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):

• Ubuntu 8.04, ATI, & Big Desktop
• Dual Head and Compiz Fusion (user not stuck with ATI like me)
• My first look at Ubuntu 8.04 LTS as a Desktop and Server (another nvidia user)
• Ubuntu 8.04 : Hardy Heron (I envy nvidia owners more now!)
• Configuring Dual Monitor on Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon (ati how-to)
  

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

Upgrading to Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) from 7.10 on my home desktop

Ubuntu 8.04 has been out for a day and a half now so I figured it was time to upgrade. I've documented my previous attempts at upgrading to 8.04 Alpha 4 on my laptop but that did not go so well. The upgrade failed and once I finally was able to get the upgrade to work, things like my lame Broadcom wireless card no longer worked. I've since installed a Beta and upgraded to the final on my laptop and it is working better than ever. Compiz now works on it and the wireless that used to have problems when connecting to WPA access points now works as expected.

So I had high hopes for my desktop. It already worked pretty well. My only 2 issues with it are no Compiz (but I can live without that) and my dual monitors are setup as 2 separate sessions instead of "Big Desktop". That means I can't move windows between them and if some application like Firefox is running in one window it can not run in the other. I imagine I could fix that with enough work though.

So here is how the upgrade went.

First, to start the upgrade you just have to run the update manger with the -d option (update-manager -d). Last time I tried this I ran it from a terminal window but since then I have learned about Alt + F2 to open the GNOME "Run Application" box. (Screen shot below taken after the fact.)


My first attempt resulted in my not having enough disk space.


After deleting/moving a bunch of files, I was off again.


It took about 1 hour and 45 minutes to download the 1,333 packages to upgrade, 40 minutes to install them all and another 3 minutes to cleanup. There were a few dialogs along the way. I had to decide what to do with my Samba "smb.conf" file (I kept the old one) and what to do with my Grub config file "menu.lst" (I overwrote it). I then was asked if I wanted to remove the 57 obsolete packages and I decided sure.


When I rebooted though, my mouse did not work. It looks like I am going to have to figure out how to make my MX1000 work in Linux again. Fortunately I had just commented out the old config so I switched my comments and wala, I have a mostly working mouse. The video was also super slow (but Compiz was enabled). I opened up the restricted drivers manager and the proprietary ATI drivers were enabled but not in use. Strange.


This is where everything went downhill fast. I disabled the driver (it was uninstalled) and then re-enabled it (it was reinstalled) and restarted. It has been so many configuration changes and restarts now, I don't even remember what didn't work. I think the first time it worked as before the upgrade except I didn't have window borders. Booting in safe mode sort of worked. I tried some other settings that failed and got a message that I needed to install "get-edid" but after a quick sudo apt-get install read-edid all I fixed was there was no error listed in the same exact screen as before. At some point too, I installed the xserver-xgl but that just caused other problems so I removed it. My favorite problem of them all though was when I got it sort of working, the screen saver would lock up the primary screen and nothing but a Ctrl + Alt + Delete would fix it.

So now I have a semi working setup, I think, based on my old config. Here is is for when I screw things up again, I will have a backup online:

/etc/X11/xorg.conf with Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron and an ATI Radeon X300

# xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
#   sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "ServerLayout"

# Uncomment if you have a wacom tablet
# InputDevice     "stylus" "SendCoreEvents"
# InputDevice     "cursor" "SendCoreEvents"
# InputDevice     "eraser" "SendCoreEvents"
Identifier "Default Layout"
screen 0 "aticonfig-Screen[0]" 0 0
screen "aticonfig-Screen[1]" rightof "aticonfig-Screen[0]"
Inputdevice "Generic Keyboard"
Inputdevice "Configured Mouse"
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 "Configured Mouse"
Driver  "mouse"
Option  "CorePointer"
Option  "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option  "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
Option  "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option  "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
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"
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