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:
file to include a couple things.
First gain root privliage. You can do this with the
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
this will list all the hardware addresses of things in your system. The result should look something like this.
[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>
if you see two seperate listings for your VGA controller thats good. Make a note of their addresses and head over to the
folder. To do this use the
to see what files are in the folder. You are going to need to edit the
file. Start by making a back up of the working on
Now fire up your editor of choice to edit away. I recomend emacs if you are new. Run
You now need to edit some differnet sections of your code.
to look like this.
You should really on be adding the 2 3 and 4 line. Leave anything else thats there alone for now.
part of the file. This will be your current video card set up. Copy the entire thing from
and past it right under its self. Than change the identifier to something unique. So it should look like this
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
and paste it under itself again. And than give them each unique names.
values are correct.
section.
.
, 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".
(Identifier "Screen1") to the new video card name "NVIDIA Corporation GeForce [NV11]-1" in my case ...
(Identifier "Screen1") to point to the second monitor by changing the Monitor "E900"
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.