3 Monitors 2 Video Cards Both ATI

[dminuth]

As the title states,
I have 3 monitors and 2 ati gpus.
GPU 1 = HD 7870 in 2nd pci-e slot
GPU 2 = x300 in 1st pci-e slot.

HD7870 has 2 monitors via DVI plugged in. X300 has 1 monitor via VGA plugged in.

When i boot the system, all info shows on the X300 screen right up to the login screen, at that point it switches to the screens on the HD7870.
Once logged in, the monitor on the X300 stays blank with just a solid cursor on it. " _ " top left corner.

I am trying to activate the monitor on the X300 so that i can span my desktop through all three monitors.

Here is some info :
Amd PhenomII X4 960T
6Gb DDR-3
X300 + HD7870

ATI drivers installed : 14.301.1001
Catalyst :2.21
RandR :1.3

Linux mint 17 x64 ( kernel 3.13.0-24 generic )

lspci | grep VGA :
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] RV370 [Radeon X300]
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Pitcairn XT [Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition]

xorg.conf ; ( i have edited this a few times but it seems it is not being read or parts are being ignored. This is where I believe my problem is )

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "aticonfig Layout"
Screen 0 "aticonfig-Screen[0]-0" 0 0
Screen 1 "aticonfig-Screen[0]-1" LeftOf "aticonfig-Screen[0]-0"
Screen 2 "X300-Monitor" RightOf "aticonfig-Screen [0]-0"
EndSection

Section "Module"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "aticonfig-Monitor[0]-0"
Option "Dell"
Option "Dell"
Option "DPMS" "true"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "aticonfig-Monitor[0]-1"
Option "Acer"
Option "Acer
Option "DPMS" "true"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "X300-Monitor"
Option "LG"
Option "LG"
Option "DPMS" "true"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "X300"
Driver "fglrx"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "aticonfig-Device[0]-1"
Driver "fglrx"
BusID "PCI:2:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "aticonfig-Device[0]-0"
Driver "fglrx"
BusID "PCI:2:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "X300-Monitor"
Device "X300"
Monitor "X300-Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "aticonfig-Screen[0]-0"
Device "aticonfig-Device[0]-0"
Monitor "aticonfig-Monitor[0]-0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

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

Any input that can help me clarify how to proceed is greatly appreciated.
Keep in mind, i have already tried the following without success.
Switched slots on the cards.
Tried to boot from live cd and install drivers ( noticed that 1 screen from HD7870 was showing along side the X300 in the display manager but could only work with the x300, everything else was locked.)
Have tried erasing all xorg.conf and backups and forcing new configs without success.
PLEASE HELP.

[dminuth]

Update...
grep "Using config" /var/log/Xorg.0.log reports that /etc/X11/xorg.conf which is the file i have been editing is being used So i am getting more and more lost as to what i need to do in the config.

Had a brain fart. I looked up the driver's release notes. They make no mention of supporting the x-series of the cards. So i might need another driver. is there a way to setup 2 drivers, one for each card and then bind the drivers to those cards ?

[Mark Phelps]

You might have better results if you remived the fglrx driver altogether. ATI (now, AMD) dropped fglrx driver support for their X-series cards YEARS ago, and any fglrx driver that works with your other card will not work with the X-series.

It's possible that the open-source Radeon driver will work with both cards. You should try it and see.

[dminuth]

Had thought about that as well, but for in-game fps performance i chose the RadeonSI drivers. Without them, my test game D3 runs at minimum settings up to about 25fps. It drops much lower when am in a mob fight. Whereas with the RadeonSI drivers, I get about 50 - 60 fps, and drops to about 45 in mobs. Have noticed similar results in a few other games. Yes i game on linux. I wanted to perfect my rig in linux so that MS can be officially evicted from my tower.

I have yet to try the x300 on the RadeonSI drivers, since last night i fudged up my configs so bad that i did not know how to recover. Thus i re-installed and redid most of my configs. Will report back after this weekend when more testing will take place.

[roblm]

dminuth,

Does your HD 7870 card have a DisplayPort connector, which many HD 7xxx series cards do have. The newer AMD cards support
it's Eyefinity technology, which allows users to run up to six simultaneous displays off of a single graphics card. The card requires a
DisplayPort connector to connect the third monitor, and a monitor with a DisplayPort connector, or an active (not passive) adapter to
convert DisplayPort to DVI. Cheaper adapters support up to 1900x1200.

The AMD Catalyst driver and software is needed.

http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-article ... yFAQs.aspx

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... rt&x=0&y=0

[dminuth]

Yes my card does have it. But the idea was to do it with the materials on hand which are 2 dvi capable monitors and 1 vga monitor. My HD7870 does have the display ports but i also have an x300, 8600GTS, 9800 GTX+ thus i wanna use one of them.. Once i get the dvi to vga adapter on friday then i am free to use any of these.. But for now i am locked to the x300.

[roblm]

Since your HD 7870 card has 2 DVI and 1 DisplayPort connectors, then with the use of the DVI to VGA adapter, which you are
now getting, all that is needed is a cheap DisplayPort to DVI active adapter. This probably would be the easiest route because all
the configuration would be done automatically for you with the Catalyst driver.

From reading posts in the Mint, Ubuntu and other Linux Forums, trying to use 2 different video cards, or an onboard GPU with a
discreet card, and connect 3 or more monitors with an extended desktop display across all screens, is often frustrating to implement.
No solution works for everyone because of the unlimited number of different system configurations.

But if you want to try experimenting with the xorg.conf file some more, then post the contents of the Xorg.0.log file. Open the file by typing:
gedit /var/log/Xorg.0.log

Press Ctrl+A to select the entire file contents. Right click and select “Copy”. Don't save it to a file. Open the Mint Forum reply window
and select “Code” in the menu. Paste the copied lines between the two code tags. If you have problems sending that long file, then
open LibreOffice Writer and paste the contents. Save the file with the name “Xorg0log” as an ODF Text Document (.odt). Below the
Mint Forum reply window, click Upload Attachment > Browse. If you still have problems, then you'll have to use Pastebin.com.

Also type these commands in the Terminal and post the output between code tags:

Code: Select all

inxi -Gx
xrandr --verbose

[dminuth]

I am waiting till friday since it's payday, and then getting both adapters. Of course, just because of the kind of guy I am, I am gonna try to get my 8600GTS to work with the HD7870 first. I like a challenge. Plug'n Play is just to easy. But if that is all that i can get to work then of course i will use it. Is there anything i should know before attempting to run 2 different video drivers on linux, or should i go and look through that series of threads first ?

[roblm]

If you want to try using your existing hardware first, then hold off on the DisplayPort to DVI adapter. Remember that there's no
guarantee that Eyefinity Technology will work on your system due to system incompatibilities and other problems. You may want
to do some more research first. Otherwise, post the information I asked for.

[dminuth]

Got it done. HD 7870 in first slot, x300 in the 2nd. Re-installed Mint, kept my home folder. Re-installed the radeonSI drivers after complete dist-upgrade. All three monitors up and running just fine. Dunno why it wouldn't take on the system before.. But am glad it's up and running.

[roblm]

Were you able to get an extended desktop display across all 3 screens?
If a new xorg.conf file was created, then could you post it.

When you stated that you did a complete distribution upgrade, then I assume you typed these commands:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:oibaf/graphics-drivers
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

[dminuth]

Actually no. I re-installed the base system, kept the home folder.
Did all updates and upgrades and dist-upgrades.
Then added the oibaf repo, then updated and upgraded again.
Then added 1 screen, rebooted, added the last 1 and rebooted again.

As for the xorg.conf. Before i re-installed it was in /etc/X11/ but now i can not find it anywhere.
I tried whereis xorg.conf. Alt hat did was find me the folders named xorg.
and when i used the search within nemo, it couldn't find that file. It did find a folder xorg.conf.d

[dminuth]

Did run into 1 issue, and the only way i could fix it was using a xrandr script at startup to configure my setup.

Seems that for some reason at boot, the middle screen which is also the biggest, went beyond the workspace on the bottom, and cause the menubar to flip in a mirrored style on the bottom of the screen. Basically it looked like a bunch of overlapping stuff on the bottom 2 inches of the screen. Having the xrandr script load during startup keeps this from happening before i even see it.

Still no luck finding that xorg.conf

[roblm]

I think the newest Catalyst driver along with the newest version of Eyefinity would prevent the display problem you have, before using
the script with the xrandr command:
http://videocardz.com/50583/amd-catalys ... ns-support

If you reinstalled Mint, then there won't be an xorg.conf file unless you created one.

[dminuth]

Well I got it working my way.
Using the oibaf repo drivers, since I did not want to use the catalyst or the proprietary drivers due to poor in game performance and them just being plain CRAP.

With the aid of those drivers, and then arandr, and a little boot up bash script, every thing works the way it needs. too.
But thank you for all the input.