Use NVIDIA and ATI cards in the same Linux computer

I've got the following graphics cards installed in my computer:

$ lspci | grep VGA
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon HD 4770 [RV740]
03:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G86 [Quadro NVS 290] (rev a1)

I've also got both the "radeon" and "nouveau" drivers installed. The problem is, only the displays on the ATI card get enabled. I don't see anything in the kernel log about the nvidia card, except for:

[    0.137806] vgaarb: device added: PCI:0000:03:00.0,decodes=io+mem,owns=none,locks=none

If I add the options to the kernel to disable nouveau, it shows the splash screen on the NVIDIA card but after that there is no display on it.

This same setup works fine in Windows with both the NVIDIA and ATI drivers installed. Any ideas?

Eli

Posted 2011-08-26T22:28:10.730

Reputation: 802

I have a machine with a similar config and it works(Ubuntu 11). I had some issues setting up the X config which I assume is the issue here as well. Can you enable verbose logging and pastebin your Xorg.log and xorg.conf? Have you already pulled the ATI card and verified that alone the Nvidia one works? – polynomial – 2011-08-31T07:33:08.570

You haven't posted your xorg.conf or what you have tried so far to achieve your multi monitor layout, so we can't yet help you. – Jeremy Visser – 2011-09-04T03:56:48.250

Answers

The last time I needed to do this, I had to run two separate X sessions, made by having multiple Screen sections in xorg.conf, and it involved a lot of cussing. There's been a bit of overhaul to xorg since I had to do that, but I can't imagine what you need to do is too different (other than I think that by default xorg doesn't actually spit out a conf file anymore).

See the Gentoo Wiki article, which went offline, but is still available on the Wayback Machine. particularly the xorg.conf examples right below that anchor. If that doesn't help, or doesn't help much, pastebin your xorg.conf, or the contents of xorgs configuration directory, and I'll see if I can help get you closer.

jeremiahd

Posted 2011-08-26T22:28:10.730

Reputation: 3 276

Could you please paste your xorg.conf? – Nowaker – 2011-10-24T21:34:01.023

I'm afraid that the last time I had to do this was a long time ago. These days, xrandr or disper generally do what I want. That xorg.conf is long, long gone, sorry. – jeremiahd – 2011-10-25T22:10:19.530

Not good. :( xrandr is OK when you don't mind having two separate X screens whereas I need a Xinerama. – Nowaker – 2011-10-26T10:33:19.113

From what I read this is what is needed - but I wasn't actually able to make it work. I have a nvidia graphics card with 4 monitors and after about an hour I switched back to Windows :(. – Natalie Adams – 2013-02-28T22:24:01.083