Ubuntu Desktop Screenshot of the Day #7 - ATI Big Desktop - Adventures in Switching to Linux

Monday, April 28, 2008

Ubuntu Desktop Screenshot of the Day #7 - ATI Big Desktop

Why in the world have I waited so long to play with Big Desktop?? I can't live without multiple monitors these days but in Linux I have dealt with a limited setup for a while. I've had my system setup with dual monitors but with dual X sessions too. This has kept me from being able to drag icons and windows between monitors. Fortunately things like Cut/Copy/Paste worked but it was less than desirable. I also could not open the same application in both windows so if I wanted a browser in each window one was Firefox and the other Epiphany.

Tonight I decided to just mess with the aticonfig program that helps you setup your xorg.conf for ATI cards. I followed the Ubuntu forums thread on Big Desktop (but only part of the way) and now look what I have:

Click for the full size 3200x1200 desktop image


Isn't that sweet? One interesting note is the screen is not really that large. The monitor on the right is a smaller resolution than on the left so really the gedit window is almost to the borders of the right monitor. I wonder what other tweaks I can get working. I only messed a little with this to get to this point. It is just so tedious fooling with my xorg.conf file!

I see a lot of others have had success too (some more easily than others, lucky nvidia owners):
Also, better background support would be nice here. The background I have now works well tiled. All the other single images I tried didn't work well split across screens. Vote for the brainstorm to have that fixed. Fortunately it may come sooner rather than later as Google Summer of Code has sponsored the GNOME project Individual Workspace Wallpapers which might help some.




And for my future reference (and yours) and backup, here is my new /etc/X11/xorg.conf for my Big Desktop setup of an ATI Technologies Inc RV370 5B60 [Radeon X300 (PCIE)] on Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron (I have a Logitech MX1000 mouse in there too).

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

Section "ServerLayout"

# Uncomment if you have a wacom tablet
# InputDevice "stylus" "SendCoreEvents"
# InputDevice "cursor" "SendCoreEvents"
# InputDevice "eraser" "SendCoreEvents"
# Inputdevice "Configured Mouse"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen 0 "aticonfig-Screen[0]" 0 0
InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
InputDevice "Logitech MX1000"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "glx"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "kbd"
Option "CoreKeyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Logitech MX1000"
Driver "evdev"
Option "Name" "Logitech USB Receiver"
Option "HWHEELRelativeAxisButtons" "7 6"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "stylus"
Driver "wacom"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "stylus"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"# Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "eraser"
Driver "wacom"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "eraser"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"# Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "cursor"
Driver "wacom"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "cursor"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"# Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Generic Monitor"
HorizSync 30.0 - 70.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 160.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "aticonfig-Monitor[0]"
Option "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
Option "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
Option "DPMS" "true"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "aticonfig-Monitor[1]"
Option "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
Option "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
Option "DPMS" "true"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "ATI Technologies Inc RV370 5B60 [Radeon X300 (PCIE)]"
Driver "fglrx"
Option "DesktopSetup" "horizontal"
Option "Capabilities" "0x00000800"
Option "PairModes" "0x0+0x0"
Option "EnableMonitor" "crt1,tmds1"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "aticonfig-Device[0]"
Driver "fglrx"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "aticonfig-Device[1]"
Driver "fglrx"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
Screen 1
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "ATI Technologies Inc RV370 5B60 [Radeon X300 (PCIE)]"
Monitor "Generic Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "aticonfig-Screen[0]"
Device "aticonfig-Device[0]"
Monitor "aticonfig-Monitor[0]"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "aticonfig-Screen[1]"
Device "aticonfig-Device[1]"
Monitor "aticonfig-Monitor[1]"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "0"
EndSection

2 comments:

Economia Fronteriza said...

hi there i need to do just that.. i follow the tutorial but nothing happends you mind if i can contact you via Email or IRC so you can give me a hand.. please thanks in advance..

my email is systm.spanish ][at][ G ma il DoT Com

Forrest said...

Unfortunately my box crashed a while ago and after I started from a clean install of Ubuntu 8.04, this no longer worked for me either. I am now only running it with 1 monitor anyway so I don't know how much much help I could provide. Best of luck though. Xorg configuration is hell.