Eyefinity Ubuntu Lucid

[bridgman]

All cards using the "Cedar" GPU (53xx/54xx I think) should be able to handle up to 4 displays given enough connectors on the back. The other Evergreen chips (Redwood, Juniper, Cypress) should handle 6. Not sure exactly where driver status stands right now though.

[koshcu]

Hmm I thought there where some cards that could only handle 2 because of how the company had set the card up. The chipset could handle more just that card could not handle more.

I am pretty sure I ran into a few 5000 series cards that could only use one of hdmi or dvi at the same time + displayport.

[bridgman]

Yeah, if the edit timer had been longer I would have changed previous post to "appropriately wired connectors on the back", sorry. If the board vendor wires two connectors to the same sets of pins then you aren't going to be able to use those connectors independently.

In fluxion's case the card might be using the same GPU pins for dvi and hdmi; I haven't looked at the chip pinouts to see what the connector wiring options are.

[fluxion]

In fluxion's case the card might be using the same GPU pins for dvi and hdmi; I haven't looked at the chip pinouts to see what the connector wiring options are.

in my case though dvi and hdmi work fine at the same time, its just when i try to enable the 3rd monitor, hooked up to displayport via a dp->vga adapter (Monster is the adapter brand...i was impatient and this $50 beast is all they had at Fry's), that I find I need to disable one of the other monitors first. otherwise there is no option to enable the 3rd option in CCC, and via xrandr i will get a crtc error unless i do an xrandr --output <hdmi|dvi> --off first.

so that seems to suggest they would've had to had wired dp and hdmi together for 2 displays to only be possible, which doesnt seem realistic

[koshcu]

How well does that monster adapter work when you disable the other outputs? I looked on their website and other then the price and a lot of pictures of gold plated parts there are no technical specs I could find of any kind.

I just wonder if it is actually a very good adapter. Many of the ones that people report good success with say in the tech specs that they pass through EDID information among other things.

[rohcQaH]

just a hunch, but is it possible that that adapter is just a DVI->VGA adapter in disguise?
Maybe the vendor went the cheap route, trying to re-use existing chips, so they relied on DP's ability to route DVI signals.

That would certainly explain why you still can't use the third monitor.


Another explanation would be that eyefinity support is still lacking, but IIRC it was announced to work in 10.3, right? Can you try if it works better on windows?

[fluxion]

just a hunch, but is it possible that that adapter is just a DVI->VGA adapter in disguise?
Maybe the vendor went the cheap route, trying to re-use existing chips, so they relied on DP's ability to route DVI signals.

That would certainly explain why you still can't use the third monitor.

Yah that's a possibility, and i guess it's more plausible than I considered it would be. But this is actually the card I have, and they advertise driving 3 displays, with a footnote stating that 1 display needs to be driven via DP:

http://www.msi.com/index.php?news_no=904&func=newsdesc

Another explanation would be that eyefinity support is still lacking, but IIRC it was announced to work in 10.3, right? Can you try if it works better on windows?

unfortunately i dont have windows on this machine...has anyone seen anyone get 3 displays going on linux using an adapter for DP? or at all... i havent actually seen anyone test this support linux, even with an active adapter or monitor with native DP

[fryed_1]

...I find I need to disable one of the other monitors first. otherwise there is no option to enable the 3rd option in CCC, and via xrandr i will get a crtc error unless i do an xrandr --output <hdmi|dvi> --off first.

I have this exact problem. I can drive two out of three monitors (doesn't matter which) but when trying to enable the third I get the crtc error.

Doesn't matter which of the two are enabled (have it setup now as DVI/DVI/DP) so I can enable any two in any combination but not three.

unfortunately i dont have windows on this machine...has anyone seen anyone get 3 displays going on linux using an adapter for DP? or at all... i havent actually seen anyone test this support linux, even with an active adapter or monitor with native DP

I'm using 3 Dell P2210H monitors. I have a 4th 22" 16x10 Hannspree with VGI/HDMI I have tried as well. I've tried combinations of DVI/DVI/DP, DVI/VGA/DP, DVI/HDMI/DP, VGA/VGA/DP, VGA/HDMI/DP and whatever else I could think of. All results were the same... two monitors works great and crtc errors when trying to enable the third.

xrandr shows the third monitor no matter which is it and CCC detects the third monitor, though it's greyed out and I can't do anything to it.

I remember researching monitors for this setup and though I forget exactly what was said, it was something about video timing was the reason for the DP connection for a third monitor. Active DP provides its own timing if I remember right and the card itself will only provide the timing for two monitors and the third gets it on its own or something like that.

I know it works great in Windows XP/7 though. About the above paragraph, I think it has to be the drivers that provide whatever that third monitor needs to function. When Windows boots up, the third monitor does NOT work until you install the ATI drivers. Only then does it work. After installation, the third monitor does not turn on until well into the Windows boot process (just before login screen), which if you go to a debugging bootup, you can see is when the display drivers are loaded.

[fluxion]

thanks fryed_1, i guess that rules out inactive/active adapters and whatnot being at fault. eyefinity support just plain doesnt appear to work for linux yet, which is what i basically suspected...but it's confusing when seeing that functionality suggested in various release notes.

hopefully it'll happen soon...

[koshcu]

I am definitely looking forward to eyefinity support. Guess I will just keep waiting for now.