Arch Linux

daryl314

Member

Registered: 2013-12-19

Posts: 15

Starting KDE with laptop lid closed (KMS monitor out of range issues)

Hello,

I would like to be able to use my laptop without opening the lid, as it is connected to a monitor, keyboard, and mouse.  I set

HandleLidSwitch=ignore

in

/etc/systemd/logind.conf

and I set the laptop lid action to "Do nothing" in the KDE power management configuration (System Settings > Power Management > Energy Saving > On AC Power > Button events handling).

I can close the laptop lid now when the computer is running, but it won't boot into KDE with the lid closed.  When I start the computer with the lid closed, the GRUB menu shows up on my external monitor, and the screen goes black after it starts booting.  To get KDE to start, I have to do one of the following:

• Wait long enough for KDE to finish booting, open the lid, and then close it again.  This doesn't always work, as sometimes all I see is a black screen

• Open the lid, switch to tty1, login, and run

  sudo systemctl restart kdm

Does anyone have any experience on getting a setup like this running?

Thanks,
Daryl

Last edited by daryl314 (2013-12-24 14:18:53)

daryl314

Member

Registered: 2013-12-19

Posts: 15

Re: Starting KDE with laptop lid closed (KMS monitor out of range issues)

After some more poking around, it looks like the issue has something to do with GRUB and KMS, as I am getting a "Monitor out of range" display on my external monitor when I boot up.  I have an Intel graphics chip.  I've tried various suggestions on the KMS wiki page and the Intel wiki pages, but nothing seems to work consistently.  Right now I have MODULES="i915 intel_agp" set in /etc/mkinitcpio.conf and I have KMS settings of GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="verbose LVDS-1:d" set in /etc/default/grub.  I've tried various combinations of disabling LVDS and forcing VGA output, but nothing works particularly well.

This is what I have tried to do:

# add intel initramfs settings
# https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Intel_Graphics#Blank_screen_during_boot.2C_when_.22Loading_modules.22
sudo perl -pi -e 's/MODULES=".*"/MODULES="i915 intel_agp"/' /etc/mkinitcpio.conf 
sudo mkinitcpio -p linux

# kernel mode settings (KMS) for external monitor during boot
# https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Kernel_Mode_Setting#Forcing_modes_and_EDID
sudo perl -pi -e 's/(GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT)=".*"/$1="verbose LVDS-1:d VGA-1:1920x1080@60"/' /etc/default/grub
sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
echo "xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1920x1080" | sudo tee -a /usr/share/config/kdm/Xsetup 

I have also tried to use the builtin edid/1920x1080.bin file in /etc/default/grub, but my kernel can't seem to find it, as referencing it causes the boot to hang.

Does anyone else have experience with this?  I saw some other relevant content in the forums, but the suggestions I saw didn't work for me.

Last edited by daryl314 (2013-12-24 19:15:55)