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List:       gentoo-amd64
Subject:    [gentoo-amd64]  Re: Xorg.config
From:       Duncan <1i5t5.duncan () cox ! net>
Date:       2009-02-14 11:28:43
Message-ID: pan.2009.02.14.11.28.43 () cox ! net
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Paul Stear <gentoo@appjaws.plus.com> posted
200902131208.43536.gentoo@appjaws.plus.com, excerpted below, on  Fri, 13
Feb 2009 12:08:43 +0000:

> Can somebody send me a copy of their xorg.config that is used with 1
> graphics card and 2 identical monitors, side by side. I have read
> various documents and have now locked up my machine twice, it seems a
> bit hit and miss. options and sections are different in every document I
> have read.

I'm doing that (except that I stack my monitors) with a Radeon 9200 card 
with the freedomware drivers, and have been since I switched to 
freedomware Linux as an alternative to eXPrivacy in 2001 (tho the first 
year or so was with an nVidia card and the proprietary driver).

You don't mention anything about your setup except the two monitors one 
card thing.  As Martin suggests, the first order of business is 
determining which card and drivers you use; in particular, whether they 
are RandR[1] compliant and at what level (RandR 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, etc).  A 
LOT of the documentation out there will be for a pre-RandR setup, and 
that's not going to work well on a RandR compliant driver/card combo.  
Similarly, the RandR based documentation isn't going to work well on a 
pre-RandR setup.

Then of course there's the proprietary drivers, which being proprietary 
you go to the maker for support with as the general native freedomware 
documentation may or may not apply.

So... if your system is uses an older Radeon series card and you're using 
the freedomware xf86-video-ati Radeon driver, my config may well help.  
If you're using a RandR compliant card and driver, it should still be 
helpful but perhaps not as much.  If you're using a pre-RandR driver, my 
current config won't be a lot of help (and would only be confusing, the 
reason I'm not posting it without knowing) but as I've some experience 
with it over the years, I (and others here) will hopefully still be able 
to help.  If you're using proprietaryware drivers such as nVidia or 
atiglx or whatever they call it, I may be of some very limited help on 
specific questions provided the driver works as the freedomware 
documentation (either RandR or not) states, but others are likely to be 
far more helpful and if you're lucky, the proprietaryware documentation 
is upto date and applies as well.

So first up, what brand and model card, what drivers, what version of 
xorg-server are you running, and if you know or can find out, is the 
driver RandR compliant or not?

---
[1] RandR, Resize and Rotate, X.org's quite new "dynamic" configuration 
setup.  You can still configure it in xorg.conf, but ideally (as in, if 
everything works as it's supposed to), you don't need an xorg.conf any 
more as the system detects things correctly including plugging in 
additional equipment with xorg running and Just Works (TM).  RandR 
doesn't yet have the same level of static configuration flexibility in 
some instances that the older method did and can be somewhat buggy on 
certain card/drivers, but the big thing it's supposed to do along with a 
similar module for plugable input devices, provided everything works 
right, is kill the need for xorg.conf entirely.

So the question there is have you tried running without an xorg.conf at 
all?  If you're lucky, it Just Works (TM).

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman


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