On Tue, 16 Oct 2001, Gregory P. Keeney wrote: > What are the issues preventing a Dual Head X configuration on a TiBook > (1st generation, i.e., Rage128 Mobility).
Mainly that, from what I understand, the 2-heads-off-one-CRTC model that dual-head with notebooks using the Rage Mobility family chips use is mostly undocumented. I can only imagine that trying to get one CRTC (draw engine) to do the drawing for 2 heads is a serious bit of magic. (I think the Trident CyberBlade chips used in some x86 laptops do something similar.) > Mac OS (X & 9) Handle multiple monitors beautifully (way better than X11 > can); I simply suspend my TiBook, plug in a new display device, bring > the machine out of suspend and BLAM! it works. Yes, that's because they were designed from the ground up with that ability. I don't know if that can be added to X or not (probably not till the Resize-and-Rotate extension is working in the mainline XFree server, at least). > I would suspect that this could be done at the kernel level (the > detecting of new external displays), but would require a restart of X > (not ideal, but definitely exceptable). That's not the main problem. The main problem is just knowing how to tell the chip to do what you want it to do. > I have used Ben's mirror utility, and that is very nice, but what I > really want is the extra screen realestate. (I have an extra 17" monitor > at work, and a gorgeous 21" at home...) That's easy - you're just having the same image output to both displays. The Mobility family's dual-head mode is (from what I've been given to understand) much, much trickier. > I am willing to help, and I can code, but I am definitley not a kernel > hacker (as anyone who has seen my caps lock hack can tell...). Unless you can squeeze the necessary docs out of ATI (either in the clear, or under NDA w/source exception, like the XFree guys have to do), I don't think this feature will be available to Linux users for awhile. Derrik Pates | Sysadmin, Douglas School | #linuxOS on EFnet [EMAIL PROTECTED] | District (dsdk12.net) | #linuxOS on OPN
