4 monitors, 3 output types, 2 graphics chips and not getting to show up on all 4 monitors

[Stumpy]

I have finally gotten around to re-tackling my
multi-monitor/multi-graphics chip issue.
I have decided to try booting a few different live distributions to see
what happened, here is what I have in terms of hardware:
Four monitors, 2 HPs 2 Dells. HPs are in landscape position, Dells are
in Portrait position
The monitors accept VGA, HDMI, and DP
One chipset is on a graphics card, and is an AMD Radeon HD 6570 1GB DDR3
PCIe x16 - 1 DVI and 2 DP out ports (I think it came out around
2013ish?)
The other is an integrated intel chipset - 1 HDMI and 1 DVI out ports

Qubes 3.2 isntalled

Live distros I have tried:
Fedora workstation 28
Fedora workstation 27
Xubuntu 18.04
Kubuntu 18.04
Fedora KDE 28
Mint xfce 18.3
CentOS GNOME 1708
CentOS KDE 1708

Results so far:
Qubes 3.2, installed: All 4 monitors "light up", getting some sort of
signal i guess, but the one with DP in will not show anything, just like
one half of that screen is light, the other dark. I can't get the two
Dells two rotate to poitrat mode. Strangely I don't get icons on any of
the menus now. A few times I was able to go to "Display" and try to
rotate the displays but when I did the DP display would go nuts and show
something like still static... or something, and now when I try to bring
up "display" it comes up then instantly turns off... hence, I am not
able to access the display window gui. Am not sure about if there is a
command line option. And something I just found out, my power saving
kicked in and on the monitor which shows nothing (Dell, poitrait, with
DP in plug) was the only one that would show me a login...


Fedora workstation 28
First, really buggy, made it hard to use, I am not sure if it was my
setup or what *BUT* _all 4 displays worked_, until I started messing
with the display option to arrange and rotate them into a usable
configuration. Moving the tiny little display icons around was a
challenge as they kept "slipping" and not moving where I was trying to
drag them. I could get them into position (not rotated) but then I would
move my mouse like to the edge of the screen and crash, back at the
loggin, which would automatically then take me to a "welcome to fedora"
window. At which point I am not able to reopen the settings/display box
(just does nothing when I click on settings).

Mint xfce 18.3
While mint was more stable, the arranging of the monitors in the
position I wanted was just as diffiult as Fed28. And like Fed28
eventually the display option window was... no longer an option, it
would instantly crash after trying to open it, not sure what would cause
that. Though, like fed28, all 4 displays "showed up" I just could not
arrange them into a usable configuration and the more I tried the less
stable the display program/window got.

Kubuntu 18.04
With Kubuntu, one of the main things I noticed was it flashing a message
"Firmware Bug: TSC_DEADLINE disabled due to Errata; please update
microcode to version 0x22 (or later)" maybe this is part of the problem?
... regardless, I have no idea how to do that... pointers?
Next, when booting up, the Dell w/ DP in was flashing... funny, the
flashing kubuntu icon on that display wasn't displaying properly. I
tried rebooting and then it just crashed, didn't even get to a gui

Fedora workstation 27
Got the same firmware error from Fed 27, that and I could not even get
to a GUI first (second, third, etc tries). And something I had not
encountered before, when I tried rebooting it would reboot back into the
same frozen screen, even when I turned the comp off (removing the usb
flash and shuting off then turning on resolved that).

Fedora KDE 28
similar firmware error. asked for login from the start? Couldn't find
any hint of what it might be on the net. bizarre, moot here though I
guess.

Xubuntu 18.04
Went great... until it didn't. Booted up fine, but then when I tried to
rearrange the displays it logged me out, apparently paswd was ubuntu.
next time I tried booting xbuntu live, when it went to the gui booting
screen 3 of the 4 displays looked ok, but the Dell DP display was off in
terms of color, after that... the two HPs just had a blinking cursor,
and the two dells kept blinking the firmware error that most of the
distros are giving me, couldn't get any further.

CentOS GNOME 1708
Booted up nicely enough. Was able to arrange the two HP (integrated
intel gfx) no problem, the Dells were not on by default in the settings,
when I tried enabling them, they went to like a strange static display
of rainbow noise if that make sense. Didn't matter if I tried to set the
two dells (secondary gfx card) to mirror, primary, secondary... nada,
except static.

CentOS KDE 1708
Started up recognizing all 4 displays... kinda, the two Dells, connected
to the external AMD gfx card showed up with the same rainbow noise that
happened in CentOS GNOME. Here they were recognized right off, in costos
gnome I had to enable the two dells. Even though the two dells were
unusable, I gotta say that the display config, that is moving the
display icons around into the config I wanted was faaaaaaaar and away
the easiest, and it showed (in the icons) the name of each display, and
the port type, even rotating them was a snap... really helpful... again
though, kinda moot if I can't see what is in the two dells. the whole
time, nothing crashed or bugged out except not being able to see the two
d*mn dells.

life's not fair (not that thats news).

If there is any other info or logs that I could be uploading please let
me know.

Any help would really really really be appreciated.

I am not sure about further diags. Maybe later I will try to install
qubes 4 to a usb drive and see how it reacts to my setup, good idea?
yes/no?

And since 3.2 seems to have had an stroke its rather crippled so might
try installing 3.2 again... ...

[awokd]

On Sat, May 12, 2018 4:10 am, Stumpy wrote:
> I have finally gotten around to re-tackling my
> multi-monitor/multi-graphics chip issue.
> I have decided to try booting a few different live distributions to see
> what happened, here is what I have in terms of hardware:
> Four monitors, 2 HPs 2 Dells. HPs are in landscape position, Dells are
> in Portrait position
> The monitors accept VGA, HDMI, and DP
> One chipset is on a graphics card, and is an AMD Radeon HD 6570 1GB DDR3
> PCIe x16 - 1 DVI and 2 DP out ports (I think it came out around
> 2013ish?)
> The other is an integrated intel chipset - 1 HDMI and 1 DVI out ports

Try to narrow down the problem. It might be hardware, like your graphics
chips might not have enough memory to drive all the monitors.
- What happens if you only use 2 monitors on a single adapter? Try both
adapters alone.
- DP monitor by itself?
- Windows 7?

[Stumpy]

Thanks for the reply.
In testing other distros I was hoping to narrow it down, but I am still
not sure, really not hip on trying win7 (or others) as I don't have a
copy laying around, and linux live distros are so much easier ;)
In some of the live distros I tried, I was able to get a display on all
4 monitors so I am thinking mem isn't the problem (flawed reasoning?)
If I try two displays on the integrated adapter then those two work,
more or less without a hitch.
Some of the distros don't seem to like my (external) graphics card at
all, and some just seem to take issue with the the monitor connected via
DP (I have also tried a DP to DVI adapter I had laying around, nada
still issues).

I have now tried installing Qbes v4 onto a usb flash drive. The xfce
display window was the least buggy compared with most of the distros,
but it seems Qubes 4 doesn't like my graphics card... or something. The
two Dells connected to the exernal graphics card are showing that
multiucolored static no matter what configuation I try (ie rotating,
mirror [which worked well for many of the distros], primary display
etc).

So I am left with the possibility that its the graphics card but as some
of the other distros worked I was hoping that was the wrong
assumption... or maybe I am thinking about it wrong, maybe its xen that
doesn't like the gfx card? (which is the only thing I can think of that
*all* the distros did not have).

I am desprate to get a multi display option working, so am willing to
get another gfx card but as I can't keep doing that I need to be sure
next time.

Thoughts?

[awokd]

On Sat, May 12, 2018 11:44 pm, Stumpy wrote:

> I have now tried installing Qbes v4 onto a usb flash drive. The xfce
> display window was the least buggy compared with most of the distros,
> but it seems Qubes 4 doesn't like my graphics card... or something. The
> two Dells connected to the exernal graphics card are showing that
> multiucolored static no matter what configuation I try (ie rotating,
> mirror [which worked well for many of the distros], primary display
> etc).

What if you try Qubes with only the AMD adapter? It usually works well
with the older ones (pre-Vega). Is it only when you use both adapters at
the same time? I'm wondering if some distros default to a lower colour
depth/refresh rate.

> So I am left with the possibility that its the graphics card but as some
> of the other distros worked I was hoping that was the wrong
> assumption... or maybe I am thinking about it wrong, maybe its xen that
> doesn't like the gfx card? (which is the only thing I can think of that
> *all* the distros did not have).
>
> I am desprate to get a multi display option working, so am willing to
> get another gfx card but as I can't keep doing that I need to be sure
> next time.

Makes sense.

[Stumpy]

On 2018-05-12 19:05, awokd wrote:

Well I had work so had to take a bit of a Qubes hiatus but I got some
time and tinkered more. The installation of 3.2 continued to act strange
until I tried setting my bios to only use the pci (as opposed to the
integrated) graphics and I was able to run all three monitors... and the
icons came back... but I still wasn't able to get sys-net or firewall
etc vms going so I thought id try just installing 4.0 since I'd have to
go back to a backup anyway. 4.0 worked with the pcie card fine-ish, fine
in that it would show three monitors fine... until i tried to rotate
them, then it was strange, i could see the mouse on all three monitors
but when I opened a window on one of the two rotated monitors I couldn't
see the window, but could see the mouse... so id drag it to the default
monitor and... anyway, no go. Now I am trying to install a clean
installation of 3.2 will likely wait for 3.2.1 then go from there to
4.1? By then hopefully some change will have been made where the
monitors will work, the fedora template will update, and I will have an
awesome setup, for now, I think my 3.2 setup will suite me nicely.
btw, it is unclear to me, it there a set time that 3.2.1 will come out?
If its "safe" to continue with 3.2 then I am fine with it as I had a
nice workflow etc going.