[Intrepid Ubuntu i386 Live CD Final - smoke testing] Second graphic card (Nvidia 7900GS) not detected

[Loïc Martin]

Binary package hint: xorg

I've got a setup with 2 monitors, an Iiyama B2403WS connected by DVI to a Radeon HD4870 (PCIe n°0), and a Cintiq 12wx by DVI on a Nvidia 7900GS (PCIe n°1).

The second graphic card and monitor aren't detected at boot, by the Screen Resolution tool or even in console mode.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 8.10
Package: xorg 1:7.4~5ubuntu2
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersion: Linux version 2.6.27-7-generic (buildd@vernadsky) (gcc version 4.3.2 (Ubuntu 4.3.2-1hostname10) ) #1 SMP Wed Oct 22 00:29:18 UTC 2008

SourcePackage: xorg
Uname: Linux 2.6.27-7-generic i686
xkbcomp:

[rainpl (rainpl)]

Just a note: Intrepid Ibex is not final yet, you propably meant RC in the subject...

[Loïc Martin (loic-martin3)]

I'm smoke testing the Final iso through bzr and a daily sync. RC was smoke tested and iso tested a few days ago, now it's Final release smoke testing (RC is out now) but I could be mistaken: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/ISO/Schedule

BTW, still on the Live Session, sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg doesn't improve anything.

[Loïc Martin (loic-martin3)]

Funny thing is, since Bug #288350 is still there, when I want to enable normal visual effects, it downloads the Nvidia proprietary drivers (with only the Radeon card connected it doesn't offer any proprietary drivers)

[Loïc Martin (loic-martin3)]

After installing the nvidia drivers, X is hosed and sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh doesn't work at all. Relevant files after the hosing are attached below.

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

multi-card multi-head is not supported, at least not yet. And don't even think of mixing proprietary/OSS drivers.

[Loïc Martin (loic-martin3)]

Yes, but should it bork the system when 2 graphic cards of different companies are installed in the computer?
The OS was definitely using the ATI card and its open source driver, not the open source nv driver, so why download and install the Nvidia proprietary drivers when the user activates Visual Effects?

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Hi loic,

Well, we already have bug 316514 open for the general issue that multi-card setups don't work. So in essence the primary issue described in the description is a dupe of that.

However, you've identified a viable flaw in that the system ought to still work, even if it is ignoring the second card. So we can keep this bug to focus on the secondary issue you've found, that Visual Effects is triggering a download of the proprietary driver for a secondary card that is not being used by X. Does that sound like an acceptable course of action? The title and description should be revised to focus on that problem, and this bug should be reassigned to... hmm... jockey I guess?

[Loïc Martin (loic-martin3)]

Hi Bryce,
Sorry for the delay. While I'm still planing to get an ATI card in the future (6 month possibly, if the drivers improve by that time) and am still interested by this issue (especially with Jockey, since it's a severe bug for inexperienced users), I didn't keep the HD4870, and won't be able to test if the problem has been addressed in Jaunty.

So it's probably better to just close the bug and let someone else submit it to jockey with up-to-date apport files.