Ubuntu – Two ATI radeon cards on 10.04

10.04ativga

I would like to use two different cards from ATI on my desktop.
One card is integrated with the mainboard and second is bought as a standalone VGA.
Does it have any possilibity to succeed?

Thanks,
Regards

Best Answer

As said so done. I tried to set up two graphic cards but I failed. However I think my little research might be helpful for some other users.

FIRST OF ALL: BE SURE THAT YOUR MAINBOARD SUPPORTS USING TWO (OR MORE) VGA CARDS. For example on my mainboard there's no such possibility to use both: integrated and PCI card at the same time. Only one at a time. You can check it in bios. the HowTo is very helpful, but many things are different in Lucid (10.04) at which I worked, so I will give a little update to it. As I said: I DIDN'T SUCCEED BECAUSE OF MY MAINBOARD LIMITATIONS so feel free to edit my answer and add Your remarks to it.

1) First of all there might be no xorg.conf file in Lucid. We have to create one:

a) disable Your graphic enviroment, for Gnome it is:

sudo stop gdm

b) After it is stopped, it may look like it was suspended or sth, then press 

Alt+Ctrl+F1

c) login in text mode using Your user

d) create xorg.conf file:

sudo Xorg -configure

e) the contents of the file should be written on the screen and the path to the created file should be written also (path depends on how You are logged, as super user or as Your user and just using sudo command)

f) copy created xorg.conf.new (it is created instead of xorg.conf, but it is the same)

sudo cp xorg.conf.new xorg.conf.new.CARD0

2) Turn off Your PC DISCONNECT IT FROM ELECTRICITY and remove Your first card (CARD0) from Your mainboard (physically). Place Your second VGA card. Turn on the PC and repeat the steps from point 1.

3) Turn off the PC and insert first card into PC so both cards are installed. If necessary enable required BIOS features to use both cards.

3) Open both created xorg files (xorg.conf.new.CARD and xorg.conf.new). xorg.conf.new.CARD can be opened with gedit without permission to make changes, xorg.conf.new has to be opended with permission to make changes:

sudo gedit xorg.conf.new

4) From xorg.conf.new.CARD copy the sections titled "Screen", "Monitor" and "Device" (my content was):

Section "Monitor"
    #DisplaySize      380   300
    Identifier   "Monitor0"
    VendorName   "AOC"
    ModelName    "919"
    HorizSync    30.0 - 80.0
    VertRefresh  55.0 - 75.0
    Option      "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "Card0"
    Driver      "radeon"
    VendorName  "ATI Technologies Inc"
    BoardName   "Radeon 2100"
    BusID       "PCI:1:5:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen0"
    Device     "Card0"
    Monitor    "Monitor0"
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     1
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     4
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     8
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     15
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     16
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

and paste it to xorg.conf.new file.

5) Edit the xorg.conf.new file (I will give the sections in which I made changes): Numerations have to be changed (of screens, monitors and devices):

So in the text that WAS NOT pasted change Card0 to Card1, Screen0 to Screen1 and Monitor0 to Monitor1 (other names are possible if You wish):

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "X.org Configured"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
        Screen      1  "Screen1" RightOf "Screen0"   #ADDED THIS LINE
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"
    ModulePath   "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
    FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc"
    FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic"
    FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled"
    FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/:unscaled"
    FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1"
    FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi"
    FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi"
    FontPath     "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
    FontPath     "built-ins"
EndSection

Section "Module"
    Load  "record"
    Load  "glx"
    Load  "dri"
    Load  "dbe"
    Load  "extmod"
    Load  "dri2"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier  "Keyboard0"
    Driver      "kbd"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier  "Mouse0"
    Driver      "mouse"
    Option      "Protocol" "auto"
    Option      "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
    Option      "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
EndSection


Section "Device"
    Identifier  "Card0"
    Driver      "radeon"
    VendorName  "ATI Technologies Inc"
    BoardName   "Radeon 2100"
    BusID       "PCI:1:5:0"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    #DisplaySize      380   300 # mm
    Identifier   "Monitor0"
    VendorName   "AOC"
    ModelName    "919"
    HorizSync    30.0 - 80.0
    VertRefresh  55.0 - 75.0
    Option      "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen0"
    Device     "Card0"
    Monitor    "AOC"
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     1
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     4
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     8
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     15
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     16
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

#I DID CHANGES BELOW HIS LINE---------------------

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "Card1"
    Driver      "radeon"
    VendorName  "ATI Technologies Inc"
    BoardName   "RV535 [Radeon X1650 Series]"
    BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier   "Monitor1"
    VendorName   "SAM"
    ModelName    "SyncMaster"
    HorizSync    30.0 - 75.0
    VertRefresh  56.0 - 61.0
    Option      "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen1"
    Device     "Card1"
    Monitor    "Samsung"
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     1
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     4
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     8
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     15
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     16
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

After reboot it should work.

to check if both cards are installed please use:

sudo lspci | grep VGA

this should list two VGA cards

I WOULD LIKE TO ASK SOMEBODY EXPERIENCED WITH LINUX/UBUNTU TO TAKE A LOOK AT THIS AND TO DO SOME REMARKS.

Regards, Misery

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