Ubuntu
xorg package

Quad monitor setup on 12.04 64-bit

Asked by oshirowanen yoshigawa

I have a new computer with 2 identical graphics cards and 4 monitors as each graphics card has a dvi and vga port.

Only 2 of the monitors seem to work out of the box.

How do I get all 4 working?

I have 2 nVidia GT520 cards (not the most powerful of graphics cards, but it's not a gaming machine) and I have 4 19" monitors, all with a native resolution of 1280x1024. I have installed the nvidia proprietary drivers and Unity3D is working.

I don't mind giving up Unity3D compositing/effects to get all 4 monitors working if it comes to that.

So to sum up, when I connect all 4 monitors, I can see all of them in the nvidia settings app, but only 2 of the screens actually display anything. If I go to the Ubuntu displays dialog box, I just see 1 big screen.

In the nVidia settings dialog I'm getting:

    GPU 0 - (GeForce GT 520)
    CTR-0-(CTR-0)
    CTR-1-(Acer AL1916)
    GPU 1 - (GeForce GT 520)
    CTR-0-(CTR-0)
    CTR-1-(Acer AL1916)

I would have thought I should be getting something like this instead?

    GPU 0 - (GeForce GT 520)
    CTR-0-(Acer AL1916)
    CTR-1-(Acer AL1916)
    GPU 1 - (GeForce GT 520)
    CTR-0-(Acer AL1916)
    CTR-1-(Acer AL1916)

I have noticed that I can either connect 2 monitors to 1 of the cards, or I can connect 1 monitor each to each of the cards giving me a 2 monitor desktop. Both methods work. How do I get all 4 monitors to work?

Can someone please advise me on how to get this working?

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oshirowanen yoshigawa
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Revision history for this message
oshirowanen yoshigawa (oshirowanen-7) said : 		#1

Any help with this will be appreciated greatly. If I need to provide information, please let me know as I really need to get this up and running. If I can't get this running, I will have to resort to Windows 7 and I really don't want to go down that road.

Revision history for this message
oshirowanen yoshigawa (oshirowanen-7) said : 		#2

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout0"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
Screen 1 "Screen1" RightOf "Screen0"
Screen 2 "Screen2" RightOf "Screen1"
Screen 3 "Screen3" RightOf "Screen2"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
Option "Xinerama" "1"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "Acer AL1916"
HorizSync 31.0 - 83.0
VertRefresh 56.0 - 75.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor1"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "Acer AL1916"
HorizSync 31.0 - 83.0
VertRefresh 56.0 - 75.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor2"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "Acer AL1916"
HorizSync 31.0 - 83.0
VertRefresh 56.0 - 75.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor3"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "Acer AL1916"
HorizSync 31.0 - 83.0
VertRefresh 56.0 - 75.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce GT 520"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
Screen 0
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Device1"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce GT 520"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
Screen 1
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Device2"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce GT 520"
BusID "PCI:6:0:0"
Screen 0
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Device3"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce GT 520"
BusID "PCI:6:0:0"
Screen 1
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Device0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "TwinView" "0"
Option "TwinViewXineramaInfoOrder" "CRT-0"
Option "metamodes" "CRT-0: 1280x1024_75 +0+0"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen1"
Device "Device1"
Monitor "Monitor1"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "TwinView" "0"
Option "metamodes" "CRT-1: 1280x1024_75 +0+0"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen2"
Device "Device2"
Monitor "Monitor2"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "TwinView" "0"
Option "metamodes" "CRT-0: 1280x1024_75 +0+0"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen3"
Device "Device3"
Monitor "Monitor3"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "TwinView" "0"
Option "metamodes" "CRT-1: 1280x1024_75 +0+0"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

Revision history for this message
Richard G. (duster3) said : 		#3

To get my quad monitors working correctly I had to install and use Gnome Classic (no effects). You can install it using -

sudo apt-get install gnome-session-fallback

Once it's installed you can logout and log back in using the Gnome Classic (No Effects) session. Below is output of my xorg.conf...keep in mind that I have quad monitors that are all rotated 90 degrees with the two center monitors being used as a single screen. Also, I'm using the NVIDIA driver version 295.40. I hope this helps.

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier "Layout0"
    Screen 0 "Screen0" 1920 0
    Screen 1 "Screen1" LeftOf "Screen0"
    Screen 2 "Screen2" RightOf "Screen0"
    InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
    Option "Xinerama" "1"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier "Mouse0"
    Driver "mouse"
    Option "Protocol" "auto"
    Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier "Keyboard0"
    Driver "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier "Monitor2"
    VendorName "Unknown"
    ModelName "HP LP2475w"
    HorizSync 30.0 - 94.0
    VertRefresh 48.0 - 85.0
    Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier "Monitor0"
    VendorName "Unknown"
    ModelName "HP LP2475w"
    HorizSync 30.0 - 94.0
    VertRefresh 48.0 - 85.0
    Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier "Monitor1"
    VendorName "Unknown"
    ModelName "HP LP2475w"
    HorizSync 30.0 - 94.0
    VertRefresh 48.0 - 85.0
    Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier "Device2"
    Driver "nvidia"
    VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName "Quadro 600"
    Option "RandRRotation" "On"
    Option "Rotate" "CCW"
    BusID "PCI:40:0:0"
    Screen 1
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier "Device0"
    Driver "nvidia"
    VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName "Quadro 600"
    Option "RandRRotation" "On"
    Option "Rotate" "CCW"
    BusID "PCI:15:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier "Device1"
    Driver "nvidia"
    VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName "Quadro 600"
    Option "RandRRotation" "On"
    Option "Rotate" "CCW"
    BusID "PCI:40:0:0"
    Screen 0
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen2"
    Device "Device2"
    Monitor "Monitor2"
    DefaultDepth 24
    Option "TwinView" "0"
    Option "metamodes" "DFP-2: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
    SubSection "Display"
        Depth 24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen0"
    Device "Device0"
    Monitor "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth 24
    Option "TwinView" "1"
    Option "metamodes" "DFP-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+1200, DFP-2: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
    SubSection "Display"
        Depth 24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen1"
    Device "Device1"
    Monitor "Monitor1"
    DefaultDepth 24
    Option "TwinView" "0"
    Option "metamodes" "DFP-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
    SubSection "Display"
        Depth 24
    EndSubSection
EndSection