I need 4 displayes for a score board

[knobfinder]

I am a relatively high level Linux user. I don' do much command line stuff. I am working on a current project to build a score board for a sporting event. I have 2 NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 dual vga output graphics cards. Here is what I need (I think):

One vga output for each team (2 scores displayed on 2 TVs)
One vga output for special displays (manually messages for typing in game info, names, etc. to be displayed on both TVs using an external switch box)
One vga output for preping, displaying and recording video input for replay and for archiving purposes.

I actually have the two score displays figured out and kind of working with only one card installed (2 vga outputs). I need the manual message display and the video display setup on the second video card.

My current thought is having the first card display the two score from the first desktop and the second card showing only the second desktop, manual messages on one screen and video info on the second screen.

Any ideas and any help is much appreciated.

Oh, did I mention this is for a national tournament. Well, it is. Thanks.

[SheeEttin]

Re: I need 4 displayes for a score board

I am a relatively high level Linux user. I don' do much command line stuff

In my experience, those two are mutually exclusive...

Anyway, since you've got all the hardware, just stick in the video cards. You'll probably need to run "sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg" after that (backing up /etc/X11/xorg.conf first, of course) to get both of the cards recognized and working. After that, you might need to tweak some things in System Settings > Monitor & Display.
If you've got all the windowing and cabling figured out, it should be pretty smooth.

By the way, when you've got it running, feel free to post a few pictures. I'd like to see it in action.

[knobfinder]

Re: I need 4 displayes for a score board

Thanks for your input. I tried you solution and I am still having problems

I can get one vga output on each card to work or both outputs on one vga card to work.

If I get both outputs on one card to work the first screen doesn't fit completely on the monitor. If I try to go in to system-display settings I get an error screen that pops up. I wish I could tell you what the screen says but the quality of the output is so poor I can't read it.

If I get one output on each card to work the screens fit on the monitor but I still get the error when I try to get into the display settings, again, unreadable.

I have downloaded the nvidia drivers and I see the nvidia logo come up on the monitors while I am booting. When the KDE environment starts up is when all heck brakes loose.

I am willing to buy new video cards (at a reasonable price) if necessary. Any further ideas?

Thanks.

[SheeEttin]

Re: I need 4 displayes for a score board

When you can see clearly, go into System Settings > M&D > Administrator mode > Hardware, and get everything correct there. It should be one section per output.

Also, post the result of "cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep WW && cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep EE", preferably when you've got all the monitors attached and not working. (You can switch to a terminal with Ctrl+Alt+F1, and write the output to a file by executing this instead: "cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep WW >> ~/xorg.log && cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep EE >> ~/xorg.log". This will write to a file called "xorg.log" in your home directory.)

Oh, and also make sure you're specifying the correct refresh rates and everything for the monitors. (If they're LCDs, this shouldn't be so much of a problem. CRTs, it will.)