Dual-headed Goodness

Updated: 27 Jul 2005 06:06 am by
Filed: Geek Stuff •Linux

I finally figured out how to get my desktop box at work, running Ubuntu (of course!), to deal with the Matrox Parhelia P650 dual-headed video card and the pair of Dell 2001FP digital flat-panel monitors connected. I grabbed the latest Linux version of the Matrox video drivers from the Matrox driver support page, followed the binary driver installation instructions from the Ubuntu Wiki (Thanks, Cory!), and (after much Googling around for example configurations and a couple of false starts) cobbled together the following xorg.conf file. As always, YMMV significantly.

# /etc/X11/xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file)

Section "Files"
       FontPath        "unix/:7100"                    # local font server
       # if the local font server has problems, we can fall back on these
       FontPath        "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc"
       FontPath        "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic"
       FontPath        "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
       FontPath        "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
       FontPath        "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Type1"
       FontPath        "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/CID"
       FontPath        "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi"
       FontPath        "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi"
       # paths to defoma fonts
       FontPath        "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
       FontPath        "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/CID"
EndSection

Section "Module"
       Load    "bitmap"
       Load    "dbe"
       Load    "ddc"
       Load    "dri"
       Load    "extmod"
       Load    "freetype"
       Load    "glx"
       Load    "int10"
       Load    "record"
       Load    "type1"
       Load    "vbe"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
       Identifier      "Generic Keyboard"
       Driver          "keyboard"
       Option          "CoreKeyboard"
       Option          "XkbRules"      "xorg"
       Option          "XkbModel"      "pc104"
       Option          "XkbLayout"     "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
       Identifier      "Configured Mouse"
       Driver          "mouse"
       Option          "CorePointer"
       Option          "Device"                "/dev/input/mice"
       Option          "Protocol"              "ImPS/2"
       Option          "Emulate3Buttons"       "true"
       Option          "ZAxisMapping"          "4 5"
EndSection

Section "Device"
       Identifier      "MatroxVideoCard0"
       Driver          "mtx"
       BusID           "PCI:1:0:0"
       Option          "HWcursor" "off"
       Screen 0
       Option          "DigitalScreen1" "on"
EndSection

Section "Device"
       Identifier      "MatroxVideoCard1"
       Driver          "mtx"
       BusID           "PCI:1:0:0"
       Option          "HWcursor" "off"
       Screen 1
       Option          "DigitalScreen2" "on"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
       Identifier      "Monitor0"
       VendorName      "Dell"
       ModelName       "Dell 2001FP (Digital)"
       DisplaySize     410 310
       HorizSync       31.0 - 80.0
       VertRefresh     56.0 - 76.0
       Option          "dpms"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
       Identifier      "Monitor1"
       VendorName      "Dell"
       ModelName       "Dell 2001FP (Digital)"
       DisplaySize     410 310
       HorizSync       31.0 - 80.0
       VertRefresh     56.0 - 76.0
       Option          "dpms"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
       Identifier      "Screen0"
       Device          "MatroxVideoCard0"
       Monitor         "Monitor0"
       DefaultDepth    24
       SubSection "Display"
               Depth 24
               Modes "1600x1200" "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
       EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
       Identifier      "Screen1"
       Device          "MatroxVideoCard1"
       Monitor         "Monitor1"
       DefaultDepth    24
       SubSection "Display"
               Depth 24
               Modes "1600x1200" "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
       EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
       Identifier      "Dual-headed Configuration"
       Screen "Screen0" RightOf "Screen1"
       Screen "Screen1" 0 0
       InputDevice     "Generic Keyboard"
       InputDevice     "Configured Mouse"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
       Option          "Xinerama"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
       Mode    0666
EndSection