AMD's MultiView On Linux

[phoronix]

Phoronix: AMD's MultiView On Linux

Introduced in the Catalyst 8.8 Linux driver and further stabilized within Catalyst 8.9 was AMD's MultiView technology. MultiView makes it possible to use multiple GPUs on the same system not for Linux CrossFire but for driving multiple display heads. Using MultiView on Linux you can easily drive four, six, or even eight screens. In fact, up to 32 displays are theoretically supported on a single system (permitting you have enough graphics cards and PCI Express slots). MultiView also allows for OpenGL acceleration across all displays and does not rely upon Xinerama. In this article we are taking a brief look at this multi-GPU multi-monitor feature catered towards AMD's workstation customers.

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=12931

[mgc8]

This was a nice article, with some interesting information being presented. However, I almost fell out of my chair when I read this:

After manually modifying the AMDPCSDB, you will want to save it when X isn't running or hard restart the computer following that. When the system is turned off, rebooted, or other graphics changes are made, the manual AMDPCSDB modifications will be wiped out. Hitting the restart button immediately after saving the button and booting back up, our MultiView hack remained and we were able to begin using this feature.

Come again?! In order to preserve the settings you made in a simple text file you pull the plug on the computer? Are you for real? I would expect this to be written by some newbie on a forum, not to read something like this in an article on what is one of the (few, unfortunately) serious Linux sites!

Not only do you advise people to do this, you actually seem to do it yourselves... Priceless.

Now, in case someone else is reading and wants to give it a try: please do NOT follow the advice presented in the quote above! Doing so may seem harmless, but it would be like someone kicking you while running: sure, you may just loose your foot and stumble or you may get bruised or, if unlucky enough, you may even brake something. The same happens to the computer: it may be completely harmless, or you may loose the latest edit to a config file (talk about self-defeating advice) or you may loose some important data... you never know -- that's why the reset button should only be used when the computer freezes as a last resort.

Besides, there's a lot of different ways you can accomplish the same goal without resorting to extreme measures:

1. Ctrl-Alt-F1, log in, type "/etc/init.d/{k|g|x}dm stop" -- basically shut down X.Org from the console. You are then free to use vi/mcedit/joe/whatever to edit the file and when you're done start X.Org again by "/etc/init.d/{k|g|x}dm start"
2. If you need to keep the settings through reboots, simply edit the file (even under X) but save it with a different name, say "/etc/ati/myconf", then add a short line to "/etc/rc.local" that says "cp /etc/ati/myconf /etc/ati/amdpcsdb" and that will run each time the computer boots.

These are just some examples I came up with on a whim, there are a lot of ways to achieve this... "hitting the restart button" is NOT one of them!

Note to the editor: please do not take this personally, I really appreciate the site and all the work that goes into it. I just can't stand by when things like this get posted publicly!

[Michael]

This was a nice article, with some interesting information being presented. However, I almost fell out of my chair when I read this:



Come again?! In order to preserve the settings you made in a simple text file you pull the plug on the computer? Are you for real? I would expect this to be written by some newbie on a forum, not to read something like this in an article on what is one of the (few, unfortunately) serious Linux sites!

Not only do you advise people to do this, you actually seem to do it yourselves... Priceless.

Now, in case someone else is reading and wants to give it a try: please do NOT follow the advice presented in the quote above! Doing so may seem harmless, but it would be like someone kicking you while running: sure, you may just loose your foot and stumble or you may get bruised or, if unlucky enough, you may even brake something. The same happens to the computer: it may be completely harmless, or you may loose the latest edit to a config file (talk about self-defeating advice) or you may loose some important data... you never know -- that's why the reset button should only be used when the computer freezes as a last resort.

Besides, there's a lot of different ways you can accomplish the same goal without resorting to extreme measures:

1. Ctrl-Alt-F1, log in, type "/etc/init.d/{k|g|x}dm stop" -- basically shut down X.Org from the console. You are then free to use vi/mcedit/joe/whatever to edit the file and when you're done start X.Org again by "/etc/init.d/{k|g|x}dm start"
2. If you need to keep the settings through reboots, simply edit the file (even under X) but save it with a different name, say "/etc/ati/myconf", then add a short line to "/etc/rc.local" that says "cp /etc/ati/myconf /etc/ati/amdpcsdb" and that will run each time the computer boots.

These are just some examples I came up with on a whim, there are a lot of ways to achieve this... "hitting the restart button" is NOT one of them!

Note to the editor: please do not take this personally, I really appreciate the site and all the work that goes into it. I just can't stand by when things like this get posted publicly!

Right, as mentioned in that paragraph, you can do it when X isn't running and everything will be all set. What I just did though was the quick and dirty approach as with the test systems to save a few minutes of time, if a hard restart messes up the software or breaks the hardware on the test system, quite frankly it doesn't concern me.

[miles]

Is it possible and easy with Multiview to configure multiple users on one computer (i.e. having one computers, 2 screens, 2 keyboard, 2 mouses), with either one or two AMD/ATI graphic cards?

[shreg]

Too bad it is only for FireGL.

I do wonder if it works with a notebook (1 GPU and 2 Head)? Not that I own a Mobility FireGL

[HwyXingFrog]

Ok, I've got a question.

I've been trying to find a way to do this in Linux and haven't had much success with the gui configuration programs for ati or nvidia.

Both are IGP's. One is the ATI 780g, and the other is the Geforce 8200.

I have two monitors that fit perfectly in my desk when I set them up like this: 19" 4x3 1280x1024 LCD and a 15" 1024x748 rotated to be 768x1024 right beside the 19" monitor.

I can't get any of these programs set up to allow the monitors to work together, and allow me to rotate the 15".

Does this new CCC allow that?

[bridgman]

Is it possible and easy with Multiview to configure multiple users on one computer (i.e. having one computers, 2 screens, 2 keyboard, 2 mouses), with either one or two AMD/ATI graphic cards?

I don't think we made any attempt to support multiple simultaneous users on one computer via Multiview. The goal was to let a single user with lots of screens make full use of those screens.

[miles]

I don't think we made any attempt to support multiple simultaneous users on one computer via Multiview. The goal was to let a single user with lots of screens make full use of those screens.

Too bad that would have skyrocketed the WAF for the HD4870. Now I'll have to come up with another reason (her games play perfectly on the 7900GS).

[flami]

Is it possible and easy with Multiview to configure multiple users on one computer (i.e. having one computers, 2 screens, 2 keyboard, 2 mouses), with either one or two AMD/ATI graphic cards?

Correct me if I'm wrong , but wouldn't that be what mpx is supposed to do ? ( having several mice and keyboards connected and have them operate independently )

[miles]

Correct me if I'm wrong , but wouldn't that be what mpx is supposed to do ? ( having several mice and keyboards connected and have them operate independently )

As far as I understand, Multi-Pointer X is only part of the problem - you also need to be able to pilot the monitors in a different way than the traditional TwinView/Extended desktop/whatever mode. In Intrepid, thanks to changes on the X side of things, I'm unable to configure the monitors plugged to my Nvidia graphic card as separate screens. Since Multiview is a "new" method, there's more chance it will work better with a recent X setup than good ol' Nvidia way