Dual-head with ATI Mobility FireGL 9000

I had been looking for help with Xinerama and MergedFB. I missed one line in the logs.

[2008-10-14]

I have an old Dell Latitude D600, with an ATI Mobility FireGL 9000. A while ago I tried to set up a dual-head configuration using MergedFB. No luck. I tried Xinerama. No luck either.

Today I read the Xorg error log carefully. It said:


(!!) RADEON(0): MergedFB support has been removed and replaced with xrandr 1.2 support

With a quick google, I found Multiple Screens Using XRandR. Yay!

For those who also missed that line in your Xorg log file, here's my xorg.conf file.


# xorg.conf (X.Org X Window System server configuration file)                    
#                                                                                
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using     
# values from the debconf database.                                              
#                                                                                
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf manual page.                
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)                                    
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
#   sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg



Section "Device"
        Identifier      "Primary Video Device"
        Driver          "ati"
EndSection



Section "Monitor"
        Identifier      "Primary Monitor"
EndSection



Section "Screen"
        Identifier      "Primary Screen"
        Monitor         "Primary Monitor"
        Device          "Primary Video Device"
        DefaultDepth 16
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth   24
                Modes   "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
                Virtual 2304 1024
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth   16
                Modes   "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
                Virtual 2304 1024
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth   8
                Modes   "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
                Virtual 2304 1024
        EndSubSection
EndSection

I've used a colour depth of 16 because my card doesn't have enough memory for more colour at the resolution I want. Once you've BACKED UP your current xorg.conf file, changed it, and restarted X, then open a terminal, and try something like


xrandr --auto --output VGA-0 --mode 1280x1024 --left-of LVDS

That will use the screen plugged into the VGA out, at a resolution of 1280x1024, and place it to the left of your laptop screen.

☙