Hi there,
I’m a complete newbie to opensuse (and linux) - and I’m looking to add a second monitor to increase existing desktop space for work.
I’m running Opensuse 10 on a HP D330 machine, and have done quite a bit of searching on google, but I’m now more confused than when I set out!
Can anyone advise on a suitable dual-head NVidia card ? I’m not doing any 3D stuff - just want to stretch the desktop over two screens: How do I check whether the card is compatible with my machine and motherboard (I have noted the serial number, but cant find anything re: compatibility on the HP website). What is the difference between VGA and DVI - and do I need to worry about that ? Persumably the card plugs into a PCI slot - do I need to disable the video port on the motherboard when it’s installed ? I’ve also seen pci-e mentioned; Do I need to support that - and how do I check whether I can ?
Many thanks in advance for any guidance on this confusing subject!
Edit: ooopss…i’ve misread your post a little. Here are some links to Hardware-Cmpatibility-Lists, they should help you to find a suitable graphic device:
Once you have your card and its installed, here is a way how to setup the dualhead thing:
I just struggled with almost the same issue, and i found a solution with using the programm nvidia-settings ! (you are using an nvidia card, yes ?)
Dont use the prog from the k-menue, but open a konsole, login as root and start it from there with typing nvidia-settings &. For some reason it cant save the settings to xorg.conf when you start it from the k-menue. In the nvidia-settings you can adjust almost anything you want and safe it to the xorg.conf file. A good idea would be to make a backup from the xorg.conf file before you start, so you have the chance to get your old settings back But the settings made wiht nvidia-settings arent 100% kompatible with Yast, so once you made changes and then try again with Yast there will be some problems. But as i said, you can do almost anything you want with nvidia-settings.
Many thanks for your response - that’s very helpful! Can I ask - which NVidia card do you use - and did you have to worry about whether it would work ok with your computer ? Does it use a pci slot ? D oyu know whether it uses pci-e ?
Actually im using several graphic cards in different pcs. They all are from nvidia:
8600gt------pci-e------DVI DVI
8500gt------pci-e------DVI VGA
FX5200------AGP--------VGA TV-Out
They all are working fine. But i created just one dualhead config yet, and this was with the old FX5200 for a HTPC. I can tell, pc output on a TV is just crap…
But the settings made wiht nvidia-settings arent 100% kompatible with Yast, so once you made changes and then try again with Yast there will be some problems. But as i said, you can do almost anything you want with nvidia-settings.