[ale] I need MORE info

[sad at varesearch.com]

On Fri, Nov 05, 1999 at 04:19:04PM -0500, Vernard Martin wrote:
> > Can someone tell me if I can add a 2nd video card to my box and
> > make it dual headed? If so, are there docs to walk me through
> > the procedure?
> 
> Yes, you can add a second video card to your box to make it multi-headed.
> There are several caveats:
> 

Correct card info deleted here...

> 
> 2) The X server that you use. The current release of XFree86 does not support
> multi-head of any sort. You may download and compile the development versin
> of XFree86 (version 3.9.X) and it does have some rudimentary support but
> that's a topic for another discussion. The two commercial X server that I am
> aware of that both contain Multi-head support are the Metro-X server and the
> XI Graphics server. The Metro-X server supports only Matrox cards as of last
> year. THey may have added more by now and the XI graphics supports the Matrox
> cards, the Number Nine cards, STB cards and a few more. In all cases, they
> require that all the cards in the machine be the same. I've got 4 Number Nine
> video cards up and running right now and it works like a charm.  The 
> prelimiary version of XFree86 3.9 will also support cards like the ATI and
> the S3 Virge chipsets but there is very little documentation on that.
> 
> So in general, I tell folks that yes it will work but you have to have a
> commercial X server and you have to have multiple of a supported video card.
> 

I have XFree86 3.9.16 working in a dual headed single logical screen
configuration on a VArStation XMP just fine in my office. The only
problem is that the current sources have a bug in the libXt library
and you have to back date that from the XFree86 3.3.X stuff. This
problem is supposed to be fixed in the new BETA release (3.9.17 I
think) that is due out later this month.

BTW, I am using one Matrox G200 AGP card and another Matrox G200 PCI
card.

I have two identical Riva128 PCI cards also that I am going to try at
home.
--
Steven A. DuChene       sad at valinux.com