selecting videocard for the console

Keith Hunt keith.hunt at gmail.com
Wed Oct 20 13:20:50 UTC 2004


On Tue, 19 Oct 2004 22:53:48 -0400, Jim Cornette
<fc-cornette at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> Keith Hunt wrote:
> 
> 
> > I have two videocards installed.  Is there a way to specify which one
> > is used for the system console?
> >
> 
> system-config-display allows some setup option for dual-head video card
> setups. You might run this program and see if you can customize the
> cards to your preferences.
> 
> Also the BIOS settings influence which card is primary. If both cards
> are PCI, I believe that the PCI locations might cause one to be primary
> and the other secondary.
> 
> With my brief attempts with configuring dual-display, the secondary
> display is not active until you launch X. Then the secondary card is
> active and you can move the mouse to the secondary display to use it.
> 
> I did not try to change to a terminal on one display and use the other
> display as a GUI. I don't know if this would work or not. (moving mouse
> from terminal display to GUI display). My guess is that the secondary
> would blank and the primary display would show the terminal output.
> 
> I gave up the extra videocard, so I cannot test this action out.
> 
> I hope this gives you some ideas anyway.
> 
> Jim
>

Thanks.  I am not at the moment concerned with running a dual-headed
display.  I only have one monitor right now.  Someday I hope to have
two, so I didn't want to take the second videocard out.  The "problem"
is that the card that is not connected to the monitor is being
selected as the primary and all the conole messages are sent there, so
I don't see the boot messages or the login prompt without switching
the monitor cable.  Once I login I can get X started on the card I
want.  It's just an annoyance.

Both cards are PCI.  Perhaps the location is the determining factor. 
That is what I have suspected but I would like to know for sure, as
well as being curious about whether the selection is "tweakable"
somewhere.


-- 
Keith




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