X11 MGA driver and xrandr

[Warren Block]

On Sun, 26 Apr 2009, Steven Friedrich wrote:

> This system has been a dual-monitor since before the change-over from XFree86 
> to xorg.  The change-over resulted in losing dual-monitor capability, but 
> I've recently taken another shot at it.  I knew I'd need to be patient during 
> the change-over.

The changeover from XFree86 to xorg was quite a while back.  There have 
been substantial changes to xorg in the last couple of months.

> Both monitors are presenting the same desktop, not spread across them, just 
> duplicated, which isn't useful. 8o)
>
> The system is running 7.1p4, and latest ports, kde3.5.10_1. xrandr reports 
> only one screen, Screen0.

There's information here:

http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/mgapatch/xorg-patch.txt

> I've tried running X without xorg.conf, with only ServerFlags Option 
> AllowEmptyInput, and I even tried to use a Monitor section to force VGA2 on. 
> I don't know if the numbering starts at 0 or 1, but I've tried VGA1 and VGA2, 
> with Option Enable true. I have a Matrox G550 with a standard VGA connector 
> and a DVI connector with the VGA adapter on it.

Not sure if the DVI connector on a G550 will work with mga 1.4.9 at all. 
Or if 1.4.9 has been patched to work with xorg-server 1.6.

> How do I get xrandr to recognize my second port.  Should I be waiting for a 
> few more changes to MGA driver?

You could try to get someone interested in it.  Those cards are at least 
ten years old, and mostly AGP, so they're not likely to get a lot of 
interest.

> I'm not currently using mga_hal. I tried hal just now and it doesn't help.

hal is not related to mga_hal; two different things.  Recent versions of 
the mga driver don't use mga_hal anyway.

> Also, I noticed that when I use root to autoconfig X, it sets the driver to 
> vesa, not mga, although there are MGA lines in xorg.conf.
>
> Please don't tell me to get different video cards. 8o)

That's what I did, after dragging a couple of MGA 450 cards along for 
the last few years because of their video quality with long VGA cables.

But newer motherboards don't have AGP slots any more, and current, 
supported video cards have DVI ports that can at least match the MGA 
video quality with long cables (and DVI monitors).  Radeon X1650 is 
supported and can be had in AGP or PCIE versions.  Just saying.

-Warren Block * Rapid City, South Dakota USA