question on dual monitors?

[Larry Hartman]

I just went through weeks long troubleshooting with video cards and dual 
monitors starting with Dapper then on Edgy.  If you have a laptop (or 
desktop) with ATI Xpress 200M--apparently a fairly common card--then you will 
need to go through some steps.

With ATI Xpress 200M: If you are running Dapper, you must download and compile 
ATI fglrx driver ver 8.24.8.  If you are running Edgy, then you must download 
and compile ver. 8.32.5.  Other versions/distribution combinations will not 
run properly.

For all ATI cards, open a console, and type the command:

fglrxinfo

If you get ATI information, you are good to go--if you get VESA information, 
then your fglrx driver is not installed properly.


For ATI users, fglrx must be installed and working properly to enable full 
dual monitor capabilities.  Even after that, the ATI control panel may not 
operate properly, you may have to manually configure xorg.conf as I have 
done.  For the several options that exist for dual monitor setup, depending 
upon your hardware, start with this thread:

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=221174

If you need to discuss ATI Xpress 200M video cards more, I will be happy to 
walk you through it--I've done it twice now--painful for a new linux user.

Larry Hartman

On Tuesday 19 December 2006 13:12, Vayu wrote:
> Jonathan Jesse wrote:
> > Thanks for the help, according to System Settings -> Dispaly & Montitor
> > under the Hardware section the Driver is ati and the Graphics card is
> > ati. Is it as simple as apt-get isntall flglrx and flgrx-control?
>
> The fglrx driver itself is in the linux-restricted-modules.
>
> So you'll have to find out your kernel version using:
> uname -r
>
> Then install the linux-restricted-modules for that kernel. Also install
> fglrx-control.
>
> You can use apt-get, synaptic, adept or any of the package managers.
>
> Then you'll have to change an entry in your /etx/X11/xorg.conf file.
>
> There'll be an entry for the video device that will probably be set to
> ati that you will change to fglrx.
>
> This is an overview off the top of my head. I believe there is a step by
> step page on the wiki.