Multiple External Monitors

English Hardware
#1

Hello fellow openSuse users!

I am running Tumbleweed with KDE5 on a HP Elitebook 8760w laptop, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA Quadro 3000M 2GB with a HP docking station.

My research has shown me that this hardware configuration is capable of running multiple external monitors along with the native laptop screen. I have even seen a video with four external monitors with this hardware.

I have two external Acer monitors attached, one via VGA, the other via DisplayPort, both with the same resolution 1680x1050.

I can activate one or the other, but not both concurrently.

From xrandr I can see that a maximum resolution of 16384 x 16384 is possible. However, the third monitor reports as connected, but will not activate.

System Settings / Displays also recognises the third monitor, but will not let me activate it, and reports:

Sorry, your configuration could not be applied.

Common reasons are that the overall screen size is too big, or you enabled more displays than supported by your GPU.

This is not correct, as I know all hardware works and is capable of running the two external monitors or even more. If all three were active, that would mean an effective screen width of 5280, which less than the maximum 16384.

Here is my xrandr output.

# xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 3600 x 1080, maximum 16384 x 16384
LVDS-1 connected primary 1920x1080+1680+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 381mm x 214mm
   1920x1080     60.06*+
   1680x1050     60.00   
   1400x1050     60.00   
   1280x1024     59.95   
   1280x960      59.99   
   1152x864      59.97   
   1024x768      59.95   
   800x600       59.96   
   640x480       59.94   
   720x400       59.97   
   640x400       59.96   
   640x350       59.84   
DP-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
eDP-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-3 connected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
   1680x1050     59.95 +
   1600x1200     60.00   
   1400x1050     59.95   
   1280x1024     75.02   
   1440x900      74.98    59.90   
   1280x960      60.00   
   1360x768      59.95   
   1152x864      75.00   
   1024x768      75.03    70.07    60.00   
   832x624       74.55   
   800x600       72.19    75.00    60.32    56.25   
   640x480       75.00    72.81    66.67    59.94   
   720x400       70.08   
VGA-1 connected 1680x1050+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 474mm x 296mm
   1680x1050     59.95*+
   1600x1200     60.00   
   1400x1050     59.98   
   1280x1024     75.02   
   1440x900      74.98    59.89   
   1280x960      60.00   
   1360x768      59.95   
   1152x864      75.00   
   1024x768      75.03    70.07    60.00   
   832x624       74.55   
   800x600       72.19    75.00    60.32    56.25   
   640x480       75.00    72.81    66.67    59.94   
   720x400       70.08

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

#2

What driver are you using?

#3

I am using the nouveau driver.

#4

I have also tried to set up all three monitors with the following

xrandr --output LVDS-1 --auto --output VGA-1 --auto --left-of LVDS-1 --output DP-3 --auto --right-of LVDS-1
xrandr: cannot find crtc for output DP-3

but xrandr reports

xrandr: cannot find crtc for output DP-3

#5

I am running Tumbleweed with KDE5 on a HP Elitebook 8760w laptop, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA Quadro 3000M 2GB with a HP docking station.

My research has shown me that this hardware configuration is capable of running multiple external monitors along with the native laptop screen. I have even seen a video with four external monitors with this hardware.

Perhaps they were using AMD graphics hardware then?
https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Video-Display-and-Touch/Running-2-External-Monitors-w-Laptop-Monitor-in-Elitebook/td-p/4767043

There is evidence that the maximum number of active displays is 2 for the laptops using NVIDIA Quadro graphics…
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/8760w-w-quadro-3000m-how-many-multiple-displays.621123/
Similar model with same limitation…
https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Video-Display-and-Touch/Can-the-Elitebook-8560w-drive-3-monitors-laptop-display-plus/td-p/1420387

#6

This will show number of CRTC devices available for given hardware…

xrandr --listproviders
#7 
# xrandr --listproviders
Providers: number : 1
Provider 0: id: 0x67; cap: 0x7 (Source Output, Sink Output, Source Offload); crtcs: 2; outputs: 6; associated providers: 0; name: nouveau
    output LVDS-1
    output DP-1
    output DP-2
    output eDP-1
    output DP-3
    output VGA-1
#8

That confirms it: 2 x controllers —> 2 active display outputs

#9

It might be possible to daisy-chain monitors by display port though? (I don’t have the hardware or direct experience with this.)

#10

I can’t help with nouveau.
It “just worked” for me using the proprietary driver,
which also comes with settings/configuration tools.

#11

Looks like you might be right. :frowning:

But, it seems a USB display adapter is a possibility.

What is the displayport daisy chaining?

#12

I looked into the DisplayPort daisy chaining. It requires monitors that are DisplayPort 1.2 enabled. My two external monitors are old and have no DisplayPort support. So out of luck there.

But, the graphic card also has to support DisplayPort 1.2. …and I haven’t found anything yet that indicates that the Quadro 3000M supports DisplayPort 1.2