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OS/2 - Technical => Setup & Installation => Topic started by: klipp on 2009.12.12, 22:07:23

Title: Dual Head eCs 2.0 using Matrox MGA-G450 -- How to?
Post by: klipp on 2009.12.12, 22:07:23
Could some kind soul explain to me how to make this work! I'm using eCs 2.0 Silver with Snap and can only come up with Identical screens on each display. Changing configuration settings in SNAP (Multihead) changes nothing. Can't make it work on the latest versions of Mandriva (2009 &2010) either but works fine on Windoz.

Thanks in advance for any ideas.

klipp
Title: Re: Dual Head eCs 2.0 using Matrox MGA-G450 -- How to?
Post by: RobertM on 2009.12.12, 22:47:49
I believe you would need to install the Matrox OS/2 drivers to enable Multi-Head Support. I think there was a copy on Hobbes someplace, but I dont recall if the OS/2 drivers supported anything above the MGA200.

Best,
Robert
Title: Re: Dual Head eCs 2.0 using Matrox MGA-G450 -- How to?
Post by: RobertM on 2009.12.12, 23:05:29
The driver you need is matroxg450_v2.54.130.zip

Ian Manners may have a copy of it still. Sadly, his site is offline due to abuses by those mirroring it. He is often on the forums and may be able to help you out, or you may find it elsewhere...

Best,
Robert

PS: Ian, I would be glad to host the OS2Site for you, for free. Contact me if interested.
Title: Re: Dual Head eCs 2.0 using Matrox MGA-G450 -- How to?
Post by: klipp on 2009.12.13, 00:01:34
Thanks RobertM for your replies & info, I just bought this card as it is known to work for dual monitors in OS/2 and I was hoping to eliminate all the problems trying to accomplish the same thing with a mixture of Nvidia & ATI. Looks like I'm S.O.L. though unless I can come up with the particular driver you mentioned. Is there any way of contacting Ian and getting a copy of this driver from him? (Maybe?)

thanks again  klipp
Title: Re: Dual Head eCs 2.0 using Matrox MGA-G450 -- How to?
Post by: RobertM on 2009.12.13, 00:15:45
Quote from: klipp on 2009.12.13, 00:01:34
Thanks RobertM for your replies & info, I just bought this card as it is known to work for dual monitors in OS/2 and I was hoping to eliminate all the problems trying to accomplish the same thing with a mixture of Nvidia & ATI. Looks like I'm S.O.L. though unless I can come up with the particular driver you mentioned. Is there any way of contacting Ian and getting a copy of this driver from him? (Maybe?)

thanks again  klipp

You can PM IBManners on the forum. Click HERE (http://www.os2world.com/forum/index.php?action=pm;sa=send;u=155) to do so.

If I dig it up, I will let you know. I did have it at one time...

Best,
Rob
Title: Re: Dual Head eCs 2.0 using Matrox MGA-G450 -- How to?
Post by: Robert Deed on 2009.12.13, 01:06:13
Quote from: RobertM on 2009.12.12, 23:05:29
The driver you need is matroxg450_v2.54.130.zip

Ian Manners may have a copy of it still. Sadly, his site is offline due to abuses by those mirroring it. He is often on the forums and may be able to help you out, or you may find it elsewhere...

Best,
Robert

PS: Ian, I would be glad to host the OS2Site for you, for free. Contact me if interested.

I am not sure if the Matrox drivers would really help all that much, there was some issues with the BIOS on the g450's which caused them to get stuck in clone mode outside of windows.   If you cannot get things working with these drivers let me know, I have a g400max which does infact work in dualhead in OS/2 (I did so for quite some time) with SNAP which is not doing much good to me right now.
Title: Re: Dual Head eCs 2.0 using Matrox MGA-G450 -- How to?
Post by: klipp on 2009.12.13, 04:45:16
WoW! Its starting to look like dual moniters is no longer an option for eCs 2.0.  How in the world can we stay competitive when we can no longer offer this option, a well as Flash 10  to prospective users?
  I want sincerly for this O.S. to fly, and fly BIG!  But , my GOD , where are we , when w can't offer the Basics?

klipp
Title: Re: Dual Head eCs 2.0 using Matrox MGA-G450 -- How to?
Post by: Fahrvenugen on 2009.12.13, 07:03:16
Check here:

http://www.os2site.com/sw/drivers/video/matrox/index.html

Looks like the driver is still available, I was able to download it just now.

Although I have never owned one of these cards, so I have no idea how it works dual-head.

Title: Re: Dual Head eCs 2.0 using Matrox MGA-G450 -- How to?
Post by: RobertM on 2009.12.13, 07:08:54
There seems to be an updated or newer version than the one I listed (though the file date is a few days earlier):

http://www.os2site.com/sw/drivers/video/matrox/os2_258.zip

I am presuming that is version 2.58, while the one I listed earlier is v2.54 I suspect.

Thank you Ian for putting your site back online!

Best,
Rob
Title: Re: Dual Head eCs 2.0 using Matrox MGA-G450 -- How to?
Post by: Andi on 2009.12.13, 13:25:31
Quote from: klipp on 2009.12.13, 04:45:16
WoW! Its starting to look like dual moniters is no longer an option for eCs 2.0.  How in the world can we stay competitive when we can no longer offer this option, a well as Flash 10  to prospective users?
  I want sincerly for this O.S. to fly, and fly BIG!  But , my GOD , where are we , when w can't offer the Basics?

klipp
I've tried out dual monitor with my G550 but I've no need for dual display anymore cause -
- the WPS / eCS / OS/2 do not allow to have two different screen resolutions on the two screens
- I find it quite annoying to have this black area between the two screens
- for completely different tasks it's easier for me to set up a second, third, fourth PC with their own display than having all on one machine with one/two monitors

So I've bought a 24" with 1920x1200 pixel and hope sometimes there's the possibility to drive even bigger displays via dual DVI connection. Continuing graphic driver development for the basics ( (dual-)DVI with each modern card) is much more needed than dual display support for ancient graphic adapters I think.
Title: Re: Dual Head eCs 2.0 using Matrox MGA-G450 -- How to?
Post by: klipp on 2009.12.13, 16:26:57
Hey! Thanks to all! Especially to Rob & Ian -- I still havn't had a chance to get it working, but at least there's "light at the end of the tunnel" now. An Andi, in my case I will be using the same resolution on both monitors, but I agree the DVI development would be a bigger step forward.
  Thanks again to all of you!

klipp
Title: Re: Dual Head eCs 2.0 using Matrox MGA-G450 -- How to?
Post by: klipp on 2009.12.15, 02:54:49
Well, I'm back! --- the light at the end of the tunnel has disappeared! I've tried the 2.58 drivers and can configure the Primary Display but when configuring the Secondary display it asks for OS/2's Display Disk 1. I don't have the floppys anymore only Warp4.5 cd which when I try to create to display disk1 it says my disks (floppy's -3.5's) are incompatable. Its looking for SVGA.DSP and will only accept getting it from the display floppy, not from the Warp CD.
I'm out of ideas!

    Has anybody out there got eCs 2.0 working with two monitors using ANY display adapter card? (but preferrably the Matrox 450!). If I have to, I'll "PoP" for another card that is known to work with eCs.

thanks  klipp
Title: Re: Dual Head eCs 2.0 using Matrox MGA-G450 -- How to?
Post by: Fahrvenugen on 2009.12.15, 05:43:31
Hi,

If I recall correctly, the Warp 4  display disc is an XDF floppy.  Somewhere on that CD you should be able to find a disk image file for Display Disk 1, you should also be able to find a copy of xdfcopy.exe (or it might be xdfcopy.com, I can't remember).  Use that utility to create your floppy from your image:

xdfcopy imagename.ext a:

And see if that works.

Title: Re: Dual Head eCs 2.0 using Matrox MGA-G450 -- How to?
Post by: klipp on 2009.12.15, 19:41:43
Fahrvenugen, you were correct! xdfcopy is also included in the eCs  CD, But it wouldn't work until I installed the matching .flt file as a BASEDEV in the config.sys. It then created the Display Driver Disk 1. I thought I was home free, until it couldn't find the display profile (.DSP) it needed on that floppy.
Thanks for you're help! -- at least I'm a little smarter now, I can create OS/2 floppys -- but still no dual monitors.

klipp
Title: Re: Dual Head eCs 2.0 using Matrox MGA-G450 -- How to?
Post by: RobertM on 2009.12.15, 20:17:18
Try resetting your video driver to standard VGA. Reboot, then try again...

That should hopefully install the necessary components you need.

Best,
Rob
Title: Re: Dual Head eCs 2.0 using Matrox MGA-G450 -- How to?
Post by: klipp on 2009.12.15, 21:04:26
Yes Rob it does but only for the Primary Display--no way will it configure the Secondary display as it cannot access the .dsp file it wants. I would think it would want the same one that the primary display is using, but that option is not repeated when trying to configure the Secondary display.

thanks  klipp
Title: Re: Dual Head eCs 2.0 using Matrox MGA-G450 -- How to?
Post by: RobertM on 2009.12.15, 22:06:31
Quote from: klipp on 2009.12.15, 21:04:26
Yes Rob it does but only for the Primary Display--no way will it configure the Secondary display as it cannot access the .dsp file it wants. I would think it would want the same one that the primary display is using, but that option is not repeated when trying to configure the Secondary display.

thanks  klipp

Lemme dig through the readme and a few other things online and see what I can find. On other systems, the secondary display was for a VIO output device (Monochrome adapter) and some weird combinations of other video adapters (two separate adapters) that did not share address ranges.

I'm wondering if that is the wrong setting/option to use....
Title: Re: Dual Head eCs 2.0 using Matrox MGA-G450 -- How to?
Post by: Andi on 2009.12.16, 11:12:03
Probably it is different handled by the matrox driver, but if you're using SNAP there is a checkbox in the screen settings for Dual-display on/off and where you want to have the second display to extend your desktop (left/right or up/down). Then all you need to do is expand your screen resolution on the first page from f.i. 1024x768 to 2048x768 and reboot. Isn't there a hint in the matrox driver documentation how to enable dual-display?

I tend to believe you are trying to install a second adapter (which I never tried with OS/2 - eCS) instead to convince the currently installed driver to activate the second output.
Title: Re: Dual Head eCs 2.0 using Matrox MGA-G450 -- How to?
Post by: magog on 2009.12.16, 15:32:49
Dual Head is only possible with the SNAP driver and it's only possible with the cards listed in the SciTech SNAP readme.txt file. The original Matrox driver doesn't support it and also none of all the other drivers ...except for a driver for an "ELSA Winner 2000/OFFICE" graphic card which should allow this.
The default setup options for "Primary" and "Secondary" display of OS/2 have nothing to do with the dual head support you want.

For SNAP the IBM or standard release might not allow to enable dual head. I think you need the "pro" version. The key for that one has been released a while back after SciTech cancelled future work on SNAP and began to sell the technology.

Other restrictions of the DualHead Mode have been listed by Andi (same resolution,...).

One other thing is the Clone-Mode. This is determined by the BIOS of the card and turned on by default most of the time. For example the ATI X800 or X1950 and also HD4870 display the content of the first screen output also on the second one....as defined by the BIOS.
Title: Re: Dual Head eCs 2.0 using Matrox MGA-G450 -- How to?
Post by: klipp on 2009.12.16, 18:31:11
Well, magog and andi, you've resolved the problem! I'd tried using SNAP before but never had the common sense to use an expanded screen resolution. I'm using 1280x960 (there is no 2048x768 option in Snap) and it works beautifully!
   I've found no available information from Matrox on how to use their drivers with dual monitors --- But SNAP solves this problem incredabley well. And magog, as you said the clone mode works like you described on this Matrox G450 32mb Video Adapter card also.
  Thanks to all of you for bailing me out on this problem and hope you're advice helps others who have the same needs as I do.

klipp
Title: Re: Dual Head eCs 2.0 using Matrox MGA-G450 -- How to?
Post by: RobertM on 2009.12.16, 22:33:07
Sorry klipp... I shoulda known that. I even made a post about such things regarding dual head a couple years ago... I'll blame either senility or lack of coffee or both...

Thanks magog for the clarification and the memory refresher...

...off for some more coffee.

Best,
Rob
Title: Re: Dual Head eCs 2.0 using Matrox MGA-G450 -- How to?
Post by: klipp on 2009.12.16, 23:57:51
I envy you Rob, my only excuse is stupidity! Thanks for helping!

klipp
Title: Re: Dual Head eCs 2.0 using Matrox MGA-G450 -- How to?
Post by: RobertM on 2009.12.17, 00:12:55
Quote from: klipp on 2009.12.16, 23:57:51
I envy you Rob, my only excuse is stupidity! Thanks for helping!

klipp

LoL... inexperience is definitely not stupidity...