The objective of this project is to set up the hardware required to create a video wall, that is a tiled display, and then install the software that causes it to function as a video wall.

To do this project, you will need to have successfully completed:

• Linux/*BSD Desktop Install

You will need:

• at least 2 computers (with a basic Linux install, Debian tends to stay out of your way more than Ubuntu)
• each computer equipped with a dual-head video card
• four LCDs (two driven by each computer)arranged the LCds into a 2×2 matrix

The concept of a Video Wall (better called “Tiled Display Wall”) is the perfect visual example of High-Performance Computing. Taking multiple independent units, each with a given ability, and allowing them to work together to create a new unit that is more capable than the sum of its parts can be an impressive feat.
But, unlike doing so on a cluster, a tiled display wall can demonstrate these concepts to those not as familiar with such concepts.

Preparation for the installation

1. Obtained two personal computers and four video monitors.
2. Check each computer and make sure each has a suitable hard drive.
3. Checked the computers for system memory. Each computer contained 512 megabytes of ram.
4. Arrange the personal computers so that the front of one faces the front of the other. With the computers arranged this way, a video monitor could sit on top of each of them and the other two monitors could sit in front of them. With the video monitors arranged this way, they form a video wall.
5. Connect power cords to each computer.
6. Connect power cords to each video monitor.
7. Connect video patch cables to the digital video port of each computer.
8. Connect analog video cables from the ends of the patch cables to each monitor.
9. Load operating system components on each computer. In order to load operating system components simultaneously, I connected a hub between the personal computers and a network switch port.
   

Installation

1. Turn on the computers in which you will install xorg.
2. As it boots, press F2 on the keyboard to bypass the “System Setup” screen and go directly to the cmos setup.
3. Arrow down to the “Disk Configuration” item and press enter. A popup screen will appear.
   
4. On the popup screen, arrow down to “Primary Master Drive” and press enter. A popup screen appears.
5. On the popup screen, arrow to (if required) “Drive Type”; using the right or left arrow keys, set to the type “Auto”. Press enter to exit the second popup; press escape to exit the first popup.
6. On the BIOS setup main screen, arrow down to “Boot Sequence” and press enter. A popup screen appears.
7. On the popup screen, using the +/- arrow keys, move the “Integrated NIC” item to the second item on the list with the hard drive at the top of the list. Make sure it is enabled (square root symbol directly to the left of this item). If it isn't enabled, use the space bar to enable it. Press enter to exit the popup window.
   
8. On the BIOS setup main screen, arrow down to the “Integrated Devices (LegacySelect Options)” and press enter. A popup screen appears.
   
9. On the popup, arrow down to “Network Interface Controller” item. Using the right or left arrow keys, set the network interface controller to “On w/PXE”.
   
10. On the same popup screen, arrow down to the “Onboard Video Buffer” item and using the right or left arrow keys, set the video buffer size to 8MB. Press enter to exit the popup.
    
11. On the BIOS setup screen, arrow down to the “IDE Hard Drive Acooustics Mode” item. using the right or left arrow keys, select “Quiet”.
    
12. Press escape to exit the bios setup screen. Popup appears.
13. On the popup screen, arrow to (if required) the “Save Changes and Exit” item. Press enter to exit the BIOS setup screen.
    
14. Computer reboots.
    
15. Next, the Lair Network Boot Menu loads.
    
16. Select “Debian/i386 Netboot” and press enter.
    
17. Arrow to “Install Squeeze/testing [text]” if required and press enter.
    
18. At this point, the installation begins (defaults were selected throughout MOST but not all of the installation).
19. The “Select a language” screen is displayed. The default is “English”, press enter to select this item.
    
20. The “Select a location” screen is displayed. The default is “United States”, press enter this item.
    
21. The “Select a keyboard layout” screen is displayed. The default is “American English”, press enter this item.
    
22. The “Configure the network” screen is displayed. On this screen, the Host name: “dhcp-175” is entered automatically. press enter to continue.
    
23. The “Configure the network” screen is displayed. On this screen, the Domain name: “offbyone.lan” is entered automatically. Press enter to continue.
    
24. The “Choose a mirror of the Debian archive” screen is displayed. The default is “United States”. Arrow up to “Enter information manually” item and press enter.
    
25. The “Choose a mirror of the Debian archive” screen is displayed. The Debian mirror host name: “mirror” is entered automatically. Press enter to continue.
    
26. The “Choose a mirror of the Debian archive” screen is displayed. The Debian archive directory: “/debian/” is entered automatically. Press enter to continue.
    
27. The “Choose a mirror of the Debian archive” screen is displayed. HTTP proxy information is blank by default. Press enter to continue.
    
28. In the first installation od Debian Squeeze, the installation continued from here, however during the second installation, the installation failed because a file could not be installed from the network archive. This was because there was a newer version that was avalable. When the failure occured, the installer is prompted to either retry or change the mirror. During the second installation the mirror was changed to thr RIT mirror.
    
29. Next, the “Set up users and passwords” screen is displayed. The Root password I entered was “bob”.
    
30. The “Set up users and passwords” screen is displayed. The installer is prompted to re-enter the password. I entered entered “bob”.
    
31. The “Set up users and passwords” screen is displayed. The installer is prompted to enter “The full name for the new user:” I entered “bob”.
    
32. The “Set up users and passwords” screen is displayed. The installer is prompted to enter the username for the account. I entered “bob”.
    
33. The “Set up users and passwords” screen is displayed. The installer is prompted to enter a password for the new user. I entered “bob”.
    
34. Next, the “Configure the clock” screen is displayed. For Select your time zone: “Eastern” is the default. Press enter to continue.
35. The “Partition disk” screen is displayed. The default is “Guided-use entire disk”, press enter to continue.
36. The “Partition disk” screen is displayed. The disk to partition: SCSI 1 (0,0,0) (sda)-xxx.xxGB ATA Maxtor. has been entered automatically. Press enter to continue.
    
37. The “Partition disk” screen is displayed. Partitioning scheme: “All files in one partition (recommended for new users)” is the default. Press enter to continue.
    
38. The “Partition disk” screen is displayed. The default “Finish partitioning and write changes to disk” is displayed. Press enter to continue.
    
39. Partitioning message-“The following partitions are going to be formatted: Partition #1 of SCSI1 (0,0,0) sda as ext3; Partition #5 of SCSI1 (0,0,0) sda as swap.”
    
40. Popularity contest message “Configuring popularity contest: Participate in the package usage survey?”. Select <no>.
    
41. The “Software selection” screen is displayed. The default is “Graphical desktop environment”. Deselect this selection using the spacebar. Using the space bar, select the ssh server. Press enter to continue.
    
42. Configuring grub message: “Configuring grub-pc: Install grub boot loader to master boot record”, <yes>.
    
43. Installation complete <continue>.
    
44. Finishing the installation..
    
45. Computer reboots automatically.
    
46. Log in to both computers as root.
    
47. Change the working directory to /etc/apt. At the command prompt enter “cd /etc/apt”.
48. Rename the existing sources.list to sources.bak. At the command prompt enter “mv sources.list sources.bak”.
49. Now download sources.list. At the command prompt, enter “wget http://10.80.2.6/files/students/sources.list”.
50. Next, open sources.list with a text editor and replace all references to “debversion” to “squeeze”. On the command prompt, enter “vi sources.list”. In vi enter “:%s/debversion/squeeze/g”. Next to save the changes and quit vi, Enter “:wq”.
51. On the command line enter “aptitude update”.
52. Next, on the command line enter “aptitude upgrade”.
53. Install the Linux nvidia packages. At the command prompt enter “aptitude install libgl1-nvidia-legacy-173xx-glx nvidia-kernel-legacy-173xx-dkms nvidia-glx-legacy-173xx nvidia-settings”.
54. Blacklist nouveau, after all the dirty commie shouldn't be able to work (cold war joke). On the command prompt enter “nano /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf”; at the end of the file add the line “blacklist nouveau”.
55. Reboot the computer. On the command line enter “reboot”.
56. Change the working directory to /etc/X11. At the command line enter “cd /etc/X11”.
57. Get the xorg.conf file. On the command line enter “wget http://10.80.2.6/files/student/xorg.conf”.
58. Install font packages. On the command line enter “aptitude install xfonts-scalable xfonts-cyrillic xfonts-75dpi xfonts-100dpi”.
59. Install the xbase clients package. On the command line enter “aptitude install xbase-clients”.
60. Locate Xdmx, on the command line: whereis Xdmx (Xdmx was located in the /usr/bin directory).
    
61. Change the working directory to /usr/bin; On the command line, enter: “cd /usr/bin”.
    
62. Performed a wget to get the same Xdmx that was used to create the large video wall. On the command line, enter: “wget http://10.80.2.6/files/student/Xdmx”.
    
63. Perform startx; at the command prompt on both computers. On the command line, enter “startx”.
    
64. On both computers, right click on their screens and select the bash terminal.
    
65. Once the terminals opened, at the command prompts I enter “xhost +” .
    
66. On the top computer only, on the command line in the terminal application enter: Xdmx :1 -ac -configfile dmx.com -config -ignorebadfontpaths -noclxproxy +xinerama & sleep 4; export DISPLAY=localhost:1; fluxbox
    

Voila! It works!!!! Its time to try some cool things.
First , I'll played xbill. xbill tries to install the “Wingdows” virus on computers which are part of your network. The player's task is to smash or blow up bill before he is able to gat away with loading the virus.
To play xbill, enter the following on the command line: “/usr/games/xbill”.
My game scoring whent like this:
After level 1:
Score: 155

After level 2:
Score: 425

After level 3:
Score: 810

After level 4:
Score: 1272

After level 5:
Score: 3752

Next, the instructor told me about xscreensaver. He installed it by entering “aptitude install xscreensaver” on the command line.
The next step was to change to the “xscreensaver” directory which is located in “/usr/lib” and perform a directory listing of its contents. In the xscreensaver directory were the following enteries:

• abstractile
• cwaves
• deco
• distort
• fiberlamp
• fuzzyflakes
• galaxy
• mb502
• metaballs
• penrose
• popsquares
• ripples
• shadebobs
• slidescreen
• swirl
• xlyaps

To start a screensaver from the screensaver directory (/usr/lib/xscreensaver), I entered its name on the command line using the syntax to execute an application or shell script: ./screensavername.
The instructor set “fiberlamp” as one of the screensavers. I tried “fuzzyflakes”, “galaxy”, and “popsquares”; they were very cool!

• Video wall contruction: http://lab46.corning-cc.edu/haas/spring2011/hpc0/projects/video_wall_construction