<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML ><HEAD ><TITLE >Hardware problems</TITLE ><META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.7"><LINK REL="HOME" TITLE="XFree Local Multi-User HOWTO" HREF="index.html"><LINK REL="UP" TITLE="Known problems" HREF="problems.html"><LINK REL="PREVIOUS" TITLE="Known problems" HREF="problems.html"><LINK REL="NEXT" TITLE="Software problems" HREF="soft_problems.html"></HEAD ><BODY CLASS="sect1" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#840084" ALINK="#0000FF" ><DIV CLASS="NAVHEADER" ><TABLE SUMMARY="Header navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TH COLSPAN="3" ALIGN="center" >XFree Local Multi-User HOWTO</TH ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="problems.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="80%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="bottom" >Chapter 8. Known problems</TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="soft_problems.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"></DIV ><DIV CLASS="sect1" ><H1 CLASS="sect1" ><A NAME="hard_problems" ></A >8.1. Hardware problems</H1 ><P >While not exactly problems, some graphic cards do not work well, or even at all in multi-user environments.</P ><P >If you are building such a system from the beginning, check the Video Compatibility list before buying video hardware.</P ><P >Sometimes secondary graphic card(s) (for now reported only by Nvidia owners) will refuse to start, even if they have worked flowlessly for months. One of the following sollutions should fix the problem:</P ><P ></P ><UL ><LI ><P >Running <B CLASS="command" >/usr/X11R6/bin/X -probeonly</B > on the secondary card(s) before initializing/ starting XFree on the primary graphic card.</P ><P >Some examples:</P ><P ><B CLASS="command" >/usr/X11R6/bin/X -probeonly -layout X2</B ></P ><P ><B CLASS="command" >/usr/X11R6/bin/X -probeonly -layout X1</B ></P ><P >or:</P ><P ><B CLASS="command" >/usr/X11R6/bin/X -probeonly -xf86config /etc/X11/XF86Config-4.X2</B ></P ><P ><B CLASS="command" >/usr/X11R6/bin/X -probeonly -xf86config /etc/X11/XF86Config-4.X1</B ></P ></LI ><LI ><P >Switching the secondary graphic card to primary, starting the system (to initialize the card as primary), and reverting the card to secondary.</P ></LI ><LI ><P >In case this is the only secondary card, you can try switching the order of the graphic cards permanently.</P ></LI ></UL ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="NAVFOOTER" ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"><TABLE SUMMARY="Footer navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="problems.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="index.html" ACCESSKEY="H" >Home</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="soft_problems.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" >Known problems</TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="problems.html" ACCESSKEY="U" >Up</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" >Software problems</TD ></TR ></TABLE ></DIV ></BODY ></HTML >