Activity log for bug #316514

Date Who What changed Old value New value Message
2009-01-12 20:48:01 Bryce Harrington bug added bug
2009-01-12 20:52:51 Bryce Harrington xorg: status New In Progress
2009-01-12 20:52:51 Bryce Harrington xorg: importance Undecided Wishlist
2009-01-12 20:52:51 Bryce Harrington xorg: statusexplanation
2009-01-12 20:58:56 Bryce Harrington description Binary package hint: xorg [Problem] X does not support (or does not support very well) displaying a desktop across more than one video card. When it is possible, a variety of bugs are experienced. [Discussion] Prior to the introduction of Xrandr it was (sometimes) possible to configure xorg.conf to display on multiple video cards. One could then use Xinerama, etc. to stitch screens into a contiguous desktop. Of course, any alterations to this setup usually required hand-tuning xorg.conf. The introduction of Xrandr made a number of things much easier, however it is not good at handling the case of multiple video cards. It can handle dual-head displays, where both monitors are connected to separate outputs on the same video card, but does not work as well with outputs on two different cards. The fundamental problem (as I understand it) is essentially that X can talk to only one physical "pool" of memory, and each card has its own physical pool. Recent developments including GEM and several kernel changes promise to remedy this by enabling these pools to be aggregated and managed as a single virtual pool. [Exceptions] As mentioned above, the problem is most notable with drivers that have switched from Xinerama to Xrandr. If you're using an older driver that still uses the old Xinerama approach, you *might* find it works acceptably. In my own testing, I've found cases where I could get displays across multiple cards, but I ran into so many different bugs (mouse not working properly, X crashing, display corruption, etc.) that it was essentially unusable. Resolving those issues will likely wait until the aforementioned architecture is fully in place. Binary package hint: xorg [Problem] X does not support (or does not support very well) displaying a desktop across more than one video card. When it is possible, a variety of bugs are experienced. [Discussion] Prior to the introduction of Xrandr it was (sometimes) possible to configure xorg.conf to display on multiple video cards. One could then use Xinerama, etc. to stitch screens into a contiguous desktop. Of course, any alterations to this setup usually required hand-tuning xorg.conf. The introduction of Xrandr made a number of things much easier, however it is not good at handling the case of multiple video cards. It can handle dual-head displays, where both monitors are connected to separate outputs on the same video card, but does not work as well with outputs on two different cards. The fundamental problem (as I understand it) is essentially that X can talk to only one physical "pool" of memory, and each card has its own physical pool. Recent developments including GEM and several kernel changes promise to remedy this by enabling these pools to be aggregated and managed as a single virtual pool. [Exceptions] As mentioned above, the problem is most notable with drivers that have switched from Xinerama to Xrandr. If you're using an older driver that still uses the old Xinerama approach, you *might* find it works acceptably. In my own testing, I've found cases where I could get displays across multiple cards (separate screens per-card) when running xrandr, but I ran into so many different bugs (mouse not working properly, X crashing, display corruption, etc.) that it was essentially unusable. Resolving those issues will likely wait until the aforementioned architecture is fully in place.
2009-01-12 21:17:25 Bryce Harrington description Binary package hint: xorg [Problem] X does not support (or does not support very well) displaying a desktop across more than one video card. When it is possible, a variety of bugs are experienced. [Discussion] Prior to the introduction of Xrandr it was (sometimes) possible to configure xorg.conf to display on multiple video cards. One could then use Xinerama, etc. to stitch screens into a contiguous desktop. Of course, any alterations to this setup usually required hand-tuning xorg.conf. The introduction of Xrandr made a number of things much easier, however it is not good at handling the case of multiple video cards. It can handle dual-head displays, where both monitors are connected to separate outputs on the same video card, but does not work as well with outputs on two different cards. The fundamental problem (as I understand it) is essentially that X can talk to only one physical "pool" of memory, and each card has its own physical pool. Recent developments including GEM and several kernel changes promise to remedy this by enabling these pools to be aggregated and managed as a single virtual pool. [Exceptions] As mentioned above, the problem is most notable with drivers that have switched from Xinerama to Xrandr. If you're using an older driver that still uses the old Xinerama approach, you *might* find it works acceptably. In my own testing, I've found cases where I could get displays across multiple cards (separate screens per-card) when running xrandr, but I ran into so many different bugs (mouse not working properly, X crashing, display corruption, etc.) that it was essentially unusable. Resolving those issues will likely wait until the aforementioned architecture is fully in place. Binary package hint: xorg [Problem] X does not support (or does not support very well) displaying a desktop across more than one video card. When it is possible, a variety of bugs are experienced. [Discussion] Prior to the introduction of Xrandr it was (sometimes) possible to configure xorg.conf to display on multiple video cards. One could then use Xinerama, etc. to stitch screens into a contiguous desktop. Of course, any alterations to this setup usually required hand-tuning xorg.conf. The introduction of Xrandr made a number of things much easier, however it is not good at handling the case of multiple video cards. It can handle dual-head displays, where both monitors are connected to separate outputs on the same video card, but does not work as well with outputs on two different cards. The fundamental problem (as I understand it) is essentially that X can talk to only one physical "pool" of memory, and each card has its own physical pool. Recent developments including GEM and several kernel changes promise to remedy this by enabling these pools to be aggregated and managed as a single virtual pool. [Exceptions] As mentioned above, the problem is most notable with drivers that have switched from Xinerama to Xrandr. If you're using an older driver that still uses the old Xinerama approach, you *might* find it works acceptably. In my own testing, I've found cases where I could get displays across multiple cards (separate screens per-card) when running xrandr, but I ran into so many different bugs (mouse not working properly, X crashing, display corruption, etc.) that it was essentially unusable. Even if it could be made to work, this configuration is quite non-standard and not well tested. Resolving those issues will likely wait until the aforementioned architecture is fully in place.
2009-01-12 21:22:34 Bryce Harrington description Binary package hint: xorg [Problem] X does not support (or does not support very well) displaying a desktop across more than one video card. When it is possible, a variety of bugs are experienced. [Discussion] Prior to the introduction of Xrandr it was (sometimes) possible to configure xorg.conf to display on multiple video cards. One could then use Xinerama, etc. to stitch screens into a contiguous desktop. Of course, any alterations to this setup usually required hand-tuning xorg.conf. The introduction of Xrandr made a number of things much easier, however it is not good at handling the case of multiple video cards. It can handle dual-head displays, where both monitors are connected to separate outputs on the same video card, but does not work as well with outputs on two different cards. The fundamental problem (as I understand it) is essentially that X can talk to only one physical "pool" of memory, and each card has its own physical pool. Recent developments including GEM and several kernel changes promise to remedy this by enabling these pools to be aggregated and managed as a single virtual pool. [Exceptions] As mentioned above, the problem is most notable with drivers that have switched from Xinerama to Xrandr. If you're using an older driver that still uses the old Xinerama approach, you *might* find it works acceptably. In my own testing, I've found cases where I could get displays across multiple cards (separate screens per-card) when running xrandr, but I ran into so many different bugs (mouse not working properly, X crashing, display corruption, etc.) that it was essentially unusable. Even if it could be made to work, this configuration is quite non-standard and not well tested. Resolving those issues will likely wait until the aforementioned architecture is fully in place. Binary package hint: xorg [Problem] X does not support (or does not support very well) displaying a desktop across more than one video card. When it is possible, a variety of bugs are experienced. [Discussion] Prior to the introduction of Xrandr it was (sometimes) possible to configure xorg.conf to display on multiple video cards. One could then use Xinerama, etc. to stitch screens into a contiguous desktop. Of course, any alterations to this setup usually required hand-tuning xorg.conf. The introduction of Xrandr made a number of things much easier, however it is not good at handling the case of multiple video cards. It can handle dual-head displays, where both monitors are connected to separate outputs on the same video card, but does not work as well with outputs on two different cards. The fundamental problem (as I understand it) is essentially that X can talk to only one physical "pool" of memory, and each card has its own physical pool. Recent developments including GEM and several kernel changes promise to remedy this by enabling these pools to be aggregated and managed as a single virtual pool. Once the X server and drivers are updated to utilize this new architecture, they should be able to support multi-card functionality with Xrandr as well as (and better than) the old Xinerama configuration, including reconfiguring the display without needing to edit xorg.conf or restart X. [Exceptions] As mentioned above, the problem is most notable with drivers that have switched from Xinerama to Xrandr. If you're using an older driver that still uses the old Xinerama approach, you *might* find it works acceptably. In my own testing, I've found cases where I could get displays across multiple cards (separate screens per-card) when running xrandr, but I ran into so many different bugs (mouse not working properly, X crashing, display corruption, etc.) that it was essentially unusable. Even if it could be made to work, this configuration is quite non-standard and not well tested. Resolving those issues will likely wait until the aforementioned architecture is fully in place.
2009-01-24 02:09:46 Bryce Harrington xorg: bugtargetdisplayname xorg (Ubuntu) xorg-server (Ubuntu)
2009-01-24 02:09:46 Bryce Harrington xorg: bugtargetname xorg (Ubuntu) xorg-server (Ubuntu)
2009-01-24 02:09:46 Bryce Harrington xorg: title Bug #316514 in xorg (Ubuntu): "MASTER: Multiple video cards not supported" Bug #316514 in xorg-server (Ubuntu): "MASTER: Multiple video cards not supported"
2009-03-07 03:44:36 Bryce Harrington bug assigned to xorg-server
2009-03-07 04:01:56 Bug Watch Updater xorg-server: status Unknown In Progress
2009-11-17 19:07:18 Ubuntu QA Website tags iso-testing
2009-12-05 02:28:44 Bryce Harrington removed subscriber Bryce Harrington
2010-03-25 01:32:27 Bryce Harrington bug watch added http://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=18160
2010-04-08 01:29:05 Bryce Harrington summary MASTER: Multiple video cards not supported MASTER: Xinerama/Multihead with several video cards is not supported
2010-08-31 01:57:40 technomage bruce bug added subscriber technomage bruce
2010-09-14 15:04:42 Bug Watch Updater xorg-server: importance Unknown Medium
2010-10-04 17:45:01 Alejandro Cuervo bug added subscriber Alejandro Cuervo
2010-11-23 21:13:58 Bryce Harrington summary MASTER: Xinerama/Multihead with several video cards is not supported MASTER: Xinerama/Multihead with multiple video cards is not supported for most video drivers
2010-11-23 21:15:36 Bryce Harrington description Binary package hint: xorg [Problem] X does not support (or does not support very well) displaying a desktop across more than one video card. When it is possible, a variety of bugs are experienced. [Discussion] Prior to the introduction of Xrandr it was (sometimes) possible to configure xorg.conf to display on multiple video cards. One could then use Xinerama, etc. to stitch screens into a contiguous desktop. Of course, any alterations to this setup usually required hand-tuning xorg.conf. The introduction of Xrandr made a number of things much easier, however it is not good at handling the case of multiple video cards. It can handle dual-head displays, where both monitors are connected to separate outputs on the same video card, but does not work as well with outputs on two different cards. The fundamental problem (as I understand it) is essentially that X can talk to only one physical "pool" of memory, and each card has its own physical pool. Recent developments including GEM and several kernel changes promise to remedy this by enabling these pools to be aggregated and managed as a single virtual pool. Once the X server and drivers are updated to utilize this new architecture, they should be able to support multi-card functionality with Xrandr as well as (and better than) the old Xinerama configuration, including reconfiguring the display without needing to edit xorg.conf or restart X. [Exceptions] As mentioned above, the problem is most notable with drivers that have switched from Xinerama to Xrandr. If you're using an older driver that still uses the old Xinerama approach, you *might* find it works acceptably. In my own testing, I've found cases where I could get displays across multiple cards (separate screens per-card) when running xrandr, but I ran into so many different bugs (mouse not working properly, X crashing, display corruption, etc.) that it was essentially unusable. Even if it could be made to work, this configuration is quite non-standard and not well tested. Resolving those issues will likely wait until the aforementioned architecture is fully in place. Binary package hint: xorg [Problem] X does not support (or does not support very well) displaying a desktop across more than one video card. When it is possible, a variety of bugs are experienced. [Discussion] Prior to the introduction of Xrandr it was (sometimes) possible to configure xorg.conf to display on multiple video cards. One could then use Xinerama, etc. to stitch screens into a contiguous desktop. Of course, any alterations to this setup usually required hand-tuning xorg.conf. The introduction of Xrandr made a number of things much easier, however it is not good at handling the case of multiple video cards. It can handle dual-head displays, where both monitors are connected to separate outputs on the same video card, but does not work as well with outputs on two different cards. The fundamental problem (as I understand it) is essentially that X can talk to only one physical "pool" of memory, and each card has its own physical pool. Recent developments including GEM and several kernel changes promise to remedy this by enabling these pools to be aggregated and managed as a single virtual pool. Once the X server and drivers are updated to utilize this new architecture, they should be able to support multi-card functionality with Xrandr as well as (and better than) the old Xinerama configuration, including reconfiguring the display without needing to edit xorg.conf or restart X. [Exceptions] As mentioned above, the problem is most notable with drivers that have switched from Xinerama to Xrandr. If you're using an older driver that still uses the old Xinerama approach, you *might* find it works acceptably. In my own testing, I've found cases where I could get displays across multiple cards (separate screens per-card) when running xrandr, but I ran into so many different bugs (mouse not working properly, X crashing, display corruption, etc.) that it was essentially unusable. Even if it could be made to work, this configuration is quite non-standard and not well tested. Resolving those issues will likely wait until the aforementioned architecture is fully in place. The closed source -nvidia driver still uses Xinerama (it never got around to implementing Xrandr), so you can achieve multiple head displays that way. The nvidia configuration tool will be able to construct the xorg.conf settings for you to achieve Xinerama multi-head.
2011-01-25 20:17:59 Bug Watch Updater xorg-server: status In Progress Invalid
2011-01-25 20:17:59 Bug Watch Updater xorg-server: importance Medium Unknown
2011-02-04 01:36:12 Bug Watch Updater xorg-server: importance Unknown Medium
2011-03-13 21:32:25 Jun Abbott bug added subscriber Jun Abbott
2011-05-11 14:52:55 Bryce Harrington xorg-server (Ubuntu): assignee Chris Halse Rogers (raof)
2011-12-21 22:47:28 Bryce Harrington xorg-server (Ubuntu): status In Progress Triaged
2011-12-21 22:47:28 Bryce Harrington xorg-server (Ubuntu): assignee Chris Halse Rogers (raof)
2012-02-22 18:13:39 David Duffey bug added subscriber David Duffey
2012-05-09 12:35:49 Davide Zilli bug added subscriber Davide Zilli
2012-05-10 22:54:54 rmcd bug added subscriber rmcd
2014-08-05 20:41:23 Hanusz leszek bug added subscriber Hanusz leszek
2020-05-15 15:30:35 David Duffey removed subscriber David Duffey