[lug] Linux laptop projector woes

Glenn Murray gmurray at Mines.EDU
Tue Jul 24 10:46:48 MDT 2001


On Tue, 24 Jul 2001, J. Wayde Allen wrote:
> ...  Since we are trying to troubleshoot your
> problem without the benefit of being able to tinker with the hardware or
> see exactly what the failure is that you are describing, you kind of need
> to be able to provide some really basic info such as what kind of machine
> you are using.  We may be able to give you a manufacturer-independent
> solution, but the make of the machine might provide us with the clues
> needed to make the diagnosis.  A couple guys have tried to help by
> offering you some ideas, but they are having to guess at your hardware
> type.  Why not simply tell them?

On Mon, 23 Jul 2001, Holshouser, David wrote:
> You probably need a "display" setup in your xconfig to acompany the
> projector.

On Mon, 23 Jul 2001, Faster-Laster wrote:
> well then, what did it do? I mean it messed up X on the lcd display or
> only the projector or both. But I noticed from your first post it worked
> fine at a local projector, is that correct? Did both your window boot
> and linux boot run the same resolution?

On Mon, 23 Jul 2001, Nate Duehr wrote:
> Sounds like you probably have a Toshiba.  You need the "toshiba" driver

On Mon, 23 Jul 2001, Nate Duehr wrote:
> ...Many many open-source developers have spent countless hours
> writing and communicating with the hardware world on various issues like
> Toshiba's proprietary IrDA port hardware, video cards, and TONS of other
> things.  If you'd like to join in and help out, feel free.

On Tue, 24 Jul 2001, J. Wayde Allen wrote:
> On Mon, 23 Jul 2001, Glenn Murray wrote:
> 
> > There doesn't seem to be a HOWTO about this.
> 
> Hmmm ... that is a really good point.  Might be good to get someone to
> work on this.  Not to be pushy, but are yous sufficiently interested to
> put together a first cut?

I didn't know you were from Brooklyn, Wayde!  Thank you for the
implied compliment, but I can hardly think of anyone less qualified.
A web search discovered the "Linux-Mobile-Guide - A Guide for Laptops
and Mobile Devices, former known as Linux-Laptop-HOWTO", but "The
printed version includes an additional part `Lectures, Presentations,
Animations and Slideshows'" which means having to buy the book.

What kind of laptop or projector I am using is not the point.  I'm
dealing with three different makes of laptop here and the next time I
present it will probably be on a fourth.  I don't know what kind it
will be, nor will I know what kind of projector it will be.  The
Windoze world seems to handle this fine.  I am trying to learn what
sort of general configuration changes are necessary and how to make
them on the fly.

The particular laptop I was using at NIST was not a Toshiba, though
the projector on which it works here is a Toshiba.  The laptop under
Windows and Linux is running at 1024x768, 16 bpp color.  The Toshiba
projector has a plate saying "Resolution 1024x768".

I've confirmed that it works with the Toshiba.  The projector display
is not as good as with Windoze, it's flickery and seems to have tiny
"waves" going down the display, but it's quite usable.

At the NIST presentation, the text mode display was OK, but X would
not project.  Hitting the Fn-F10 key combination moved the laptop
display to a much coarser resolution which projected very poorly---at
one point I saw five regularly overlapping copies of the low-res
display spread like a deck of cards across the screen.

I do not need the Fn-F10 combination to make it work on the Toshiba.
Those keys toggle the coarser resolution and make it impossible to
have the laptop and the projector simultaneously display.

A web search discovered that I might want to have the ff lines in my
XF86Config Device section:
    Option     "intern_disp"
    Option     "extern_disp" 
but I don't know what they do and there is nothing about these
in the XF86Config man page.

The few projectors I've seen appeared to have the same configuration
options.  It would seem that configuration from the Linux side might
help.  All I'm asking is whether there is some general info about this
out there.

My thanks to all who responded,
Glenn Murray




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