On Tue, 2001-10-16 at 19:55, Derrik Pates wrote: > 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 don't think it's too hard actually. The mga driver does it for the dualhead Matrox cards. The driver needs to track chip access for both heads and switch the context if necessary. > > 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). Even with that, there are other obstacles, e.g. the number of screens can't change in the lifetime of the server AFAIK. > > 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). The kernel can't restart X with the correct XF86Config, but you can. ;) > > 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. I think the pieces are all there and they could be put together without docs. I suggest contacting Ani Joshi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, he might even have code already. -- Earthling Michel Dänzer (MrCooper)/ Debian GNU/Linux (powerpc) developer XFree86 and DRI project member / CS student, Free Software enthusiast
