Fedora Core 5 Dual Head

[Rick Stevens]

On Tue, 2006-04-25 at 14:52 -0600, karlp at ourldsfamily.com wrote:
> On Mon, April 24, 2006 5:08 pm, Rick Stevens said:
> > On Mon, 2006-04-24 at 16:47 -0600, karlp at ourldsfamily.com wrote:
> >> On Mon, April 24, 2006 12:36 pm, Rick Stevens said:
> >> > On Sun, 2006-04-23 at 12:59 -0600, karlp at ourldsfamily.com wrote:
> >> >> When I turn on Dual Head for X.org, it looks like the second monitor
> >> has a
> >> >> bad horizontal sync setting. With FC4, it worked out of the box, first
> >> >> try.
> >> >> I've edited xorg.conf to no avail as system-config-display messes
> >> things
> >> >> up
> >> >> rather than making it easier. On FC4, I could probe the monitor and it
> >> >> would
> >> >> come back correctly. No such option here, or am I running the wrong
> >> app?
> >> >
> >> > Which video card are you using, Karl?  If it's nVidia, did you install
> >> > a new binary driver and if so, try using their config tool.
> >>
> >> ATI. It worked flawlessly on FC4. . .
> >
> > Hmmmm.  Well, FC5 uses a much later kernel.  Wonder if there's an issue
> > with ATI's driver and it.
> >
> 
> I've now tried an nVidia card with the same results. Okay, not the same.
> much worse. ATI at least powers both monitors if I don't have dual head on.
> With it on, the cursor shows up, but the rest of the screen is messed up.
> With nVidia, the screen goes to block characters, flashing, no GUI at all.
> No mouse pointer, nothing.
> 
> I've got a newer 9250 series nVidia card to try later if I have time so I
> guess we'll see how that goes.
> 
> >> >> One very annoying little side affect is that the bottom panel is now in
> >> >> the
> >> >> middle of the screen and one I added to the side is about 1/3rd of the
> >> way
> >> >> off the right edge. I can't get those to behave either...
> >> >
> >> > That's definitely either a vsync issue or a resolution issue.
> >>
> >> Solved that. Middle mouse button, drag to edge of screen, let go of mouse
> >> button. Duh.
> >
> > Ugnh!  I misunderstood you...I thought it was at the margin of the
> > screen, but the screen was mucked up.
> 
> Nope, I'm messed up. Drat.
> 
> >
> >>
> >> >
> >> > To be honest, I'm just now getting a machine up to run FC5 (haven't had
> >> > the time until now), so I'll be in a better position to answer FC5
> >> > issues later.
> >
> > And my laptop is being a right bitch about doing FC5.
> 
> Sounds like X.org has some issues about keeping back-compatible
> drivers/driver-interpreters in a useful state.
> 
> Have fun with the laptop. I just ordered a new PC for work and the vendor is
> installing FC4 on it. I guess I'll be giving up the GUI updater in favor of
> the command-line yum, which I'm using more on FC5 anyway.

Got the laptop up last night.  I couldn't get an upgrade to work (lots
of weird crashes).  The machine wasn't doing anything anyway, so I nuked
it and did a fresh install which went flawlessly.

BTW, gang, you'll have better luck burning your CDs for FC5 if you don't
burn them at high speed.  Several of the CDs are pushing the 700MB
barrier pretty hard (685-688 MB) and you may have issues burning them at
high speed due to edge flutter on the media.  Remember, CDs are burned
starting at the center and working out towards the edge.  The faster you
spin it, the more the media flutters out at the edge.

You'll probably also have better luck using TAO mode instead of DAO.
So:

	1) Use good 700MB media (TDK, Memorex, etc.)
	2) Burn at a lower speed (I'd suggest no faster than 16-32X)
	3) Use TAO mode

Or, in cdrecord parlance:

	cdrecord dev=ATA:1,0,0 speed=16 -tao name-of-image.iso

And by all means, use the mediacheck facility of the installer.  I'd
recommend booting the installer with either "ide=nodma" or "hdX=nodma"
where "hdX" is the device name of your CD drive and check the media
before you try an install.  The time you spend there will really keep
you from ripping your hair out.  These are really full CDs and even with
the things I mentioned above, you may have problems with the media.

"Perseverance:  When you're too damned stubborn to say 'I quit!'"

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- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-         If this is the first day of the rest of my life...         -
-                        I'm in BIG trouble!                         -
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