How Do I Get To The Command Line?, Moving beyond the GUI Options

[Nun-Ya]

This must be the simplest of all questions but how can I get to the command prompt, er line? I want to try upgrading my graphics card, Matrox G450 so that the dual head features will work somewhat as it does in Windows. Is this feasible or does the card only allow for the same view on two monitors?

[Joey]

If you are in desktop mode you can normally hold down the control and alt keys and press f1 or f2 or f3 etc.

To get back I believe it's alt and f7

[Jim]

Or if your using a GUI like gnomoe or KDE (or just about anything for that matter) they will have an short cut to get a command prompt up much like you should get a dos prompt up in windows. Its usually called the terminal.

As for dual head, I have a pretty good amount of experience running dual head since I I currently looking at my right or two screens right now.

Here is what you need to do, first you need to download the latest Matrox drivers and install them. You can get them here:

Matrox Graphics

Ounce you have those installed you are going to need to edit the XF86Config file to include a couple things.

First gain root privliage. You can do this with the su command. Type it at a console and than enter the root password, you will than have root privliage.

The toughest part about doing dual head on the same card is getting the addresses right. Ounce you have figuered out how to get to the command line run lspci -vb this will list all the hardware addresses of things in your system. The result should look something like this.

CODE

[jim@x84-99-17-dhcp jim]$ lspci -vb
00:00.0 Host bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce2 AGP (different version?) (rev a2)
       Flags: bus master, 66Mhz, fast devsel, latency 0
       Memory at <ignored> (32-bit, prefetchable)
       Capabilities: <available only to root>

00:00.1 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 1 (rev a2)
       Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company: Unknown device 12b9
       Flags: 66Mhz, fast devsel

00:00.2 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 4 (rev a2)
       Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company: Unknown device 12b9
       Flags: 66Mhz, fast devsel

00:00.3 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 3 (rev a2)
       Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company: Unknown device 12b9
       Flags: 66Mhz, fast devsel

00:00.4 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 2 (rev a2)
       Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company: Unknown device 12b9
       Flags: 66Mhz, fast devsel

00:00.5 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 5 (rev a2)
       Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company: Unknown device 12b9
       Flags: 66Mhz, fast devsel

00:01.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce2 ISA Bridge (rev a4)
       Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company: Unknown device 12b9
       Flags: bus master, 66Mhz, fast devsel, latency 0
       Capabilities: <available only to root>

00:01.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation nForce2 SMBus (MCP) (rev a2)
       Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company: Unknown device 12b9
       Flags: 66Mhz, fast devsel, IRQ 11
       I/O ports at <ignored>
       Capabilities: <available only to root>

00:02.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 USB Controller (rev a4) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
       Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company: Unknown device 12b9
       Flags: bus master, 66Mhz, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 3
       Memory at <ignored> (32-bit, non-prefetchable)
       Capabilities: <available only to root>

00:02.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 USB Controller (rev a4) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
       Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company: Unknown device 12b9
       Flags: bus master, 66Mhz, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 5
       Memory at <ignored> (32-bit, non-prefetchable)
       Capabilities: <available only to root>

00:02.2 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 USB Controller (rev a4) (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
       Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company: Unknown device 12b9
       Flags: bus master, 66Mhz, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 10
       Memory at <ignored> (32-bit, non-prefetchable)
       Capabilities: <available only to root>

00:06.0 Multimedia audio controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 AC97 Audio Controler (MCP) (rev a1)
       Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company: Unknown device 12b9
       Flags: bus master, 66Mhz, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11
       I/O ports at 3000
       I/O ports at 3400
       Memory at fc302000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable)
       Capabilities: <available only to root>

00:08.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce2 External PCI Bridge (rev a3) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
       Flags: bus master, 66Mhz, fast devsel, latency 0
       Bus: primary=00, secondary=05, subordinate=05, sec-latency=64
       I/O behind bridge: 00002000-00002fff
       Memory behind bridge: fc600000-fc8fffff

00:09.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation nForce2 IDE (rev a2) (prog-if 8a [Master SecP PriP])
       Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company: Unknown device 12b9
       Flags: bus master, 66Mhz, fast devsel, latency 0
       I/O ports at 34a0
       Capabilities: <available only to root>

00:0c.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce2 PCI Bridge (rev a3) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
       Flags: bus master, 66Mhz, fast devsel, latency 0
       Bus: primary=00, secondary=14, subordinate=14, sec-latency=64
       I/O behind bridge: 00001000-00001fff
       Memory behind bridge: fc900000-fcbfffff

00:1e.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce2 AGP (rev a2) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
       Flags: bus master, 66Mhz, medium devsel, latency 66
       Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=32
       Memory behind bridge: fd000000-fe1fffff
       Prefetchable memory behind bridge: f8000000-fc2fffff

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV18 [GeForce4 MX - nForce GPU] (rev a3) (prog-if 00 [VGA])
       Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company: Unknown device 12b9
       Flags: bus master, 66Mhz, medium devsel, latency 248, IRQ 10
       Memory at fd000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable)
       Memory at f8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable)
       Memory at fc200000 (32-bit, prefetchable)
       Capabilities: <available only to root>

05:09.0 Communication controller: Lucent Microelectronics LT WinModem (rev 02)
       Subsystem: Askey Computer Corp.: Unknown device 1515
       Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 66, IRQ 5
       Memory at fc800000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable)
       I/O ports at 2400
       I/O ports at 2000
       Capabilities: <available only to root>

14:01.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3C920B-EMB Integrated Fast Ethernet Controller (rev 40)
       Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company: Unknown device 12b8
       Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 3

       I/O ports at 1000
       Memory at fc900000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable)
       Capabilities: <available only to root>

Find your video card, mine is at 01:00.0 if you see two seperate listings for your VGA controller thats good. Make a note of their addresses and head over to the etc/X11 folder. To do this use the cd command

# cd /etc/X11

Do an ls to see what files are in the folder. You are going to need to edit the XF86Config file. Start by making a back up of the working on

# cp XF86Config XF86Config.old

Now fire up your editor of choice to edit away. I recomend emacs if you are new. Run

# emacs XF86Config

You now need to edit some differnet sections of your code.

You need to change your Section "ServerLayout" to look like this.

CODE

Section "ServerLayout"
 Identifier "Default Layout"
 Option "Xinerama" "on"
 Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
 Screen 1 "Screen1" RightOf "Screen0"
 InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
 InputDevice "Configured Mouse"
EndSection

You should really on be adding the 2 3 and 4 line. Leave anything else thats there alone for now.

Scroll down to the Section "Device" part of the file. This will be your current video card set up. Copy the entire thing from Section "Device" to End Section and past it right under its self. Than change the identifier to something unique. So it should look like this

CODE

Section "Device"
 Identifier "NVIDIA Corporation GeForce [NV11]"
 Driver  "nvidia"
 BusID           "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
 Identifier "NVIDIA Corporation GeForce [NV11]-1"
 Driver  "nvidia"
 BusID           "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

except it will be differnt identifiers and drivers and what not. If your video cards have two PCI addresses change the second one to that address.

Now you need to add your second monitor. This is alot easier if you have identical monitors. Your going to do pretty much the same thing, you are going to copy your entire Section "Monitor" and paste it under itself again. And than give them each unique names.

CODE

Section "Monitor"
 Identifier "NEC E1100"
 HorizSync 31.0-82.0
 VertRefresh 55.0-120.0
 Option  "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
 Identifier "NEC E900"
 HorizSync 31.0-92.0
 VertRefresh 55.0-120.0
 Option  "DPMS"
EndSection

If your monitors are different you will have to make sure that your HorizSync and VertSync values are correct.

Last we will do the Section "Screen" section.

The first thing you need to do is find the name "Default Screen" inside that section and change it to "Screen0" This will be your left display because of the way we did the Section "ServerLayout".

Next completely copy the whole Section "Screen" down to the EndSection and paste it right under the first screen section's EndSection Now you should have 2 Section "Screen"'s one above the other

Now change the "Screen0" line in the second Section "Screen" Identifier line to "Screen1", this is going to be the right display screen.

Now you should have 2 identical Section "Screen"'s, except the Identifier lines say "Screen0" and "Screen1".

Next, change the Device name for the second Section "Screen" (Identifier "Screen1") to the new video card name "NVIDIA Corporation GeForce [NV11]-1" in my case ...

Next we will change the second Section "Screen" (Identifier "Screen1") to point to the second monitor by changing the Monitor "E900"

You should now have something that looks like this:

CODE

Section "Screen"
 Identifier "Screen0"
 Device  "NVIDIA Corporation GeForce [NV11]"
 Monitor  "NEC E1100"
 DefaultDepth 16
 SubSection "Display"
   Depth  1
   Modes  "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
 EndSubSection
 SubSection "Display"
   Depth  4
   Modes  "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
 EndSubSection
 SubSection "Display"
   Depth  8
   Modes  "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
 EndSubSection
 SubSection "Display"
   Depth  15
   Modes  "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
 EndSubSection
 SubSection "Display"
   Depth  16
   Modes  "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
 EndSubSection
 SubSection "Display"
   Depth  24
   Modes  "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
 EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
 Identifier "Screen1"
 Device  "NVIDIA Corporation GeForce [NV11]-1"
 Monitor  "NEC E900"
 DefaultDepth 16
 SubSection "Display"
   Depth  1
   Modes  "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
 EndSubSection
 SubSection "Display"
   Depth  4
   Modes  "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
 EndSubSection
 SubSection "Display"
   Depth  8
   Modes  "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
 EndSubSection
 SubSection "Display"
   Depth  15
   Modes  "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
 EndSubSection
 SubSection "Display"
   Depth  16
   Modes  "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
 EndSubSection
 SubSection "Display"
   Depth  24
   Modes  "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
 EndSubSection
EndSection

Save and Reboot and you should have it.

I know that was a lot of stuff to follow and if any of it was unclear come back and ask. Obviously ours wont look exactly alike beacuse I have different gear than you. Thats not even mine since I use NVIDIA to do dual head which is compleatly different. The good news is that Matrox G450s are said to be really good a linux dual display so this should work well. Come back if you have any questions, frankly I will be shocked if this fires up on the first try, not because of you, but because of me.

Good luck, I hope I wrote that well.

[Hemant]

You can use..

gnome-terminal,konsole,xterm

just open the run window and type any of the above commands.