Posted on by peter

How I Enabled Dual Displays with nVidia GeForce MX cards on Ubuntu Feisty Fawn 7.04

  1. Backed up /etc/X11/xorg.conf to xorg.conf.bak
  2. Copied the section entitled
    Section “Device”
    Identifier “nVidia Corporation NV18 [GeForce4 MX 440 AGP 8x]”
    Driver “nv”
    BusID “PCI:1:0:0”
    EndSection

    and pasted in then modified so that I had a second section as follows:Section “Device”
    Identifier “nVidia Corporation NV18 [GeForce4 MX 5200 AGP 8x]”
    Driver “nv”
    BusID “PCI:2:0:0”
    EndSection
    Note, the Identifier doesn’t need to actually be the name of the card, as it’s just used for your reference. I don’t even know for certain that I have an MX 5200, and I know it’s not AGP, but I was in a hurry, so I left it as is. The important part is the BusID section. Since I knew my working, default monitor was in PCI slot 1, and the second card I had was in the next slot, and that both cards were using the DVI ports, I simply changed BusID “PCI:1:0:0” to read BusID “PCI:2:0:0” in the second “Device” section.
  3. Copied the “Monitor” section so that I started with
    Section “Monitor”
    Identifier “UltraSharp 1800 1”
    Option “DPMS”
    HorizSync 28-51
    VertRefresh 43-60
    EndSection

    and then had, in addition,Section “Monitor”
    Identifier “UltraSharp 1800 2”
    Option “DPMS”
    HorizSync 28-51
    VertRefresh 43-60
    EndSection
  4. Copied the “Screen” section so I started with
    Section “Screen”
    Identifier “Default Screen”
    Device “nVidia Corporation NV18 [GeForce4 MX 440 AGP 8x]”
    Monitor “UltraSharp 1800 1”
    DefaultDepth 24
    SubSection “Display”
    Depth 1
    Modes “1024×768” “800×600” “640×480”
    EndSubSection
    SubSection “Display”
    Depth 4
    Modes “1024×768” “800×600” “640×480”
    EndSubSection
    SubSection “Display”
    Depth 8
    Modes “1024×768” “800×600” “640×480”
    EndSubSection
    SubSection “Display”
    Depth 15
    Modes “1024×768” “800×600” “640×480”
    EndSubSection
    SubSection “Display”
    Depth 16
    Modes “1024×768” “800×600” “640×480”
    EndSubSection
    SubSection “Display”
    Depth 24
    Modes “1024×768” “800×600” “640×480”
    EndSubSection
    EndSection    then had, in addition,
    Section “Screen”
    Identifier “Default Screen”
    Device “nVidia Corporation NV18 [GeForce4 MX 5200 AGP 8x]”
    Monitor “UltraSharp 1800 2”
    DefaultDepth 24
    SubSection “Display”
    Depth 1
    Modes “1024×768” “800×600” “640×480”
    EndSubSection
    SubSection “Display”
    Depth 4
    Modes “1024×768” “800×600” “640×480”
    EndSubSection
    SubSection “Display”
    Depth 8
    Modes “1024×768” “800×600” “640×480”
    EndSubSection
    SubSection “Display”
    Depth 15
    Modes “1024×768” “800×600” “640×480”
    EndSubSection
    SubSection “Display”
    Depth 16
    Modes “1024×768” “800×600” “640×480”
    EndSubSection
    SubSection “Display”
    Depth 24
    Modes “1024×768” “800×600” “640×480”
    EndSubSection
    EndSection
  5. Finally, I added the italicized line to my “ServerLayout” section
    Section “ServerLayout”
    Identifier “Default Layout”
    Screen “Default Screen”
    Screen “Second Screen” RightOf “Default Screen”
    InputDevice “Generic Keyboard”
    InputDevice “Configured Mouse”
    InputDevice “stylus” “SendCoreEvents”
    InputDevice “cursor” “SendCoreEvents”
    InputDevice “eraser” “SendCoreEvents”
    EndSection    to add my new, second screen to the right of the default screen.
  6. I rebooted, and then BAM! It worked. Took about five minutes.

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