[lug] Linux laptop projector woes

[J. Wayde Allen]

On Tue, 24 Jul 2001, Glenn Murray wrote:

> I didn't know you were from Brooklyn, Wayde!

Huh ... ?

> Thank you for the implied compliment, but I can hardly think of anyone
> less qualified.

Yes, well this is a topic you are interested in now.  My thought was that
you could maybe start a list of questions you've run into, and as they get
answered add those too.  Qualifications have relatively little to do with
it.

> 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.

Cool!

> What kind of laptop or projector I am using is not the point.

Well it is if you really want people to do much more than guess about what
might be going on for you.

>  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.

Yes ... ?

> The Windoze world seems to handle this fine.

Yes and no, one option is of course to simply use Windoze.

> I am trying to learn what sort of general configuration changes are
> necessary and how to make them on the fly.

I understand, but it is really hard to troubleshoot from a distance if you
refuse to give us any details to work with.  We usually need this kind of
info to help with desktop machines too.  Laptops are in many ways worse
making this kind of info even more critical.

> The particular laptop I was using at NIST was not a Toshiba, though
> the projector on which it works here is a Toshiba.

OK, so it wansn't a Thinkpad or a Toshiba ... nah, I'm tired of trying to
guess.

> The laptop under Windows and Linux is running at 1024x768, 16 bpp
> color.  The Toshiba projector has a plate saying "Resolution
> 1024x768".

OK that helps.  Do you know how many colors the projector was able to do?

> I've confirmed that it works with the Toshiba.

What is "it"?  The laptop I presume?  I thought you said it didn't work
with the Toshiba projector.  Perhaps just not with the one at NIST
Gaithersburg?

> 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.

Sounds like a synchronization problem.  There is usually a button on the
projector to adjust this, and this is an adjustment that you also have to
make with MSWindows boxes.

> 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.

It does indeed sound like the projector didn't like your video mode.

> All I'm asking is whether there is some general info about this out
> there.

Sounds like you've pretty much found it.

- Wayde
  (wallen at lug.boulder.co.us)