Dual monitor configuration for a noob

[mcouper]

Calling all you Tiny Core gurus!

I am a noob to linux but need help for a little project I started a long time ago.

The Project: I have a Wyse 9450Xe thin client which I have put a PCI graphics card into which has both VGA and DVI heads. I have managed to put Tiny Core onto a USB Flash drive and this boots using USB-ZIP. From this I then use RDesktop to RDP into our work Windows 2008 R2 server while connected to the LAN.

The Problem: I have had both screens working except they mirror each other. So I need to be able to get the two screens to extend with each other. I have played around with the X-Org configuration and now upon reboot I get the error "failed in waitforX" and stops at the command prompt.

The Solution?: I guess the first thing to solve is how to get back into X? The second thing would be how to configure the video output to achieve my dual screens?

I have googled plenty and since I feel so close now I don't want to give up. If you are able to help, please let me know what detail you may need (and possibly how to post it here as all I have learnt so far is from other forums and web pages - so my knowledge is limited).

[Zendrael]

Hello mcouper!

Which version of the Core are you using (3.x, 4.x...)? And which flavor (Core, TinyCore or Coreplus)?

By default, TinyCore and CorePlus come with Xvesa as display server and not the full Xorg. Did you installed the Xorg extension in your machine?

If you did, do you tryied to setup dual monitors with any kind of graphical tool? If you just setup the xorg.conf, could you please post it here?

Are you using any window manager?

Are you sure that this board in you thinclient can generate the signal for the 2 heads without mirroring?

I think that more details will help us to help you.

Thanks.

[mcouper]

Thanks for the reply Zendrael.

Booting Core 4.7.5
Running linux kernel 3.0.21-tinycore.

I did install Xorg.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by 'graphical tool' and 'windows manager', but since I am no good with command lines I did download a GUI (something like LXrandr). At one point when I had both screens mirroring each other it did show results for both monitors and I could either have both screens on or either of each off.

It looks like the graphics card is a Radeon 7000/VE and from what I have googled looks like no problems having dual screens.


Here is my xorg.conf

===========

Code: [Select]

Section "ServerLayout"
   Identifier     "X.org Configured"
   Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
   Screen      1  "Screen1" RightOf "Screen0"
   InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
   InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"
   ModulePath   "/usr/local/lib/X11/modules"
   FontPath     "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/misc/"
   FontPath     "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/TTF/"
   FontPath     "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/OTF"
   FontPath     "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/"
   FontPath     "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/"
EndSection

Section "Module"
   Load  "glx"
   Load  "dri"
   Load  "extmod"
   Load  "dbe"
   Load  "freetype"
EndSection

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

Section "InputDevice"
   Identifier  "Mouse0"
   Driver      "mouse"
   Option       "Protocol" "auto"
   Option       "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
   Option       "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
   Identifier   "Monitor0"
   Option       "Primary" "false"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
   Identifier   "Monitor1"
   Option       "RightOf" "Monitor0"
   Option       "Primary" "False"
EndSection

Section "Device"
   Identifier  "Card0"
   Driver      "vesa"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
   Identifier "Screen0"
   Device     "Card0"
   Monitor    "Monitor0"
   DefaultDepth 24

   SubSection "Display"
      Modes     "1280x1024"
      Virtual     "2560x1024"
   EndSubSection
EndSection

[Rich]

Hi mcouper

Driver      "vesa"

I did some Googling. I found one site that said it should say  "ati"  and one that said  "radeon".
Both included the following in xorg.conf:

Code: [Select]

Section "DRI"
        Mode    0666
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
        Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection
Try Googling the phrase   Radeon 7000/VE xorg   for more clues.

[mcouper]

Hi Rich

I might need a bit of hand holding here....

I used "sudo vi /etc/X11/xorg.conf" to edit the file and made those changes and exited out using ":x"

But after I reboot the xorg.conf file has not kept the changes so I end up with the same error message.

How do I keep the files changes for reboot?

[Rich]

Hi mcouper

How do I keep the files changes for reboot?

Open the file  /opt/.filetool.lst  and add this:

Code: [Select]

etc/X11/xorg.confRun a backup by executing:

Code: [Select]

filetool.sh -bYou can start X without rebooting by entering:

Code: [Select]

startx

[mcouper]

Hi Rich,

I already had that file listed in /opt/.filetool.lst but thanks for letting me know about command line backup and not having to reboot.

So I did some more googling as you mentioned about Radeon 7000/VE and came across http://www.farhadsaberi.com/linux_freebsd/2010/11/dual-Monitor-ATI-Radeon-RV100-QY-Radeon.html

I modified my xorg.conf file using his conf file and tweaked it as I have 1 vga and 1 dvi and using tiny core paths. Here is my new conf file;

Code: [Select]

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier     "X.org Configured"
Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection


Section "Files"
ModulePath   "/usr/local/lib/X11/modules"
FontPath     "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/misc/"
FontPath     "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/TTF/"
FontPath     "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/OTF"
FontPath     "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/"
FontPath     "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi"
EndSection


Section "Module"
                Load "glx"
Load  "dri"
Load  "dri2"
Load  "extmod"
                Load  "dbe"
                Load  "freetype"
Load  "record"
EndSection


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


Section "InputDevice"
Identifier  "Mouse0"
Driver      "mouse"
Option    "Protocol" "auto"
Option    "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option    "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier   "Monitor0"
EndSection


Section "Monitor"
Identifier   "Monitor1"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier  "Card0"
Driver      "ati"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
        Mode 0666
EndSection
       
Section "Extensions"
        Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device     "Card0"
Monitor    "Monitor0"
                DefaultDepth   24

SubSection "Display"
                          Modes           "1280x1024"
                          Virtual          2960 1050
EndSubSection
EndSection
Now when I rebooted I got past my original error and both screens came on (mirrored) with X desktop. I felt like I was back to square one and wondered if my original default config file would have just done the same? Anyway, I'm not going to change anything as it is back!

The next thing following that web page was the xrandr command (slightly changed for my setup);

Code: [Select]

xrandr --output DVI-0 --mode 1280x1024 --pos 0x0 --output VGA-0 --mode 1280x1024 --pos 1280x0
And it worked! Yay, I had two separate screens able to move windows between them!

The next problem I have is to keep this screen layout upon reboot. I have tried putting the xrandx command in the opt/bootlocal.sh and/or opt/bootsync.sh files with no luck. Could another extension or some other script be overwriting this command after them? Or is there some trick to putting this command line into these boot files?

I feel so close now.....looking forward to anybody who can help.

[Rich]

Hi mcouper
I think  xrandr  needs to be run after  X  is running. Create a file containing your  xrandr  command in  /home/tc/.X.d/
and it will be executed automatically after X is up.

[mcouper]

Hi Rich,

I created a file with that command and put it there but it doesn't appear to work. (I think I saw a new message appear just before X started - is there a log file I can read?).

[mcouper]

Eureka! I got it to work!

I did a bit more research about executable scripts and worked out my errors. Thanks Rich, you were correct where to put it. Thank you to all those (especially Rich) for helping me out. I have learnt so much lately and am ecstatic about getting to this point.

I am now in the middle of testing the setup.

I do have another couple of questions about this particular setup, but I'm not sure now whether they will be purely linux;

I am using XDrdesktop to RDP into the Lan Windows 2008 R2 server. I can use two RDP sessions (one on each monitor), but is there any way of getting one session to span the two monitors?

Also, I kinda like seeing the linux w-bar while having the RDP session going. Fullscreen or 1280x1024 is too big, and the next size down needs to be slightly bigger. Is there any way of getting a resolution somewhere in between?

(And does anyone know how to get the keyboard number lock to come on automatically after reboot?)

[Rich]

Hi mcouper

Fullscreen or 1280x1024 is too big, and the next size down needs to be slightly bigger. Is there any way of getting a resolution somewhere in between?

I think the screen resolution needs to be set at the server for the user you log in as.

(And does anyone know how to get the keyboard number lock to come on automatically after reboot?)

Install  numlockx.tcz  and create a file called  numlockon  in  /home/tc/.X.d/  containing the line:

Code: [Select]

numlockx &Don't forget to hit the  Enter  key after typing the line.

[mcouper]

Thanks Rich, the number lock script works great.

For anyone else following this topic;

Since I am new to linux, I use the XRdesktop GUI to configure and run Rdesktop sessions. Within the 'Resolution' section I have since found that apart from the standard options you can also manually type in a custom size. So this solves my previous two questions making the session screen larger and you can make one that spans both monitors.

Now the latest issue I have is a lag/latency issue, especially when say, scrolling in an Excel spreadsheet within my Rdesktop session. Since I am running all the latest extension versions I don't know what else to do, unless there are some other settings somewhere. Any ideas anybody?

[Rich]

Hi mcouper
Check out caching and compression under  Usage  here:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Rdesktop
Right click on Computer->properties->Advanced system settings
Click the Advanced tab. Click the Settings button for Performance. Clear all the checkboxes then click apply.
See if XRdesktop GUI has a setting for LAN type and set it to slow.
You should really start separate threads for some of these questions.