------------------------------------------------------------------------ Xinerama HOWTO Author: Nico Schottelius (nicos@pcsystems.de) This Howto tries to help any users to setup X running with the Xinerama extension, which allows to make one screen from several monitors. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Table of contents 1. Introduction 2. What you need 3. Starting up 3. Troubleshooting 5. Bugs ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. Introduction Why do you need Xinerama ? And what is that ? Xinerama is an extension of the new XFree86R6 4.0. It allows you to combine several monitors as one screen: 1 2 |---------------| |---------------| | | | | | | | | | >< ---> | ------> | ----> >< | | | | | |---------------| |---------------| As you see, the mouse can run from one monitor to another one. You will like to use Xinerama in one of the following cases: o You need much space for some programs, for example for CAD's. o You have 2 or more video cards and monitors and just want to use them, without any special reason. 2. What you need Firstly you need at least 2 graphic cards (maybe a dual headed one works,too) and two monitors. Depending on how many screens you want to use, you need in fact more cards / monitors. Then you need an operating system on which XFree runs. For instance Linux or Solaris. You can get Linux in the Internet under the following URLs: o www.kernel.org ( pure Linux ) o www.suse.com, www.redhat.com, www.caldera.com, ... ( Linux distrubtions ) After you have your OS running you need the right XFree Version. You need at least the version 4.0. Check out which one you have with papel:/home/nico/X/bin # X -version You should now see something like that: ----------------snip---------------- XFree86 Version 4.0 / X Window System (protocol Version 11, revision 0, vendor release 6400) Release Date: 8 March 2000 If the server is older than 6-12 months, or if your card is newer than the above date, look for a newer version before reporting problems. (see http://www.XFree86.Org/FAQ) Operating System: Linux 2.3.46 i686 [ELF] Module Loader present ----------------snap----------------- If the version is not 4.0 ( first line ), download the latest one under ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/XFree86/4.0/ or better use one of the mirrors found at http://www.xfree86.org/4.0/ftp.html After download the files install the new X with the Xinstall.sh shellscript. 3. Starting up So, where to start ? First check out, which cards you installed into your computer. If you can't remember, you can find it out easily by using "scanpci" or "lspci". Scanpci comes along with the X package, lspci is in the pciutils package. Pciutils are avaible from http://atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~mj/pciutils.html After executing lspci you see some output like that: ----------------snip---------------- 00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX - 82443BX/ZX Host bridge (rev 02) 00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX - 82443BX/ZX AGP bridge (rev 02) 00:07.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82371AB PIIX4 ISA (rev 02) 00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82371AB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01) 00:07.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82371AB PIIX4 USB (rev 01) 00:07.3 Bridge: Intel Corporation 82371AB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 02) 00:08.0 Multimedia audio controller: ESS Technology ES1969 Solo-1 Audiodrive 00:09.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3c905 100BaseTX [Boomerang] 00:0a.0 VGA compatible controller: Matrox Graphics, Inc. MGA 1064SG [Mystique] (rev 03) 00:0c.0 SCSI storage controller: Adaptec AIC-7880U 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc 3D Rage Pro AGP 1X/2X (rev 5c) ----------------snap---------------- The only interesting things here are the entries with the "VGA compatible controller". In the example above is a Matrox Mystique PCI card and a ATI Rage Pro AGP card installed. Why is that output so interesting ? It tells us, in which slot the cards are. For example, 00:0a.0 means pci bus 0, card number 10 ( 0a is hex, in decimal it is 10 ). 01:00.0 means pci bus 1, card number 0. The pci bus 1 is AGP, so we know which one the cards is agp ( maybe you have installed the same card twice, one time agp and the other time pci, so you know exactly, which is which one). For now, write down the bus id, we will need it later again. Before we can setup Xinerama, you need to have a running XF86Config for both cards with the corresponding monitor. If you don't have these ones right now, set them up using xf86config or XF86Setup. I prefer to use the first one, because you can adjust the values better than in XF86Setup. 3. Troubeshooting Before reading this whole section, please check down this list: o Are both cards okay and connected to both monitors ? o Do you really have XFree 4.0 ( or greater ) ? 5. Bugs What ? A howto with bugs ? I don't think this howto will have bugs, but if you think so, please debug it with the following command: papel:~ # howtodebug Xinerama --enable-unknown-user --big-grin Maybe you don't want to debug it, but want to report writings mistakes, dead urls or anything that is wrong or outdated. Or maybe you know more about Xinerama and you want to have this information put here in. If this is the case, send an email to me, nicos@pcsystems.de . Otherwise, have fun with your big, big screen ;-) Nico Schottelius, Last change 18th of March @00:42 GMT+1 ------------- to add: - setting up single server - combining it -