ASUS G73JH + Fedora Core 12 + Dual External Monitors - Howto

I posted this to my blog as well (blog.missinglinktools.com)

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Fedora Core 12 on an Asus G73Jh with dual 1920x1200 external monitors
I recently purchased an ASUS G73JH. I wanted to get a core i7 laptop with a bigger screen and plenty of RAM in it. The laptop contained an HD 5870. The goal was to install dual external monitors under FC12.

Installing linux was not trivial, but on the 5th go-around things went a little more smoothly.

The attempts:
FC 12, KDE Live - failed
Ubuntu 10.04 - failed
Fedora Core 13 - failed
Fedora Core 12, KDE Live, Radeon Drivers + xrandr - partial success

* Reinstalled FC12. Updated everything, kernel at 2.6.32.11-99.fc12.x86_64. Tried to install rpmfusion version of Catalyst drivers. At initial attempt, got VGA-0 to connect using xrandr @ 1024x768. Unfortunately HDMI-0 would not connect to my second monitor. Other resolutions unusable.
* system-settings:display would not allow me to adjust my available outputs either
* finally tried installing the mesa experimental dri drivers. no luck with that either.

yum install mesa-dri-drivers-experimental

FC12, KDE Live, Catalyst 10.4 + xrandr + mesa experimental drivers - success!

* Since I had a working machine from above, I decided to try the catalyst drivers one more time: ATI Catalyst? Proprietary Display Driver
* amdcccle would not allow me to set my VGA panel - kept telling me to reboot. But it did work for my HDMI output / DFP/ DVI panel. Fine, let's try xrandr instead... and: Success!

alias solo 'xrandr --output DFP1 --off; xrandr --output LVDS --mode 1920x1080; xrandr --output CRT2 --off'
alias bdual 'xrandr --output CRT2 --mode 1920x1200; xrandr --output LVDS --off; xrandr --output DFP1 --mode 1920x1200 --right-of CRT2'

* remember to install your mp3's with rpmfusion /etc:

yum install xine-lib-extras-freeworld yum install gstreamer-plugins-ugly


my final xorg.conf:
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "aticonfig Layout"
Screen 0 "aticonfig-Screen[0]-0" 0 0
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "Module"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
Option "Xinerama" "off"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "aticonfig-Monitor[0]-0"
Option "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
Option "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
Option "DPMS" "true"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "0-CRT2"
Option "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
Option "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
Option "DPMS" "true"
Option "Disable" "true"
Option "TargetRefresh" "60"
Option "Position" "1920 0"
Option "Rotate" "normal"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "0-LVDS"
Option "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
Option "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
Option "DPMS" "true"
Option "TargetRefresh" "60"
Option "Position" "1920 0"
Option "Rotate" "normal"
Option "Disable" "false"
Option "PreferredMode" "1920x1080"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "0-DFP1"
Option "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
Option "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
Option "DPMS" "true"
Option "PreferredMode" "1920x1200"
Option "TargetRefresh" "60"
Option "Position" "0 0"
Option "Rotate" "normal"
Option "Disable" "false"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "aticonfig-Device[0]-0"
Driver "fglrx"
Option "Monitor-CRT2" "0-CRT2"
Option "Monitor-DFP1" "0-DFP1"
Option "Monitor-LVDS" "0-LVDS"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "amdcccle-Device[1]-1"
Driver "fglrx"
Option "Monitor-CRT2" "0-CRT2"
Option "Monitor-DFP1" "0-DFP1"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
Screen 1
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "aticonfig-Screen[0]-0"
Device "aticonfig-Device[0]-0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Virtual 3840 3840
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "amdcccle-Screen[1]-1"
Device "amdcccle-Device[1]-1"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

 

Ahem.......... am I missing something here?

 

not sure I understand your reply @stubbornswiss. Is there something else I should add here?

wanted to let people know that FC12 was running on it. Saw lots of ubuntu posts, but no real posts on dual external monitors using fedora. I had lots of trouble with both Radeon and getting the catalyst drivers/amdcccle to work, so I thought I might post my experience.