[Gllug] Multiple monitors

[- Tethys]

I have a need to connect multiple monitors to a Linux machine for
displaying *lots* of status information. What's the best way to do
this? Dual head is easy, but the requirement here is for something
like 16 screens.

I know there are 4 way cards available. Are these supported by the
free drivers? I'm only interested in 2D output, so ATI and Nvidia
cards aren't a problem, so long as the multi-headed aspects of the
cards are supported by the free drivers. Can I put multiple of those
cards into a single machine Presumably they'd be PCIE cards, so as
long as I have enough PCIE slots, I'd be fine, right?

The other option is to use Xdmx, and spread the display out over
multiple machines. But even then, it's probably in my interests to
maximize the number of screens per machine. Are there any limitations
I need to know about here? For example, if bus bandwidth makes
connecting more than N screens (or more likely, N pixels of screen
real estate) not a viable proposition, what's the value of N? What
sort of interconnect would I need between the display machines, and
the Xdmx server? Is 1000baseT good enough, or do I need to go to
something more exotic?

Does anyone have any experience with this sort of stuff? Any recommendations?

Tet
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