Twinview problem with Fedora 12, 9400GT, Viewsonic VX922 and a Sony KDL32LL150 TV

Hi!

I use Fedora 12 and my card is an (Asus) Nvidia 9400GT. I want a twin view on a Viewsonic VX922 monitor and a Sony KDL32LL150 TV. By twin view, I mean the same view on both, the possibility to log in on the monitor and, at least, view movies and pictures on the TV. I’ve been fooling around with nvidia-settings for 2 days and the best I got is get the background picture on the TV. Then nothing.

With “Separate X screens” instead of TwinView, things look somewhat better. Both GNOMEÂ top and bottom panel appear and I could browse the net with a copy of Firefox on both screens. But the icons in the top panel don’t appear on the TV, save Firefox and Evolution. I tried to add the SMPlayer icon in the TV and it didn’t work. It’s also impossible to start smplayer with alt +Â F2.

Here’s a copy of the pertinent sections of my present xorg.conf:

Xorg configuration created by livna-config-display

Section “ServerLayout”

Removed Option “Xinerama” “0”

Removed Option “Xinerama” “1”

Identifier     "Default Layout"
Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
Option         "Xinerama" "0"

EndSection

Section “Files”
ModulePath “/usr/lib64/xorg/modules/extensions/nvidia”
ModulePath “/usr/lib64/xorg/modules”
EndSection

Section “ServerFlags”
Option “AIGLX” “on”
EndSection

2 Section “InputDevice”

(…)

Section “Monitor”
Identifier “Monitor0”
VendorName “Unknown”
ModelName “ViewSonic VX922”
HorizSync 30.0 - 82.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 75.0
Option “DPMS”
EndSection

Section “Monitor”
Identifier “Monitor1”
VendorName “Unknown”
ModelName “SONY TV”
HorizSync 15.0 - 68.0
VertRefresh 58.0 - 62.0
EndSection

Section “Device”
Identifier “Videocard0”
Driver “nvidia”
EndSection

Section “Device”
Identifier “Device0”
Driver “nvidia”
VendorName “NVIDIA Corporation”
BoardName “GeForce 9400 GT”
EndSection

Section “Device”
Identifier “Device1”
Driver “nvidia”
VendorName “NVIDIA Corporation”
BoardName “GeForce 9400 GT”
BusID “PCI:1:0:0”
Screen 1
EndSection

Section “Screen”
Identifier “Default Screen”
Device “Videocard0”
Monitor “Monitor0”
Option “AddARGBGLXVisuals” “True”

Option “ConstantFrameRateHint” “True”

SubSection     "Display"
    Modes      "nvidia-auto-select"
EndSubSection

EndSection

Section “Screen”

Removed Option “TwinView” “0”

Removed Option “metamodes” “DFP-0: 1280x1024_75 +0+0; DFP-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+0”

Removed Option “metamodes” “DFP-0: 1280x1024_75 +0+0, DFP-1: nvidia-auto-select +1280+0; DFP-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+0”

Identifier     "Screen0"
Device         "Device0"
Monitor        "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth    24
Option         "TwinView" "1"
Option         "TwinViewXineramaInfoOrder" "DFP-0"
Option         "metamodes" "DFP-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+0, DFP-1: nvidia-auto-select +1280+128; DFP-0: 1280x1024_75 +0+0,

DFP-1: nvidia-auto-select +1280+0"
SubSection “Display”
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section “Screen”
Identifier “Screen1”
Device “Device1”
Monitor “Monitor1”
DefaultDepth 24
Option “TwinView” “0”
Option “metamodes” “DFP-1: nvidia-auto-select +0+0”
SubSection “Display”
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section “Extensions”
Option “Composite” “Enable”
EndSection

===============================

As you can see, I also tried Xinerama.

Note that I have Compiz enabled. It didn’t work after using nvidia-settings, though.

When I start nvidia-settings from a console, I have a series of messages like the following:

ERROR: Cannot open display ‘localhost.localdomain:0.0’.

ERROR: Unable to assign attribute CursorShadow specified on line 21 of
configuration file ‘/root/.nvidia-settings-rc’ (no Display connection).

ERROR: Unable to assign attribute CursorShadowAlpha specified on line 22 of
configuration file ‘/root/.nvidia-settings-rc’ (no Display connection).

===============================

I once did some settings, I don’t remember where, and nvidia-settings asked where they should be saved, suggesting /root. i saved them there. After receiving the error messages, I deleted the file /root/.nvidia-settings-rc but it is re-created every time nvidia-settings is started.

I reconnected my VX922 with a DVIÂ cable just to make sure it wasn’t a problem of incompatibility between analog and digital. Apparently the VX922 is DDC compliant and I suppose it is the same for the Sony TV. (I just bought it!).

The documentation on the net is very confusing. Are “TwinView”, “TwinView” “1” and “TwinView” “True” all equivalent? I found them all over the place.

I also tried adding the ‘Option “TwinView” "boolean’, with Option “TwinView” “1” moved to the Device section.

IÂ hope you guys can show me how easy the solution is. Until now I’ve been very satisfied with my 9400GT, but now, I’m quite discouraged. It seems to me that adding a new monitor/TV should be pretty straightforward business but discussions on the matter on the net are just endless.

ML.

You should try asking about this at nvnews.net. This forum is only for people using NVIDIA GPUs with linux for computation using CUDA. I doubt you wil get any solutions from here.

After I posted here, I saw other forums at the topthat seem more appropriate. Wouldn’t

NVIDIA Forums > nZone > Hardware > GeForce Graphics Cards

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showforum=26

be appropriate for posting questions about GeForce Graphics Cards?

BTW, IÂ solved the problem posted yesterday. Things are easier once you understand that TwinView won’t provide twin view unless you select select “clone” or “absolute”. I still wonder why the options “right of” and “left of” are not grayed out when using TwinView since nothing works with this combination.

Now my problems are different: screen on the TVÂ not fully filled to the right (background showing). The line I’m writing now doesn’t show on the TV as I write it because it’s cut off, and so on.

So, why wouldn’t “GeForce Graphics Cards” be a valid forum, though your suggestion seems valid too.

Thanks for your answer!

nvnews.net is traditionally where the linux developers for NVIDIAs drivers have posted and answered questions and where the best help on the net can be found. When NVIDIA originally released their 3D drivers for Geforce/Quadro 8 or 9 years ago, they released on an “as-is” basis with no official support channels. nvnews.net become the place to get “unofficial help”. The other forums here are heavily Windows focussed, you probably won’t get any useful help there.