Two Xservers on 10.5

[odt_p]

Hi,

I have started a project to add another "seat" to my desktop PC. The concept is very simple - the second DVI output of my HD4870 is connected via an HDMI adapter and cable to the AV receiver in the living room.

With default configuration I can get both sound and picture via HDMI to the TV, so that's great. But I don't want to use any of the 3 predefined modes that the control center provides (extended/clone/single), as I don't want my mouse to leave the main monitor. The HDMI output should work as a totally separate display when started explicitly with the sudo Xorg :1 -layout hdmi from xorg.conf. Is this possible at all? It seems no matter how I configure the xorg.conf the HDMI device will always be activated and used for display output even when the default X layuout specifying only the main monitor is started

Running Ubuntu Lucid
Catalyst 10.5

I will add my xorg.conf here ASAP, but like I mentioned it does not seem to matter to what the fglrx driver does with my displays?

[rohcQaH]

I suppose you want the second seat to run with a different user, a different session and different input devices (wireless keyboard in the living room), right? In that case you'll need a true multi-seat configuration, which requires two separate instances of X, like you tried.

But: two X servers running simultaneously (i.e. both visible at the same time) on a single card is not supported by fglrx (or any other non-KMS driver). There are hacks with nested X servers (Xephyr), but those degrade performance.

IIRC it should work with the OS drivers and KMS, but even there it's pretty much an untested scenario and requires a lot of manual configuration.


A good starting point is this:

http://www.x.org/wiki/Development/Documentation/Multiseat

or entering multi-seat into google or the forum search.

[odt_p]

Thanks for your reply. Yes I was looking into having a totally separate Xserver instance with it's own HTPC user etc.

Too bad to hear it's not supported officially on one adapter. I'm not really keen on trying any performance degrading workarounds, a I imagined actually to get better performance with this setup especially for video playback in the HDMI server where it would run without any interfering elements like window managers etc.

What I've managed so far is to totally disable the HDMI from the main layout which seems to write the "Disabled" option in that monitors config.

As I understand nvidia provides this multiple xservers option inside their configuration tool so maybe it would be an option to trade my HD4870 for one of their cards. Thanks for the link on multiseat I'll check it out!


my Xorg.conf

Section "ServerLayout"
	Identifier     "dvi"
	Screen      0  "dvi-screen" 0 0
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
	Identifier     "hdmi"
	Screen      1  "hdmi-screen" 0 0
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "Module"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
	Option	    "DefaultServerLayout" "dvi"
	Option	    "Xinerama" "off"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"

	# Block type: 2:0 3:ff
	# Block type: 2:0 3:fc
	# Block type: 2:0 3:ff
	# Block type: 2:0 3:fc
	# Block type: 2:0 3:fd
	# Max dot clock (video bandwidth) 140 MHz
	# DPMS capabilities: Active off:yes  Suspend:no  Standby:no
	# Block type: 2:0 3:ff
	# Block type: 2:0 3:fc
	# Block type: 2:0 3:fd
	Identifier   "dvi-monitor"
	VendorName   "PHL"
	ModelName    "Philips 190CW"
	HorizSync    30.0 - 83.0
	VertRefresh  55.0 - 75.0
	ModeLine     "1440x900" 106.5 1440 1520 1672 1904 900 903 909 934 +hsync -vsync
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier   "hdmi-monitor"
	Option	    "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
	Option	    "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
	Option	    "DPMS" "true"
	Option	    "PreferredMode" "1280x720"
	Option	    "TargetRefresh" "60"
	Option	    "Rotate" "normal"
	Option	    "Disable" "false"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier   "0-DFP2"
	Option	    "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
	Option	    "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
	Option	    "DPMS" "true"
	Option	    "Disable" "true"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier   "0-DFP1"
	Option	    "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
	Option	    "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
	Option	    "DPMS" "true"
	Option	    "PreferredMode" "1440x900"
	Option	    "TargetRefresh" "60"
	Option	    "Position" "0 0"
	Option	    "Rotate" "normal"
	Option	    "Disable" "false"
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier  "dvi-device"
	Driver      "fglrx"
	Option	    "Capabilities" "0x00000800"
	Option	    "Monitor-DFP2" "0-DFP2"
	Option	    "Monitor-DFP1" "0-DFP1"
	BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier  "hdmi-device"
	Driver      "fglrx"
	Option	    "Monitor-DFP2" "hdmi-monitor"
	Option	    "Capabilities" "0x00000800"
	BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
	Screen      1
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier "dvi-screen"
	Device     "dvi-device"
	DefaultDepth     24
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     24
	EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier "hdmi-screen"
	Device     "hdmi-device"
	Monitor    "hdmi-monitor"
	DefaultDepth     24
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     24
	EndSubSection
EndSection

[rohcQaH]

As I understand nvidia provides this multiple xservers option inside their configuration tool

That would be news to me. When I tried to create a multi-seat configuration back then, I was told it's not possible.
Due to the technical problems involved and the low demand for a solution, I doubt that changed. Maybe you misunderstood what that specific option does?

Can you please link your source?