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#1 2011-07-03 12:24:49

Soseki
Member
Registered: 2011-07-03
Posts: 4

X perfect in Laptop but display from ext. monitor is far from ideal

I have a Thinkpad X61s using the 'intel/i915' but the screen is broken and i can no longer use it without an external monitor attached to the ultrabay. From what i can see when testing without the monitor everything is as it should be in both virtual console and xfce4, good, smooth, elegant display but this is not the case when using the monitor. The Grub menu is too large and bulky and does not fit entirely on the screen. In virtual console i can only use 2 thirds of the top left hand part of the monitor and Xfce is bulky, fuzzy and any text is presented badly. As i said i do not want to use my laptop's 1024x768 display but use it as a desk top type machine using my 1280x1040 acer lcd monitor. Is there a way that i can rectify this or even better a thread which already exists that may help me with my problem? Thank you for your time

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#2 2011-07-03 13:05:31

George.Harmony
Member
From: Off The Wire
Registered: 2010-04-30
Posts: 97

Re: X perfect in Laptop but display from ext. monitor is far from ideal

While booting into console I use fbset. I have it in my rc.local.

Mine looks like this

fbset -a -xres 1680 -yres 1050

This wiil set the frame buffer for both monitors to this, but since you are only using one it doesn't make any difference for the other.

Then when I boot into X  I run a script callesd SetRez.sh that I call from my .xinitrc. It uses xrandr.

xrandr --output DVI-0 --mode 1280x1024 --left-of DVI-1 --output DVI-1 --mode 1680x1050

To find your connectors once you have X up and running run

xrandr

from the command line

This would give you an output of your connectors.

Mine looks like this

Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2960 x 1050, maximum 4096 x 4096
DVI-0 connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 338mm x 270mm
   1280x1024      60.0*+   75.0  
   1152x864       75.0  
   1024x768       75.1     70.1     60.0  
   832x624        74.6  
   800x600        72.2     75.0     60.3     56.2  
   640x480        72.8     75.0     66.7     60.0  
   720x400        70.1  
S-video disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DVI-1 connected 1680x1050+1280+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 494mm x 320mm
   1680x1050      59.9*+
   1280x1024      75.0     60.0  
   1280x960       60.0  
   1152x864       75.0  
   1024x768       75.1     70.1     60.0  
   832x624        74.6  
   800x600        72.2     75.0     60.3     56.2  
   640x480        72.8     75.0     66.7     60.0  
   720x400        70.1  

This tell you what connectors you have. Instead of setting a resolution for your laptop just turn it off with the

 
--off
 

option after you define the connector.

So for me to turn off my right monitor my command would look like this

xrandr --output DVI-0 --off --output DVI-1 --mode 1680x1050

Hope this helps.


Desktop:  Compiz Stand Alone w/ Cairo Dock.
Laptop:    Pekwm w/ Tint2
Jukebox:   MPD w/ cli
Gateway: Vuurmuur w/dialog

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#3 2011-07-03 13:56:28

Soseki
Member
Registered: 2011-07-03
Posts: 4

Re: X perfect in Laptop but display from ext. monitor is far from ideal

I don't have time at the moment to play with this but i will do so at the next opportunity. Thank you for your very quick reply.

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#4 2011-07-03 20:02:13

Brcher
Member
Registered: 2011-06-20
Posts: 36

Re: X perfect in Laptop but display from ext. monitor is far from ideal

There is also a program called arandr in the repos. It is the same as xrandr, but it has a nice gui. Won't clear up your grub issues-- that doesn't talk to xorg.

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#5 2011-07-04 08:50:21

Soseki
Member
Registered: 2011-07-03
Posts: 4

Re: X perfect in Laptop but display from ext. monitor is far from ideal

George, Thank you. Your solution worked perfectly. Although the grub menu and the boot is still messy it is  of little or no consequence.

Brcher i have become very interested in this issue and have quite enjoyed discovering what these programs can do, i will have a look at it, thank you for your suggestion

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