[lug] multi-monitor question - hw part

Mon Dec 6 16:09:49 MST 2010

Ok, so I've found somebody with a very similar machine with windows
xp, and the dual display works just fine (besides being painfully
slow, my Ubuntu Hardy is much snappier :-)

Now, I ran

$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1680 x 1050, maximum 2048 x 2048
VGA connected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
   1600x1200      60.0 +   59.9
   1280x1024      75.0     59.9
   1152x864       74.8
   1024x768       75.1     60.0
   800x600        75.0     60.3
   640x480        75.0     60.0
   720x400        70.1
LVDS connected 1280x800+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
261mm x 163mm
   1280x800       60.0*+   60.0
   1280x768       60.0
   1024x768       60.0
   800x600        60.3
   640x480        59.9
TMDS-1 connected 1680x1050+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y
axis) 473mm x 296mm
   1680x1050      60.0*+
   1280x1024      75.0     59.9
   1152x864       74.8
   1024x768       75.1     60.0
   800x600        75.0     60.3
   640x480        75.0     60.0
   720x400        70.1
TV disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

So the OS does see all monitors (LVDS is the laptop screen). I tried
the following:

$ xrandr --screen 1 --auto
Invalid screen number 1 (display has 1)
$ xrandr --screen 2 --auto
Invalid screen number 2 (display has 1)
$ xrandr --screen 0 --auto
xrandr: cannot find crtc for output VGA

This is with an intel video card. Ubuntu resolution app behaves oddly
(see something from the screenshot): screens are there but cannot be
moved around. Resolution can be changed, but clicking "apply" makes
just the only working (DVI) screen to flicker an nothing happens (even
if I change the resolution of that screen: it is stuck with the
current resolution). If I remove the other screen, this app works ok
(screens can be moved and resolution can be changed).

I have xserver-xorg-video-i740, xserver-xorg-video-i810 and
xserver-xorg-video-intel installed.

Not sure if I can test Ubuntu 10.04 live, since neither this docking
station (nor the laptop itself) has a CD/DVD drive (I have it on a
separate docking station in another room, which has not dual monitor
exits (if I remember right...)
But I might install it, instead, since it's almost that time....

Any other suggestions?
Thanks a lot
Dav

On Mon, Dec 6, 2010 at 11:57, Chip Atkinson <chip at pupman.com> wrote:
>
>
> On Mon, 6 Dec 2010, Davide Del Vento wrote:
>
>> Thanks a lot for your message!
>>
>> > I don't know what kind of Dell laptop/docking station you are using but
>> > I'm using the configuration you describe right now.
>>
>> Yes, I didn't realize that there were different Dell docking station
>> standards. I think mine is the "old" one, the one with a large
>> connector (about 2 inches, the new one is about 1 inch).
>
> I believe that I have the old style too.  I think it was 2-3" long when I
> saw it last.
>
>>
>> > I have a Dell Latitude D630 laptop plugged into the docking station that
>> > came with it.
>>
>> Mine is a D430, the docking station doesn't have a name.
>>
>> I'm trying to find a coworker with the a compatible hw and running
>> windows (hard, these days :-), so I can separate hw from sw issues.
>>
>> > There was another guy here that had seemingly identical hardware but the
>> > NVIDIA driver could not detect his monitors.  It always showed a generic
>> > monitor and "TV".
>>
>> Mmmm, I thought that at least in 640x480 the driver should be
>> irrelevant, shouldn't it? Was him able to run "dual monitor" with
>> "generic and TV" at least? Just trying to understand if I'm hitting a
>> similar issue.
>
> My *speculation* is that you should be able to get that resolution with
> the VGA driver just fine. However, getting multi-head is likely going to
> be different.  Xinerama would probably work using vga and multiple video
> cards, but for using both output connectors on one video card like I have
> is probably not going to be supported by the VGA driver.
>
> We didn't have a TV to test it with and the resolution was really
> terrible, something like 640x480 on the primary monitor.  We never even
> got dual head to work at all.
>
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Dav
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>
>
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