Triple Head Nvidia and Intel

Question

I have a dell inspiron with an Intel integrated video and an nvidia video card. actually i have a dual head 2 x 27 samsungs monitors and i got an old 24 inch sitting there by himself crying to be plugged.

i would like to know if it's possible to do have a triple head with my computer and if so, how can i do it?

Solution 1

yes its possible, look at this one:

http://wn.com/6_Monitor_Linux_workstation_using_Ubuntu_and_Compiz

this guy use 6 monitors, so 3 its possible

now, here's a config i found : https://superuser.com/questions/132290/triple-monitor-setup-in-linux

# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings
# nvidia-settings:  version 1.0  (buildd@crested)  Sun Feb  1 20:25:37 UTC 2009
# edited by me (brendan) 2010-04-18


#   NVIDIA magic (something about glx-new?)
Section "Module"
    Load           "glx"
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
    Option         "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection



#   Keyboards and Mice
Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
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




#   Physical Monitors:
Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Acer"
    ModelName      "Acer H233H"
    HorizSync       40.0 - 70.0
    VertRefresh     60.0
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier      "Monitor1"
    VendorName     "Acer"
    ModelName      "Acer AL2216W"
    HorizSync       40.0 - 70.0
    VertRefresh     60.0
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor2"
    VendorName     "BenQ"
    ModelName      "BenQ W500"
    HorizSync       44.955 - 45.0
    VertRefresh     59.94 - 60.0
EndSection




#   Physical Video Cards/Ports:
Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce 9800 GTX+"
#    Screen          0
    BusID          "PCI:5:0:0"
EndSection

#Section "Device"
#    Identifier     "Device1"
#    Driver         "nvidia"
#    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
#    BoardName      "GeForce 9800 GTX+"
#    BusID          "PCI:5:0:0"
#    Screen         1
#EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier    "Device2"
    Driver        "nvidia"
    VendorName    "nVidia Corporation"
    BoardName     "GeForce 7900 GT/GTO"
    BusID         "PCI:4:0:0"
    Option        "TVStandard" "HD720p"
EndSection




####    Default 3-monitor Layout 'default'

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Default Layout"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    Screen      1  "Screen2" LeftOf "Screen0"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
    Option         "Xinerama" "0"
EndSection


#   Virtual Screens
Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "TwinView" "1"
#    Option         "NoTwinViewXineramaInfo"
    Option         "metamodes" "DFP-0: 1920x1080 +1680+0, DFP-1: 1680x1050 +0+30"
#    Option         "metamodes" "DFP-0: 1920x1080 +1680+0, DFP-1: 1680x1050 +0+15; DFP-0: NULL, DFP-1: 1680x1050 +0+0"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

#Section "Screen"
#    Identifier     "Screen0"
#    Device         "Device0"
#    Monitor        "Monitor0"
#    DefaultDepth    24
#    Option         "TwinView" "0"
#    Option         "metamodes" "1920x1080"
#    SubSection     "Display"
#        Depth       24
#    EndSubSection
#EndSection

#Section "Screen"
#    Identifier     "Screen1"
#    Device         "Device1"
#    Monitor        "Monitor1"
#    DefaultDepth    24
#    Option         "TwinView" "0"
#    Option         "metamodes" "1680x1050"
#    SubSection     "Display"
#        Depth       24
#    EndSubSection
#EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen2"
    Device         "Device2"
    Monitor        "Monitor2"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "TwinView" "0"
    Option         "metamodes" "1280x720"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Of course you will have to modify it but that will help you to see how ti works

found another tread about it: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1502753

another one: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1811366

Solution 2

Currently, there is no way to make it work so that you are actually using a single session on all three. There is work being done on kernel & Xorg upstream to make it possible, though. It'll still take quite some time to get it in shape, and included in a release.

EDIT: meh, forgot about xinerama, see for instance Triple-head on a Lenovo T520 for instructions about setting it up. Note that you won't get 3D on the intel though, if you use nvidia's driver.

Comments

[Dom]

really? Can you supply details on this? I find it hard to believe that it's impossible to do 4+ monitors (on session) in Linux. What's preventing it in this case?

[Alex]

In this configuration, all seems to be nvidia cards - so is this really the same? Can the X server load two different drivers?