I've been running a quad-monitor setup for quite some time now. I have 2 X screens, each running on a video card, each using TwinView. The primary X screen (the left 2 monitors) is running off a nVidia 7900 GS KO video card, with 256MB of RAM @ 1400MHz, and the secondary (the right 2) is running off an older 6500 with I believe 128MB of RAM. I have compiz running. I was running 4 x 17" @ 1280x1024 each, and all worked well. However, recently I upgraded one of them to a 22" @ 1680x1050. Everything still works pretty well.
The problem is video playback. I understand that 256MB video RAM isn't monsterous, but for some reason it appears that I can't stretch video back on that X screen. I can fullscreen video on either of my right two monitors just fine, but once I try on my left monitors I get BadAlloc errors. This isn't related to a specific player, either. This video card used to run 2x1280x1024 monitors just fine, and I could fullscreen video on either one of them without issue. Now, however, I can't even fullscreen on my remaining 1280x1024 monitor, let alone stretch a video very much on the 1680x1050.
I read around and found that placing the following options in the Device section of xorg.conf might help, and I did:
Option "Videoram" "262144"
Option "Cachelines" "7920"
Option "LinearAlloc" "6144"
It seemed to work once, and since then I haven't been able to fullscreen video again.
I'm using the drivers from nvidia.com, v177.80, as these are really the only ones that have ever even worked for me. Compiz is version 0.7.8, built from git about a few weeks ago. I'm running Hardy. The following are some sample errors from various players:
VLC:
VLC media player 0.8.6e Janus
X Error of failed request: BadAlloc (insufficient resources for operation)
Major opcode of failed request: 141 (XVideo)
Minor opcode of failed request: 19 ()
Serial number of failed request: 649
Current serial number in output stream: 650
(at this point it crashes)
gmplayer:
[aviheader] Video stream found, -vid 0
[aviheader] Audio stream found, -aid 1
VIDEO: [XVID] 560x320 12bpp 23.976 fps 553.2 kbps (67.5 kbyte/s)
Clip info:
Software: VirtualDubMod 1.5.4.1 (build 2178/release)
xscreensaver_disable: Could not find XScreenSaver window.
GNOME screensaver disabled
==========================================================================
Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family
Selected video codec: [ffodivx] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg MPEG-4)
==========================================================================
==========================================================================
Forced audio codec: mad
Opening audio decoder: [libmad] libmad mpeg audio decoder
AUDIO: 48000 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 128.0 kbit/8.33% (ratio: 16000->192000)
Selected audio codec: [mad] afm: libmad (libMAD MPEG layer 1-2-3)
==========================================================================
AO: [alsa] 48000Hz 2ch s16le (2 bytes per sample)
Starting playback...
VDec: vo config request - 560 x 320 (preferred colorspace: Planar YV12)
VDec: using Planar YV12 as output csp (no 0)
Movie-Aspect is 1.75:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect.
VO: [xv] 560x320 => 560x320 Planar YV12
[ws] Error in display. -0.191 ct: 0.243 81/ 81 0% 3% 0.5% 0 0
[ws] Error code: 11 ( BadAlloc (insufficient resources for operation) )
[ws] Request code: 141
[ws] Minor code: 19
[ws] Modules: flip_page
(at this point it crashes)
gnome-mplayer:
Resizing to 560 x 320
ERROR: X11 error: BadAlloc (insufficient resources for operation)
(at this point the picture goes black but it doesn't crash. I'm able to resize back down and it resumes the video)
ffplay:
This has no error, but the exact same effect as gnome-mplayer
totem:
** (totem:2361): DEBUG: Init of Python module
** (totem:2361): DEBUG: Registering Python plugin instance: YouTubeH264+TotemPythonPlugin
** (totem:2361): DEBUG: Creating object of type YouTubeH264+TotemPythonPlugin
** (totem:2361): DEBUG: Creating Python plugin instance
** (totem:2361): DEBUG: Init of Python module
** (totem:2361): DEBUG: Registering Python plugin instance: YouTube+TotemPythonPlugin
** (totem:2361): DEBUG: Creating object of type YouTube+TotemPythonPlugin
** (totem:2361): DEBUG: Creating Python plugin instance
The program 'totem' received an X Window System error.
This probably reflects a bug in the program.
The error was 'BadAlloc (insufficient resources for operation)'.
(Details: serial 41 error_code 11 request_code 141 minor_code 19)
(Note to programmers: normally, X errors are reported asynchronously;
that is, you will receive the error a while after causing it.
To debug your program, run it with the --sync command line
option to change this behavior. You can then get a meaningful
backtrace from your debugger if you break on the gdk_x_error() function.)
(at this point it crashes)
I'm attaching my current xorg.conf
This appears to be fixed with the latest beta 180 drivers, thanks :)