[ltp] Re: SOLVED Re: Dual Monitor no longer working with Gutsy on T60p FireGL

David Abrahams linux-thinkpad@linux-thinkpad.org
Tue, 06 Nov 2007 13:48:43 -0500


on Mon Nov 05 2007, Bill Moseley <moseley-AT-hank.org> wrote:

> On Mon, Nov 05, 2007 at 03:09:04PM -0500, David Abrahams wrote:
>> > No, I don't think that's true.  I failed to keep notes on setting it
>> > up as I remember it was unexpectedly easy to set up.
>> 
>> What you had to do for setup has little to do with whether it's
>> Xinerama under the covers.
>> 
>>    $ grep Xinerama /var/log/Xorg.0.log
>>    (II) fglrx(0): Initialized in-driver Xinerama extension
>
> IIUC, that's just loading the extension, not enabling it.  If I added
>
>     option  "Xinerama" "on"
>
> or used +Xinerama to startx then X won't even start.

My point is that the driver has a Xinerama extension and (IIUC) uses
Xinerama facilities to do its multi-screen stuff.  That doesn't mean
you should enable Xinerama in your xorg.conf.  But anyway, this is all
hearsay, so take it for what it's worth.

>> > What I don't understand is how GNOME achieve that control.
>> 
>> Forget gnome.
>
> Yes, that option doesn't work to set the screens, but the "Screen
> Resolution" does allow setting of the resolution of both screens while
> running.

Yes, that just invokes xrandr, which is what I use.

>> If you don't want a mirror, you want something like
>> 
>>    aticonfig --initial --dtop=horizontal --enable-monitor=lvds,crt1
>
> Not sure you want --initial there, but anyway that's what I had.

You want it if you suspect your xorg.conf is messed up.

> Here's how the problem was solved:
>
> The update to Gusty included a new fglrx driver and support for xgl
> (to support Compiz).  

FYI, the latest fglrx supports AIGLX, and with that, theoretically,
you don't need Xgl.

> Installing the newest ATI driver probably would have fixed this
> without knowing what the cause was as the new driver no longer uses
> xgl but AIGLX so xgl would have been removed.

Right...

> There's some issues/complaints about the newest version of the ATI
> driver, so I'm not sure I'm willing to upgrade just yet.
>
> The upgrade to Gusty also supposedly exposed an existing bug in the
> ATI drivers that prevent suspend and hibernate from working.  Indeed,
> if I boot w/o running X suspend and hibernate work.

Yeah, that's a long-standing problem.  I had suspend to ram working
for a while with fglrx, some update eventually broke that.  I also had
suspend2, which is great, working for a while on an earlier system,
and am looking forward to setting it up again... if I can figure out
how ;-)

-- 
Dave Abrahams
Boost Consulting
http://www.boost-consulting.com