 4294967295
ResmanDebugLevel: 4294967295
FlatPanelMode: 0
DevicesConnected: 0
VideoEnhancement: 0
RmLogonRC: 1
ModifyDeviceFiles: 1
DeviceFileUID: 0
DeviceFileGID: 0
DeviceFileMode: 438
RemapLimit: 0
UseCPA: 4294967295
