Autodetecting number of video outputs from NVIDIA driver.

Hi,

I am writing an application running in linux that tries to auto-detect
some of the capabilities of the nvidia cards that are installed in my
system. Specifically, I would like to be able to query different Quadro
cards to get the number of video outputs (aka display connectors) found
on each card. I have looked at the output of /proc/pci/nvidia/cards/0
but this doesn't give me any information other than the GPU. I was
looking into using the Device IDs provided by nvidia on their website
and building a lookup table but this is the least optimal way of doing.
Is there any way to query the linux nvidia driver (1.0-7676) using
nvidia's sdk to get this information or are there any utilities
provided by nvidia for doing this?

Thanks!

In article .com, Zem
says...
Hi,

I am writing an application running in linux that tries to auto-detect
some of the capabilities of the nvidia cards that are installed in my
system. Specifically, I would like to be able to query different Quadro
cards to get the number of video outputs (aka display connectors) found
on each card. I have looked at the output of /proc/pci/nvidia/cards/0
but this doesn't give me any information other than the GPU. I was
looking into using the Device IDs provided by nvidia on their website
and building a lookup table but this is the least optimal way of doing.
Is there any way to query the linux nvidia driver (1.0-7676) using
nvidia's sdk to get this information or are there any utilities
provided by nvidia for doing this?

Shouldn't the information on the number of displays be contained in the
x.conf/xf86config file?


--
Conor

"You're not married, you haven't got a girlfriend and you've never seen
Star Trek? Good Lord!" - Patrick Stewart, Extras.

I should've made my first posting more clear. The application I'm
writing is trying to detect the number of display connectors on a card
so that I can generate a valid xorg.conf file. This detection has to
take place before the X server is configured and running. I was looking
into the NV-Extension that Nvidia's nvidia-settings utiliy can control
but this also requires that the X server be running. Anyone have some
ideas on how to query nvidia cards before the X server has been
configured and started? Thanks!

Don't know about current cards-- but, in the past this was next to
impossible, because the card mfrs did not always make the card firmware
exactly match the hardware. You had to make tests that would error out if
hardware was not as expected.
I suppose the problem might be even worse these days with all the hardware
variations from one vendor to another, even if the same basic graphics
chipset is used, and the card is a "reference design" card with left off
parts.

"Zem" wrote in message
oups.com...
I should've made my first posting more clear. The application I'm
writing is trying to detect the number of display connectors on a card
so that I can generate a valid xorg.conf file. This detection has to
take place before the X server is configured and running. I was looking
into the NV-Extension that Nvidia's nvidia-settings utiliy can control
but this also requires that the X server be running. Anyone have some
ideas on how to query nvidia cards before the X server has been
configured and started? Thanks!

makes sense, just because a gpu can support dual output doesn't mean
that the card manufacturer will implement the card as a dual output
card. I guess I'll go back to creating a lookup table that specifies
the number of outputs each gpu can handle. Of course it doesn't make
the design bullet-proof but it'll do for now.