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I have a VisionTek xtasy 9200se video card which comes with two ports for two monitors, in windows I am able to put different windows on each monitor, but in Red Hat it just shows the same display on both monitors and doesn't let me have different windows on each monitor like in windows. How do I get Red Hat 9.0 to let me put different windows on each monitor like I can in windows? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by alc6379

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Short checklist and a working approach for dual-head Radeon cards on Red Hat 9 (for and following up on 's HOWTO pointer).

If both monitors show the same image the X server is in clone/duplicate mode or is using a generic driver (vesa/fbdev) that doesn’t know about the card’s second head. ATI cards like the Radeon 9200SE are supported by the radeon X driver and that driver provides a better “merged framebuffer” mode (MergedFB) which creates one wide virtual desktop while keeping DRI/3D working — this is usually preferable to plain Xinerama on these chips. (xfree86.org)

Quick diagnosis and steps to try (do these before editing X config):

  • Confirm hardware and driver: lspci and check the X log (/var/log/XFree86.0.log) to see which driver is loaded and whether the server detects CRT1/CRT2.
  • If X is using vesa or fbdev, install/use the radeon driver instead.
  • Backup the config: cp /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 /etc/X11/XF86Config-4.bak (or the equivalent xorg.conf location) and then edit the Device/Screen sections to enable a multihead mode. For Radeon cards prefer MergedFB; if that fails use a traditional two-Screen + Xinerama layout. (wiki.linuxquestions.org)

Minimal example to add to your Device/Screen (adjust BusID, modes and Virtual to match your monitors):

Section "Device"
  Identifier "Radeon0"
  Driver     "radeon"
  BusID      "PCI:1:0:0"
  Option     "MergedFB" "on"
  Option     "CRT2HSync" "30.0-80.0"
  Option     "CRT2VRefresh" "50.0-75.0"
  Option     "CRT2Position" "RightOf"
  Option     "MetaModes" "1280x1024-1024x768"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
  Identifier "Screen0"
  Device     "Radeon0"
  Monitor    "Monitor0"
  DefaultDepth 24
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth 24
    Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768"
    Virtual 2560 1024
  EndSubSection
EndSection

Notes and troubleshooting: MergedFB will usually give one large desktop with the two viewports and keep DRI working; Xinerama can be used as an alternative but often breaks direct-rendering and causes some window-manager quirks. If the second output still mirrors, check that the card actually exposes two independent outputs (some OEM boards use a mirrored output) and try different driver versions or the vendor’s fglrx tool for “Big Desktop” if available. Always review /var/log/XFree86.0.log after restarting X for exact error messages. (xfree86.org)

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Member Avatar for alc6379

Try a search for dual-monitors over at .

I'm not trying to spam this forum with an ad for another forum, but I wrote a HOWTO over there about doing something like this over there, and I just can't access it because of my job's web proxy filter. If I recall correctly, I think someone posted some information about running that card under Linux.

Member Avatar for alc6379

Ahah! Found the HOWTO I wrote over there:

That's got some information about running dual headed monitors. If I'm not mistaken, others added to it by posting config files specific to ATI Radeon and NVIDIA cards.

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