Two graphic cards for two different OS

[Guest]

Hello to everyone!

I'm quite, what you call here around, a "newbie" with everything related to Linux and to be precise, Kubuntu.

It happens that I have two hd one of them with Kubuntu and another one with Windows XP. Everything is quite fine the way it is but I'm running my graphics on a ATI raedon HD 4350 which has no support for the Linux system. I've had some troubles with the resolution which I've managed to solve (although there's still something wrong when I try to change it as it doesn't work properly when I reboot my computer) but above all I notice this lack of GPU requirements with applications which clearly demand on it.

I have also an nVidia Geforce 6600 which I'm not using right now and which, if I'm not wrong, this does have support for the system. So; what I was thinking about is to install them both and use the nVidia one for Kubuntu and the ATI one for WinXP but sincerely, I don't know for where to start. The idea would be use it just with one screen (which only has one VGA input) so I hope it's possible to find a 'T' wire to connect both cards knowing that just one will be sending video signal. I'm afraid that maybe it's more difficult to find the physical solution than the logical one (I could set the bios easly to boot one before the other one).

Apart from that I would be really gratefull if you could give me a clue of the files I should work on to make it work!

My most sincere thank you!

[dibl]

Re: Two graphic cards for two different OS

I personally wouldn't have the courage to try it -- I fear it will be just a large investment of your time with no good result.

Upon booting, Linux "reads" the hardware, including BIOS and the IDE, PCI, SATA, and USB busses (after the CPU and memory. So, with two video cards in the PCI bus, it's going to see them both. It's not like the situation with an onboard integrated video chip that can be disabled in BIOS. So you're not going to "fool" your system into thinking it's only the Nvidia card that is present.

That being said, I would try it like this:

Remove the ATI card from the system, leaving only the Nvidia card present. Then set up the proprietary driver and /etc/X11/xorg.conf. If "Restricted Hardware Manager" doesn't install the proprietary driver, use EnvyNG. Make sure the X server is working the way you want it with the Nvidia card -- set your default resolution and everything.

Then install the ATI card, say a prayer to the little monkey-god, and boot your system.

[Snowhog]

Re: Two graphic cards for two different OS

Then install the ATI card, say a prayer to the little monkey-god, and boot your system.

"little monkey-god" - think 'Curious George" and you'll get the idea. Dibl is right - having two video cards in your rig isn't a good idea. Windoze will work with either card (only one in the system - not both). So, if the Nvidia card gives you the performance you want in Kubuntu, then just switch out the ATI card for it.

[arochester]

Re: Two graphic cards for two different OS

Aside:

ATI raedon HD 4350 which has no support for the Linux system

Radeon?

This interests me. ATI might not provide a Linux driver, but I am not sure that means it will not be able to work in Linux.

Where did you get this idea/information from?

Have you tried it? What does Kmenu>System> Hardware Drivers say?

[Guest]

Re: Two graphic cards for two different OS

Thank you for the inversion of your time in all this .

This ATI particullary doesn't have support; I've seen drivers for the 48xx series and maybe some others, but there's not for the radeon (if it was "raedon" we would probably have the answer to explain why it's not performing fine :P ) 4350.

It works with the generic VESA driver and as I was telling you it's fine enough to make most of the things I demand on my Kubuntu by now but nevertheless you can see that the graphics aren't smooth enough and videos without really good quality make it suffer when I ask for bigger resolutions.

I had to change most of my components cause my old motherboard crashed (still with 939 socket, PCI buses, and DDR) and I was more concerned about not paying too much than finding a good option for both systems... so yeeeeees... fool of me. I bought the ATI in order to exploit the PCI-e.

Well... let's see... if I have the courage I'll try it and we'll see how well get on both cards. It's a pity... I haven't found very precised information related to it... I guess that's the first clue this isn't really good idea as you say.

And thank you really much!

PD (for the english native speakers): Would it be "how well get both cards on" or the way I wrote?

[muzicman0]

Re: Two graphic cards for two different OS

XP should easily be able to assign the 'primary' video to a specific card, and works well with multiple cards. I am not sure about Linux, but I would think it would not be hard to force the nvidia card to be primary in your BIOS, so Linux would see it first.

So, to make the 'T' as you call it...simple...just get a KVM switch...even though you won't be using the keyboard or mouse through it, you should be able to easily switch from video card to video card into one monitor...the only thing you will need to work out is that some KVM's get power via the ps/2 port, so you will want to make sure that yours is self powered...

mm0