radeon + xrandr + laptop/external monitor display problem

[Alex Deucher]

On Feb 16, 2008 7:50 PM, kewlemer <kewlemer at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I have my laptop connected to an external monitor. When I open the
> laptop I want to have the display on the laptop, when it's closed it
> should go to external monitor. The problem is that I can't get the
> display on the monitor unless I open the laptop. Further, when I open
> the laptop I have the screen on the monitor looks like this-
>

If you use the gnome resolution gui tool it reprograms the output
setup when you log in which is what is causing the strangeness with
your screens.

> http://img225.imageshack.us/my.php?image=displayprobimg2fu1.png
>

This is a normal cloned display.  the gnome panels are sized to the
output driven by crtc0 which is the lvds panel in your case.


> I then run the following script and the display goes to the monitor properly.
>
> if xrandr -q | grep -q  "VGA-0 connected"; then
>   xrandr --output LVDS --off
>   xrandr --output VGA  --off
>   xrandr --output VGA  --mode 1680x1050
> else
>   xrandr --output VGA --off
>   xrandr --output LVDS --off
>   xrandr --output LVDS --mode 1280x800
> fi
>
> Can anyone please tell me why when the same script is in rc.local,
> it's not working properly? i.e.,  I can't get the display on the
> monitor unless I open the laptop initially.
>

If rc.local is executed before X is started it will do nothing.  Also
depending on the context that script is executed in you will probably
have to specify the DISPLAY for randr to connect to.

> I've checked xrandr -q and my xorg.conf and I don't see anything
> apparently wrong. Can anyone please tell me what I'm missing?
>
> Here are xrandr -q output and my xorg.conf -
>
> [root at x1002us ~]# xrandr -q
> Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1680 x 1050, maximum 1680 x 1050
> VGA-0 connected 1680x1050+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y
> axis) 474mm x 296mm
>    1680x1050      60.0*+   60.0     60.0*
>    1280x1024      75.0     59.9
>    1280x960       59.9
>    1152x864       75.0     74.8
>    1024x768       75.1     70.1     60.0
>    832x624        74.6
>    800x600        72.2     75.0     60.3     56.2
>    640x480        75.0     72.8     66.7     60.0
>    720x400        70.1
> LVDS connected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
>    1280x800       59.9 +   60.0
>    1280x768       60.0
>    1280x720       60.0
>    1024x768       60.0
>    800x600        60.3
>    640x480        59.9
> S-video disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
> [root at x1002us ~]#
>

this looks fine.  The '+' indicates the preferred mode for the output
and the '*' indicates which mode is currently active.

> My xorg.conf -
> http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddjtzn4_4cc4hh3
>
>
> Laptop has Radeon Mobility 7500 and external monitor is Samsung
> SyncMaster 225BW with 1680x1050 resolution.
>
> Googling showed that many people have faced similar problem with
> radeon, and in most cases they have been able to get around with
> xrandr. Here are some threads using which I tried diffrerent things in
> them -
>
> http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=588570
> http://burtonini.com/blog/computers/randr-2007-02-06-17-50
> http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=561865
>
> Any pointers/ suggestions greatly welcome.

That depends on what you are trying to accomplish.  First you probably
don't want to use the current gnome resolution tool as it's not randr
1.2 aware.  Next you will want to remove what it's done as every time
you log in it will reset to the saved setup.  IIRC, there is some
gconf file or key you need to remove to restore regular behavior.  Now
to configuration; the panel will automatically be detected as attached
by default.  If you specify Option "IgnoreLidStatus" "false" the
driver will attempt to detect the lid status automatically.  This is
not the default since the acpi lid status is unreliable on many
systems.  Assuming the lid status works on your system, running the
following command when you open or close the lid should do the right
thing: xrandr --auto.  Alternatively you can force the individual
outputs with xrandr --output LVDS --auto --output VGA-0 --off or
xrandr --output LVDS --auto --output VGA-0 --auto.

Alex