Thinkpad Dapper: control external monitor/project?

Wed May 10 22:10:57 UTC 2006

Summary:

I'm offering $50 (US dollars) to anyone who can directly
(email/phone/IM) to solve this (
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=172155 ) external-monitor
problem.  Thanks for any help.

More details:

Matt-  Thanks for the note.

All-   Some of my system info:

Code:
--------------------

  mengland at matts-laptop 5:07pm [~] 8> uname -a

  Linux matts-laptop 2.6.15-22-386 #1 PREEMPT Sun May 7 15:49:09 UTC 2006 i686 GNU/Linux

  mengland at matts-laptop 5:07pm [~] 9> cat /etc/issue

  Ubuntu 6.06 "Dapper Drake" Development Branch \n \l

  mengland at matts-laptop 5:07pm [~] 10> lspci

  0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82855PM Processor to I/O Controller (rev 03)

  0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82855PM Processor to AGP Controller (rev 03)

  0000:00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 01)

  0000:00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 01)

  0000:00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 01)

  0000:00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 01)

  0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 81)

  0000:00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 01)

  0000:00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) IDE Controller (rev 01)

  0000:00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) SMBus Controller (rev 01)

  0000:00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 01)

  0000:00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 01)

  0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility M7 LW [Radeon Mobility 7500]

  0000:02:00.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI4520 PC card Cardbus Controller (rev 01)

  0000:02:00.1 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI4520 PC card Cardbus Controller (rev 01)

  0000:02:01.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82540EP Gigabit Ethernet Controller (Mobile) (rev 03)

  0000:02:02.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless LAN 2100 3B Mini PCI Adapter (rev 04)

  mengland at matts-laptop 5:07pm [~] 11> date

  Wed May 10 17:07:16 CDT 2006

  mengland at matts-laptop 5:07pm [~] 12>

--------------------

Additional offer:

I will pay $50 US dollars (preferrably via paypal.com) to someone who
can solve my external-monitor problem on my Ubuntu Dapper Beta2 system
(on a Thinkpad T41 2378DHU system with a dock port) via direct
interaction with me over email, phone, and/or IM.

I will pay an additional $20 to someone who can help me figure out how
xorg.conf, gnome configuration and "resolution modes" that are
selectable by a human user and can all work together and
interoperate--although getting my immediate problem solved is a higher
priority for me.  I'm what I'd call a reasonably-technically-oriented
system engineer who likes to know how things work to be self-sufficient
to solve my own problems, and I'm having trouble finding research
references to teach myself these things;  there's lots of info, but
things aren't quite "connected."  My experience has taught me that in
such situations there's some implicit knowledge floating around in
human heads that may not all be documented, and I'm looking to document
some of that understanding, see how much of it generally applies to many
systems if at all (Matt's comments below suggest that this may be a
tough road; I'm not ready to throw in the towel yet until I better
understand why).

This thread references the discussion I started per this email:

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=172155

In addition, some howto references that haven't yet answered all my
questions:

http://www.stanford.edu/~fenn/linux/radeon.shtml

http://yolinux.com/TUTORIALS/LinuxAndDualMonitors.html

http://en.tldp.org/HOWTO/Xinerama-HOWTO/

One of my biggest questions:

How can a user "switch" between screen-display modes?

eg, on my Windows-based Thinkpad, I can press Fn-F7 to see a popup
display to choose between display-config modes, eg: 1) display only on
external monitor, 2) display my "normal settings" 3) display 1024x768
....etc.  I don't know how a user does similar things in Ubuntu, if
they can do it at all...and how a system admin "marries" the
xorg.conf/gnome-based config with these user-interaction gizmos...other
then possibly rebooting the X server (which may work for as a
medium-term solution...but I can't even get that scenario to properly
manage my external monitor).

Experience in past situations is telling me that there's a big
documentation "hole" in this area.  I obviously am new to this, so this
is purely speculation, and I see that many others are experiencing the
same issue.  Alas, if I can help fill the hole, that's great.  My first
priority is to solve my problem.

Thanks for any help, I'll be gladly paying money for it.

-Matt

ubuntuexternalmonitor [at] mengland.net

Matthew Kuiken Wrote: 
> mattengland wrote:

> > I'm still looking for pointers on this topic, in particular, what it

> > means to "ONLY THE EXTERNAL MONITOR ACTIVE" as per this thread:

> >

> >

> >

> > http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=131371

> >

> >   

> Matt,

> 

> Given the large number of configurations available for running dual 

> monitor setups, it is very difficult to help you without knowing what 

> you are running.  If you know which graphics chipset you are using, 

> please post it.  If you do not know, please post the output of the
> lspci 

> command.  This will give us somewhere to start from.

> 

> I personally have an Intel i915 graphics card that I just got working 

> dual screen today.  I am still playing with the settings to see what is
> 

> possible.  I have managed to run two different external monitors with 

> different settings, though.  If your card is similar to mine, I may be
> 

> able to help.

> 

> One thing I will say, anyone claiming to have the magic bullet for 

> fixing this is probably only working with one type of hardware, and 

> their "solution" will probably only work with a small subset of the 

> hardware out there.  When you are searching for a solution, search for
> 

> similar setups that are trying to accomplish the same goal as you.

> 

> One last thing, some of us don't get to email until odd times of the 

> day, and it's not uncommon for emails in this place to go unanswered
> for 

> a day or two.  Relax, and wait for the rest of the world to catch up.

>

-- 
mattengland