Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 429441
Settings for Dual Head Display Crashes Xorg
Last modified: 2009-01-09 02:36:13 EST
Description of problem: I recently did a fresh install of Fedora 8. I had previously been using Fedora 7, and have made no hardware changes. When I went to use system-config-display to configure my system as dual head, Xorg promptly crashed. After much trial and error, I found that usually removing the line Option "Xinerama" "on" from my xorg.conf's server layout would usually get Xorg working, albeit without dual head. Unfortunately, the cause of the crash isn't always reproducible, and I'm currently using the attached xorg.conf, as generated by system-config-display, bug Xorg is not showing separate desktops. How reproducible: Inconsistent. Usually turning off or on dual head support and then restarting will cause the problem, but it's not consistently on or the other. Sometimes I'll turn off dual head support, restart, and get a crashed X. Other times I'll turn it on, restart, and get a crashed X. Steps to Reproduce (assumes you have two monitors): 1. Launch system-config-display. 2. Under the Settings tab, set resolution to 1280x1024. 3. Under the Hardware tab, set monitor to "Samsung SyncMaster 910V/910M/913V" .and video card to "ATI Technologies Inc RV370 5B60 [Radeon X300 (PCIE)]". 4. Under the Dual Head tab: 4a. Check "Use dual head" 4b. Set Second Monitor Type to "Samsung SyncMaster 910V/910M/913V" 4c. Set Second Video Card to "ATI Technologies Inc RV370 5B60 [Radeon X300 (PCIE)]". 4d. Set resolution to 1280x1024. 4e. Set Desktop layout to "Spanning Desktops". 5. Click OK, then restart X. Actual results: Xorg should show a single desktop spanning both monitors. Expected results: Xorg either mirrors a single desktop in each monitor, or show a Blue Screen of Death, explaining that it has crashed, possibly due to a bad xorg.conf. It will then attempt to show you the Xorg logs, and attempt to restart X. Additional info: I used this identical setup in Fedora 7 without issue, and I've made no hardware changes since the previous edition.
Created attachment 292283 [details] Current xorg.conf that doesn't crash X, but also doesn't show spanning desktops, even though it contains two screens.
did you install all the x.org related updates?
Yes, the first way I tried to fix it was to install all updates with yum. Since then I haven't been able to get it to crash, but it still refuses to support a dual head display.
ah try grabbing the ati driver from updates-testing.. xrandr is the way forward in any case old-dualhead is getting harder to do properly..
This message is a reminder that Fedora 8 is nearing its end of life. Approximately 30 (thirty) days from now Fedora will stop maintaining and issuing updates for Fedora 8. It is Fedora's policy to close all bug reports from releases that are no longer maintained. At that time this bug will be closed as WONTFIX if it remains open with a Fedora 'version' of '8'. Package Maintainer: If you wish for this bug to remain open because you plan to fix it in a currently maintained version, simply change the 'version' to a later Fedora version prior to Fedora 8's end of life. Bug Reporter: Thank you for reporting this issue and we are sorry that we may not be able to fix it before Fedora 8 is end of life. If you would still like to see this bug fixed and are able to reproduce it against a later version of Fedora please change the 'version' of this bug to the applicable version. If you are unable to change the version, please add a comment here and someone will do it for you. Although we aim to fix as many bugs as possible during every release's lifetime, sometimes those efforts are overtaken by events. Often a more recent Fedora release includes newer upstream software that fixes bugs or makes them obsolete. The process we are following is described here: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/HouseKeeping
Fedora 8 changed to end-of-life (EOL) status on 2009-01-07. Fedora 8 is no longer maintained, which means that it will not receive any further security or bug fix updates. As a result we are closing this bug. If you can reproduce this bug against a currently maintained version of Fedora please feel free to reopen this bug against that version. Thank you for reporting this bug and we are sorry it could not be fixed.