triple monitor hardware setup on FBSD - suggestions needed...

[Louis LeBlanc]

On 01/01/05 11:08 PM, Eric Kjeldergaard sat at the `puter and typed:
> > I am currently running a triple-monitor setup under
> > winXP, with an extended desktop that stretches across
> > all three monitors.  I like it.
> > 
> > I would, however, like to use FreeBSD.
> 
> Good choice :)
>  
> > So, first off, what hardware (video card) comes to
> > mind for doing triple screens with FreeBSD ?  A matrox
> > P750 comes to mind, but when you run it with three
> > screens, they downgrade to 1280x1024, which is bad.  I
> > am happy to consider multiple video cards to
> > accomplish this ... at the very least I need 1600x1200
> > out of each card, preferably 1920x1200 ...
> 
> Well, as far as hardware goes for my tri-monitor, I usually have a
> Radeon 7500 and an geforce2 mx400 (or some other cruddy pci card)
> though I'm using a matrox G450 for the primary right now.  Really, any
> combination of supported video cards will work about equally well.
> 
> > Second, what is the support for something like this in
> > XFree86, or x.org ?  What I am really looking for is
> > the ability to create virtually sized screens - so
> > instead of having three total (physical) screens that
> > I can maximize windows inside of, I want to split each
> > physical screen in half for a total of 6 virtual
> > screens - so there are six total areas within which I
> > can maximize a window in ... this is something I am
> > really trying to accomplish.

I think you'll get this through the window manager.  I'm only running
two monitors with the Xinerama extensions (Xorg) but I use fvwm as my
window manager.  Just define your desktop to be a 1X2 area, and you'll
have 2 screens for each monitor.  I use 3X2, so I have 3 screens for
each monitor.  You can even use the pager to define multiple desktops,
all using the same geography.

If you want each screen to scroll individually of the others, meaning
changing the screen on one monitor doesn't change the screen on the
others, I'm not sure that's possible.  Think of the monitors as a 3
paned window onto the desktop, and everything makes sense.

Good luck.
Lou
-- 
Louis LeBlanc               FreeBSD at keyslapper.org
Fully Funded Hobbyist, KeySlapper Extrordinaire :)
http://www.keyslapper.org                     Ô¿Ô¬

People who go to conferences are the ones who shouldn't.