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Dual Monitor ATI Radeon LE 64 Meg In Linux XFree 4.20
Author: Human X | Monday November 25, 2002
Some Additional Updates to this article are located at: http://www.linuxdig.com/news_page/1038984528.php
Dual Monitor Support with the ATI Radeon 8500 is enough to make anyone very happy. In this article I have included a configuration file you can use and also installation/testing information which will get you up in just 5-15 minutes if all goes well. If your running RedHat 7.3, and your fairly confident in Linux, you'll be up and running in 2. (Update July 13 2002)
Test System
Red Hat 7.3
Ati Radeon 8500 LE 64 Meg
256 DDR 2100 Memory
MSI Pro266-RU (Promise Raid)
XFree 4.2.0
To start off with, XFree 4.2.0 does not support DRI with the Radeon 8500. DRI stands for Direct Rendering Infrastructure which allows direct safe access to graphics hardware for OpenGl (at this time), Support is available through Commercial X Servers. But for most applications the standard installation and driver set will work just fine.
Disclaimer
Your decision to follow this document relieves me of any responsibility. I make no promises nor guarantee's of any kind. I can not promise that you will not disable your machine. You should read this entire document before proceeding.
Installation
1. If your Radeon is already installed, make a backup of your /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 file and copy the configuration I included in this article into the original XF86Config-4 file. Otherwise install your New video card amd allow RedHat to make modifications then start again from #1. Always backup your config file, make no assumptions.
2. From your backed up version you need to retrieve the Horizontal and Vertical (HorizSync, VerRefresh) frequencies of your monitor and plug them in place of those found in this config file. You might also want to modify the Display settings for the resolution you would like to operate at, I have them set at 1024x768. * Each monitor can be set to different resolutions.
3. The identifiers in the Screen, Monitor and Device sections can be changed to reflect your equipment, but you need to insure that you change the identifiers throughout the configuration file as they are referenced from other sections. This config file I created is actually a combination of a config file that I found on google (see acknowledgments) and my original config file. I did not change all of the identifiers to reflect my equipment.
4. Once you have completed this, if you are in X restart it, or if you are at a command prompt, go ahead and boot X. "startx" And away you go to dual monitors!
The catch is you need to be running xinerama (an extension of X) which you will find in the "ServerFlags" section. This allows X to span accross multiple devices/monitors. X also needs to be aware of the devices that exist, for my installation, I have two monitors, but you can have as many as video cards you can install. You will notice their is 2 Monitors, 2 Devices, 2 displays and 2 screens. * I am not sure it their is an actual limitation.
One other small detail, depending on how you have your monitors connected to the video card, will determine how the mouse and the information may display across the monitors, Right to Left or Left to Right. You can adjust this in the "ServerLayout" section, look for "Rightof" and instead you can use "Leftof".
Additional Tests
I tried the test in the HowTo document (See Acknowledgment) to see how well my Radeon performs OpenGL. To do this :
1. Open a command prompt
2. Type "glxgears"
3. Move the glxgears window away from the command window, this will show you your active frame rate every 5 seconds.
* I am not sure if glxgears is a default install or not, but it should be on you distribution CD's or do a search for it.
My Performance Marks :
640x480 : 75 Frames per second
800x600 : 75 Frames per second
1024x768 : 45-60 frames per second (Depending on system activity)
(Update July 13 2002)
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*Reference : Memtest86 for tweaking information.
After some time spent tweaking the bios with focus on the Cas Latency (Setting 2) and verifing system integrety with memtest86, I have some new performance marks.
640x480 : 330 Frames per second
*800x600 : 80-130 Frames per second
*1024x768 : 60-105 frames per second
* Depending on system activity
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So as you can see the Radeon performs well. I have not tested with games, and processor speed will obviously have an impact, and I do not know how accurate a test this really is. But, it seems good!
IMPORTANT : Distributions other then RedHat
*Note : Some Linux distributions make calls to devices differently. COM ports, PS/2 ports, Keyboards may use different device names. So you will need to verify this information in your original configuration file and make adjustments. This information is located in the "Input Devices" section.
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Config File
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Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Anaconda Configured"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
Screen 1 "Screen1" Rightof "Screen 0"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection
Section "Files"
# The location of the RGB database. Note, this is the name of the
# file minus the extension (like ".txt" or ".db"). There is normally
# no need to change the default.
RgbPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
# Multiple FontPath entries are allowed (they are concatenated together)
# By default, Red Hat 6.0 and later now use a font server independent of
# the X server to render fonts.
FontPath "unix/:7100"
EndSection
Section "ServerFlags"
Option "Xinerama" "on"
EndSection
Section "Module"
Load "GLcore"
Load "dbe"
Load "extmod"
Load "fbdevhw"
Load "dri"
Load "glx"
Load "record"
Load "freetype"
Load "type1"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "keyboard"
# Option "AutoRepeat" "500 5"
# when using XQUEUE, comment out the above line, and uncomment the
# following line
# Option "Protocol" "Xqueue"
# Specify which keyboard LEDs can be user-controlled (eg, with xset(1))
# Option "Xleds" "1 2 3"
# To disable the XKEYBOARD extension, uncomment XkbDisable.
# Option "XkbDisable"
# To customise the XKB settings to suit your keyboard, modify the
# lines below (which are the defaults). For example, for a non-U.S.
# keyboard, you will probably want to use:
# Option "XkbModel" "pc102"
# If you have a US Microsoft Natural keyboard, you can use:
# Option "XkbModel" "microsoft"
#
# Then to change the language, change the Layout setting.
# For example, a german layout can be obtained with:
# Option "XkbLayout" "de"
# or:
# Option "XkbLayout" "de"
# Option "XkbVariant" "nodeadkeys"
#
# If you'd like to switch the positions of your capslock and
# control keys, use:
# Option "XkbOptions" "ctrl:nocaps"
Option "XkbRules" "xfree86"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
#Option "XkbVariant" ""
#Option "XkbOptions" ""
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "PS/2"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
EndSection
# ########################################################
# Rest of Configuration
# ########################################################
# **********************************************************************
# Monitor section
# **********************************************************************
# Any number of monitor sections may be present
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "FP1701 #0"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "Monitor Model"
HorizSync 30-97
VertRefresh 50-160
Option "dpms"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "FP1701 #1"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "Monitor Model"
HorizSync 30-97
VertRefresh 50-160
Option "dpms"
EndSection
# **********************************************************************
# Graphics device section
# **********************************************************************
Section "Device"
Identifier "Standard VGA"
VendorName "Unknown"
BoardName "Unknown"
Driver "vga"
# BusID "PCI:0:10:0"
# VideoRam 256
# Clocks 25.2 28.3
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Radeon VE 0"
# Driver "ati"
Driver "radeon"
Option "AGPMode" "4"
#VideoRam 32768
# Insert Clocks lines here if appropriate
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
Screen 0
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Radeon VE 1"
# Driver "ati"
Driver "radeon"
Option "AGPMode" "4"
#VideoRam 32768
# Insert Clocks lines here if appropriate
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
Screen 1
EndSection
# **********************************************************************
# Screen sections
# **********************************************************************
# Any number of screen sections may be present. Each describes
# the configuration of a single screen. A single specific screen section
# may be specified from the X server command line with the "-screen"
# option.
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen 0"
Device "Radeon VE 0"
Monitor "FP1701 #0"
DefaultDepth 24
Subsection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1024x768"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1024x768"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen 1"
Device "Radeon VE 1"
Monitor "FP1701 #1"
DefaultDepth 24
Subsection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1024x768"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1024x768"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
EndSection
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Acknowledgments
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Erich Zigler :
He took part in an newsgroup posting and kindly wrote me back, which helped me solve some riddles. His website is at http://www.superhero.org
The Radeon XFree 86 HOWTO Guide by x-empt (find it in the search engines)
"x-empt is a young linux guru who has a background of computer security
and is an active programmer in multiple open source projects to develop
alternatives to proprietary commercial software." (Source : Radeaon XFree 86 Howto)
** This article has some tweaking information that will work with earlier radeon cards.
More Information
I found a fair amount of information by searching Google in the "Groups" section with search terms "Radeon 8500 Linux"
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Other Information
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Author
HumanX
LinuxDig.Com
Please feel free to distribute this article, as long as the author information stays intact. If you modify the article, please send me a copy. You can contact me at the linuxdig.com from the contact navigation bar.
Copyright 2002
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