Problem connecting to external monitors or projectors

#1 December 6, 2005

I need to do presentations because i´m a teacher and the problem is that with some projectors and monitores connected to the external vga don´t show the correct resolution.

I´ve tryed with my test monitor that is a Samtron 55E and the image is bigger than the monitor. I´ve tryed to low the laptop resolution to 1024x768 and image on the monitor inceased. I´ve tryed every resolution from the laptop but i couldn´t fit the image correctly to the monitor.

Today i've tryed with a Epson projector and it worked fine just by setting the screen resolution to 1280X1024.

Afterwards when i was teaching, the Sanyo projector (that was in the classroom) didn't work at all. The resolution of the image were very low and i got huge images. Changing the sreen resolution to 1024x768 didn't work at all. It gave an eaven bigger image.

My laptopp is a Thinkpad R51 with a ATI 9000 M7 LW. I can't install the fglrx drivers and i don't know why.

Can anybody Help me. This is VERY IMPORTANT to me. That's my job.

Thank You

EDIT: Probably its better to put my xorg.conf.

# /etc/X11/xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the /etc/X11/xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man /etc/X11/xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
#   sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "Files"
	FontPath	"/usr/share/X11/fonts/misc"
	FontPath	"/usr/share/X11/fonts/cyrillic"
	FontPath	"/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
	FontPath	"/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
	FontPath	"/usr/share/X11/fonts/Type1"
	FontPath	"/usr/share/X11/fonts/CID"
	FontPath	"/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi"
	FontPath	"/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi"
        # paths to defoma fonts
	FontPath	"/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
	FontPath	"/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/CID"
EndSection

Section "Module"
	Load	"GLcore"
	Load	"i2c"
	Load	"bitmap"
	Load	"ddc"
	Load	"dri"
	Load	"extmod"
	Load	"freetype"
	Load	"glx"
	Load	"int10"
	Load	"type1"
	Load	"vbe"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier	"Generic Keyboard"
	Driver		"kbd"
	Option		"CoreKeyboard"
	Option		"XkbRules"	"xorg"
	Option		"XkbModel"	"pc105"
	Option		"XkbLayout"	"pt"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier	"Configured Mouse"
	Driver		"mouse"
	Option		"CorePointer"
	Option		"Device"		"/dev/input/mice"
	Option		"Protocol"		"ImPS/2"
	Option		"Emulate3Buttons"	"true"
	Option		"ZAxisMapping"		"4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier	"Synaptics Touchpad"
	Driver		"synaptics"
	Option		"SendCoreEvents"	"true"
	Option		"Device"		"/dev/psaux"
	Option		"Protocol"		"auto-dev"
	Option		"HorizScrollDelta"	"0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier	"ATI Technologies, Inc. Radeon Mobility 9000 (M7 LW)"
	Driver		"ati"
	BusID		"PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier	"Generic Monitor"
	Option		"DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier	"Default Screen"
	Device		"ATI Technologies, Inc. Radeon Mobility 9000 (M7 LW)"
	Monitor		"Generic Monitor"
	DefaultDepth	24
	SubSection "Display"
		Depth		1
		Modes		"1400x1050" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Depth		4
		Modes		"1400x1050" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Depth		8
		Modes		"1400x1050" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Depth		15
		Modes		"1400x1050" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Depth		16
		Modes		"1400x1050" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Depth		24
		Modes		"1400x1050" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
	EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
	Identifier	"Default Layout"
	Screen		"Default Screen"
	InputDevice	"Generic Keyboard"
	InputDevice	"Configured Mouse"
	InputDevice	"Synaptics Touchpad"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
	Mode	0666
EndSection

#2 December 9, 2005

Please !!!!!!!!!! Can anyone help me???? I don´t want to install XP just for this feature

thank you

#3 December 10, 2005

I don't have any good news for you, unfortunately. I too found that this is a difficult area for Ubuntu. When I have to make presentations, using Impress, or using Acrobat, I boot into the Windows XP thing, since there the FN & F5 thing works properly. I presume it varies from laptop to laptop. But it is an important difficulty, which would be worth sorting out. My laptop, for what it's worth is an Toshiba Satellite A60-302. I look forward to more helpful responses from the more technically able among us.

Declan

#4 December 11, 2005

That´s bad because a don't want to install XP:x it´s a waste of Hdrive space. But if i can't put that external monitor or projector working i'll be forced to make the XP install. Any of the Ubuntu developers an answer is needed. PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

#5 February 22, 2006

Hello again. I dig up this thraed to ask anyone how i do a turn arround about this.

The problem i reported earlier is that i finaly discover that for some projectors the output to the projector is 640x480 and others is about 1024x780. Recently i tried on a 2 years old Compaq and it was working at 1024x780 an the next day i tried a Toshiba with 2 or 3 months and only get 640x480.

so my question is: What should i do to control the output to the external VGA. Can it behave like a 2nd monitor even using a multimedia projector?

Thank you.

#6 February 22, 2006

Sorry I can't offer much help with this, but I would be interested to know if there is an obvious answer as I have had a similar problem. My wife has a wide screen laptop set at 1680 * 1050, and the projector she has to use can only cope with 1024 * 768. She has to alter her screen resolution on the laptop to 1280 * 1024, but can't then have the display on both laptop and external - if she does, part of the presentation is missing on the external screen. Is there a solution for this which doesn't involve buying a better projector or changing the laptop?

#7 February 22, 2006

hey guys,

i have the very same problem. its really annoying doing a presentation and having only the beamers screen, not the laptop's in front of you.

i talked to some people, which use fedora core and their notebooks support full switching fn-f5 behaviour, but out of the box and we couldn't figure out, how this is done yet.

some time ago, both displays were "always on", as soon as i plugged in the vga cable, i had a signal on both. since a while (maybe 3 months), it doesnt work anymore. i don't even have an idea if this is a bug in X, kernel or whatever. if anyone does, please write it here!

#8 February 22, 2006

ok guys: update:

the states of each device can be checked in /proc/acpi/video/VGA/*/state there's a little programm, that's called i810 switch, which enables you to switch, IF you have hardware supported by the project. I dont, the programm, doesn't recognize my chipset, and im not quite sure where to find out which chipset i have. (i guess its a i8042 - but who knows)

@horace: i'm sure its NOT a problem of your projector.

#9 February 23, 2006

Is this program in the repositories? I´ll give it a try this weekend.

Anyway, it was very interesting that any of the developers checked out this issue.

By the way, if i install the fglrx drivers will have some options to make this work in the fglrxcontrol (or something like that)?

#10 February 23, 2006

Thanks for the information Paddy. Fn F5 does work for me (out of the box) so I can switch between screen, projector and both - but if I have both, the display on the projector is missing the left hand side of the slides (presumably because of the different resolutions of screen and projector), whereas if I switch to projector only, it displays properly. So we have a workable compromise, but I would like to fix it properly one day!

#11 February 24, 2006

the states of each device can be checked in /proc/acpi/video/VGA/*/state

Here there´s no VGA /state. Only LCD; TV; DVI; CRT.

#12 March 9, 2006

Hi Folks,

Install i810switch via the package manager.

Then "i810switch crt on" turned the external monitor on for me - I'm on a Dell 700m laptop

There's a man page as part of the insatllation

Warren

#13 March 15, 2006

No lucky for me. Isn't suported. I even tried the i855crt but no luck. But My video card is an ATI 7500 M7 LW....

#14 April 11, 2006

No lucky for me. Isn't suported. I even tried the i855crt but no luck. But My video card is an ATI 7500 M7 LW....

And so is mine. Did you get fglrx working? The apt-cache package description says:


 This version of the ATI driver officially supports:
  * ATI Radeon 8500, 9000, 9100, 9200, 9250 (R2xx)
  * ATI Radeon 9500, 9550, 9600, 9700, 9800, X300, X400, X600 (R3xx)
  * ATI Radeon X700, X800 (R4xx)
  * ATI Mobility 9000, 9600, 9800
  * ATI FireGL 8700, 8800, E1, E2, X1, X2, X3, Z1, T2, 5100, 7100, 7200
  * ATI Mobility FireGL 9000, T2, T2e

I'll look for reports on using it with 7500. And I have a persentation tomorrow: "Introductio into Linux - Why you need not fear it", yey ](*,)

#15 April 11, 2006

Well, at least I could solve my problems with Fn-F7 not working:

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Additional_options_for_the_radeon_driver#External_Monitors There I found the solution:


        # use bios hot keys on thinkpad (aka fn+f7)
        Option          "BIOSHotkeys" "on"

Note besides: This is for the radeon and the ati driver. I am NOT using fglrx, since its not working for me. Propably my old hardware...

HTH er4z0r