radeon + laptop/external monitor (through docking station) problem

[Alex Deucher]

On Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at 3:08 AM, kewlemer <kewlemer at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 6/17/08, Alex Deucher <alexdeucher at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Tue, Jun 17, 2008 at 2:58 AM, kewlemer <kewlemer at gmail.com> wrote:
>>  >> >  > My set up is basically a laptop connected to an external monitor
>>  >>  >  > through a docking station (Fedora 9 + AMD64).
>>  >>  >  >
>>  >>  >  > Laptop has a Radeon Mobility 7500 card (screen resolution 1280x800)
>>  >>  >  > and the external monitor is Samsung SyncMaster 225BW with 1680x1050
>>  >>  >  > resolution.
>>  >>  >  >
>>  >>  >  > The problem is that when I keep the laptop docked and access it
>>  >>  >  > through the external monitor, I get a display like this -
>>  >>  >  > http://picasaweb.google.com/kewlemer/XorgRadeonLaptopDockingStationExtMonitorProblem/photo#5212182196419140690
>>  >>  >
>>  >>  >
>>  >>  > Since there are two screens of dis-similar size in clone mode, gnome
>>  >>  >  is picking the screen on crtc 0 as the default which is internal
>>  >>  >  panel.
>>  >>  >
>>  >>
>>  >> Thanks very much for the note. Is there any other way around this
>>  >>  apart from disabling LVDS?   Option "IgnoreLidStatus" "False" doesn't
>>  >>  seem to work on my hardware - actually this option disappears from
>>  >>  xorg.conf, each time I restart X.
>>  > Quick update after trying again- Option "IgnoreLidStatus" "False"
>>  > works like a charm.Thanks a ton!  I'm not sure why it wasn't
>>  > persistent fist time though though I had surely saved xorg.conf.
>>  >
>>  > One other question- though the screen looks fine mostly, if I look at
>>  > it closely, its a bit grainy. Do you think I can change something in
>>  > my xorg to make this fine grainy screen go away ?
>>
>>
>> What do you mean by grainy?  Can you take a picture of it?  Are you
>>  running the display at it's native mode?
> Sorry for being unclear. "Mild flicker" would be a better term I
> think. I can't really capture this behaviour in a screen shot-
> http://picasaweb.google.com/kewlemer/XorgRadeonLaptopDockingStationExtMonitorProblem/photo#5213108338724671234
>
> Its more pronounced on the right side of the screen beyond certian
> boundary (x- co ordinate). Since its very mild, I actually can live
> with it.
>
> I'm not sure what is a native mode. But I *am* runnig the monior at
> its normal resolution - 1680x1050.

What xserver are you running?  Also, if you have multiple modes listed
in xrandr for 1680x1050, you might try some of the alternates (xrandr
--verbose).  A lot of LCD monitors are pretty finicky about the modes
they like.

Alex