I'm a complete noob when it comes to all things linux and am struggling through the joys of setting up dual monitors in the latest version of Kubuntu (8.10 with KDE 4.1). I've been trying things from various forums for hours and so am now hoping qgl can come to the rescue again!

I'm running an ATI X1900XT and have successfully installed the latest Catalyst drivers from ATI, including the Catalyst Control Center app.

I've got two independent displays configured, but I can't get them to display the correct resolution. I need the first display to be 1680x1050 and the second display to be 1280x1024, but specifying those resolutions in the xorg.conf file hasn't worked. Both monitors end up at 1024x768. :(

If anyone is running a similar configuration, could you please post the monitor and screen sections of your xorg.conf file? Or point me in the right direction to get this working? I've seen a few posts online stating massive problems with ATI and dual monitors in Kubuntu - but they seem dated so I'm assuming the problem has been resolved with the latest Catalyst drivers (the release notes seem to suggest this).

Thanks for any help.

Here's my xorg.conf file:

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "aticonfig Layout"
Screen "aticonfig-Screen[0]" 0 0
Screen "aticonfig-Screen[1]" RightOf "aticonfig-Screen[0]"
Option "Xinerama" "on"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "Module"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "aticonfig-Monitor[0]"
Option "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
Option "ModelName" "Dell 2005FPW"
Option "DPMS" "true"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "aticonfig-Monitor[1]"
Option "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
Option "ModelName" "Dell 17inch"
Option "DPMS" "true"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "aticonfig-Device[0]"
Driver "fglrx"
Option "VideoOverlay" "on"
Option "OpenGLOverlay" "off"
Option "DesktopSetup" "horizontal"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "aticonfig-Device[1]"
Driver "fglrx"
Option "VideoOverlay" "on"
Option "OpenGLOverlay" "off"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
Screen 1
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "aticonfig-Screen[0]"
Device "aticonfig-Device[0]"
Monitor "aticonfig-Monitor[1]"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "aticonfig-Screen[1]"
Device "aticonfig-Device[1]"
Monitor "aticonfig-Monitor[0]"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1680x1050"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Here's mine:

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Xorg Configured"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "PS/2 Mouse" "CorePointer"
Option "AIGLX" "true"
# Serial Mouse not detected
# USB Mouse not detected
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
Option "AllowMouseOpenFail" "true"
Option "AutoAddDevices" "False"
EndSection

Section "Files"
#RgbPath "/usr/share/X11/rgb"
ModulePath "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/misc:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/misc"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/PEX"
# Additional fonts: Locale, Gimp, TTF...
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/cyrillic"
# FontPath "/usr/share/lib/X11/fonts/latin2/75dpi"
# FontPath "/usr/share/lib/X11/fonts/latin2/100dpi"
# True type and type1 fonts are also handled via xftlib, see /etc/X11/XftConfig!
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/TTF"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/ttf/western"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/ttf/decoratives"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/truetype"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/truetype/openoffice"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-bitstream-vera"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/latex-ttf-fonts"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/defoma/CID"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/defoma/TrueType"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "ddc" # ddc probing of monitor
Load "dbe"
Load "dri"
Load "extmod"
Load "glx"
Load "bitmap" # bitmap-fonts
Load "type1"
Load "freetype"
Load "record"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "keyboard"
Option "CoreKeyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
# Option "XkbVariant" ""
Option "XkbOptions" "ctrl:nocaps"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Serial Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "Microsoft"
Option "Device" "/dev/ttyS0"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
Option "Emulate3Timeout" "70"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
Option "XkbOptions" "ctrl:nocaps"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "PS/2 Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
Option "Emulate3Timeout" "70"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "USB Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Buttons" "5"
EndSection

# Auto-generated by Archie mkxcfg

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "samsung17"
Option "DPMS" "true"
# 1280x1024 @ 75.00 Hz (GTF) hsync: 80.17 kHz; pclk: 138.54 MHz
#Modeline "1280x1024_75.00" 138.54 1280 1368 1504 1728 1024 1025 1028 1069 -HSync +Vsync
# 1280x1024 @ 60.00 Hz (GTF) hsync: 63.60 kHz; pclk: 108.88 MHz
#Modeline "1280x1024_60.00" 108.88 1280 1360 1496 1712 1024 1025 1028 1060 -HSync +Vsync
Option "PreferredMode" "1280x1024"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "dell17"
Option "DPMS" "true"
# 1280x1024 @ 75.00 Hz (GTF) hsync: 80.17 kHz; pclk: 138.54 MHz
#Modeline "1280x1024_75.00" 138.54 1280 1368 1504 1728 1024 1025 1028 1069 -HSync +Vsync
# 1280x1024 @ 60.00 Hz (GTF) hsync: 63.60 kHz; pclk: 108.88 MHz
#Modeline "1280x1024_60.00" 108.88 1280 1360 1496 1712 1024 1025 1028 1060 -HSync +Vsync
Option "PreferredMode" "1280x1024"
Option "RightOf" "dell17"
EndSection


# Section "Monitor"
# Identifier "lg15"
# Option "PreferredMode" "1024x768"
# Option "DPMS" "true"
# Option "RightOf" "dell17"
# EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "radeon9600"
Driver "radeon"
VendorName "All"
BoardName "All"
Option "XAANoOffscreenPixmaps" "true"
Option "DRI" "true"
#Option "MonitorLayout" "LVDS,NONE"
#BusId "PCI:1:0:0"
Option "Monitor-DVI-0" "samsung17"
# Option "Monitor-DVI-0" "dell17"
Option "Monitor-VGA-0" "dell17"
# Option "Monitor-VGA-0" "lg15"
EndSection


Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "radeon9600"
#Monitor "dell17"
DefaultColorDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
# Virtual 2304 1024
Virtual 2560 1024
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
#Group "video"
#Mode 0660
Mode 0666
EndSection

I have two monitors running of a radeon9600xt. They end up sharing the same desktop space, i.e. not completely independent. I use the open source drivers. It is not Ubuntu, but it shouldn't matter a whole lot.

From memory, the key part to take note of was the "virtual" parts. The virtual desktop is the max size of each monitor res combined. My current setup is for both at 1280x1024, but prior to that I had one at 1024x768.

There is a bunch of random stuff in there of which I know nothing about, but hopefully it is useful to you. i.e. Note some parts are commented by #.

If you are having trouble, a command to learn about is xrandr. This can change things on the fly.

last edited by ccl at 12:50:18 13/Feb/09

I've not tried with ATI, but with nvidia you can do this kind of configuration just with GUI now

Thanks ccl.

Nathan, I've seen posts where guys have specifically gone and bought nvidia cards after giving up with ati.

euphoria; Yeh, I've specifically avoided buying ATI for that reason. I happened to have nvidia when I first went linux fulltime, and have avoided ATI ever since