Setting up a second monitor

[aqua]

I have an ait radeon card with dvi and analog outputs, and two lcd
monitors. I realize the original poster was asking about a lap top. but
maybe this will help. After trying several things I am using this
'minimalist' config (I'm only including the relevant sections.) With my
setup the two displays are using different busid. I'm using Dapper
Beta.



Section "Device"

	Identifier	"ATI dvi"

	Driver		"radeon"

	BusID		"PCI:1:0:0"

	#Option		"MergedFB"		"true"

	#Option		"MetaModes"		"1280x1024-1280x1024 1280x1024-1280x1024"

	#Option		"MergedDPI"		"100 100"

	Option          "CRT2Position"		"LeftOf"

#Option "DynamicClocks" "on"

#Screen 0

EndSection



You'll notice that I commented out the mergedfb, merged dpi, and
metamodes as it works fine without these. If I leave mergefb out I get
the following message in /var/log/Xorg.0.log:



(II) RADEON(0): No MetaModes given, linking widest common modes by
default



(II) RADEON(0): Merged "1280x1024" (1280x1024) and "1280x1024"
(1280x1024) to 1280x1024 (Clone)



So I get the message that the two monitors are set up as a clone, even
though they aren't.



If I leave the mergedfb line in I get the following instead:



(WW) RADEON: No matching Device section for instance (BusID PCI:1:0:1)
found



(II) RADEON(0): MergedFB mode forced on.



Oddly both work just fine.



The key line that was needed for the monitors to work in exteded mode
was the crt2position line.



I commented the screen 0 out because those don't do anything in my
setup, I have different bus id's and xorg seems to use those to
identify the two screens.



With the meta modes commented out xorg just picks the widest mode for
both monitors.



Don't know what DynamicClock does, so left it out, it was suggested by
someone in this thread.



Section "Device"

	Identifier	"ATI analog"

	Driver		"radeon"

	BusID		"PCI:1:0:1"

#Option "DynamicClocks" "on"

#Screen 1

EndSection



Section "Monitor"

	Identifier	"L1730B"

	Option		"DPMS"

EndSection



Section "Monitor"

	Identifier	"L1730B left"

	Option		"DPMS"

EndSection



Both my monitors are lcd's and leaving synch information out seems to
work.



Section "Screen"

	Identifier	"Default Screen"

	Device		"ATI dvi"

	Monitor		"L1730B"

	DefaultDepth	24

	SubSection "Display"

		Depth		24

		Modes		"1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"

	EndSubSection

EndSection



Section "Screen"

	Identifier	"Secondary Screen"

	Device		"ATI analog"

	Monitor		"L1730B left"

	DefaultDepth	24

	SubSection "Display"

		Depth		24

		Modes		"1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"

	EndSubSection

EndSection





Section "ServerLayout"

Identifier "Multihead"

Screen "Default Screen" 

Screen "Secondary Screen" LeftOf "Default Screen"

InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"

InputDevice "Configured Mouse"

#Option "Xinerama"

EndSection



Strangly putting the Screen .... LeftOf .... line in doesn't cause the
screens to work in extended mode (they're clones). As I said before it
was the crt2position "LeftOf" line in the  device section that did the
trick. This is true even with xinerama enabled.



I disabled xinerama because I prefer the way this works without it.
With xinerama enabled the system doesn't seem to be aware of there
being two different screens. The panels extend across two monitors, if
you maximize a window it also extends across. If I play a movie in vlc
and double click on the display area it will switch to fullscreen mode
and try to display on both monitors (and fail, half the movie will
display on one and the other monitor will turn dark blue.) Login
screens also extend, etc.



With xinerama disabled you can still move your mouse across monitors,
you can still move applications from one monitor to the other by
dragging them, but when you maximize a window it will maximize in the
current screen only. Panels show up only only on one monitor but you
can drag them to the other monitor and you can create new ones and
display them in different screens. Doubleclicking on vlc will play the
movie in full screen on one monitor only, while leaving the vlc window
in the other screen, so you can both watch a movie in full screen mode
and still have access to the controls. There is only one  login screen,
etc, etc. 



Applications start in whichever screen the mouse is. If I click on a
panel icon on my right screen and stay there with my mouse cursor
that's where the application will open, but if I click the icon in my
right screen and quickly move the mouse to the left screen before the
window opens it 'follows' my mouse and opens in the left screen.



In short, it all works far better without xinerama enabled (for me at
least.)



The only problem I'm currently having is that my screensavers will
sometimes crash, and lock up the whole machine.  



Section "DRI"

	Mode	0666

EndSection



Dri works with xinerama disabled.


-- 
aqua