Arch Linux

memory_leak

Member

Registered: 2015-03-02

Posts: 43

Grub2 with two screens only shows up on one

I have recently installed Arch, and kudos, everything works almost perfect out of the box so to say. I had few hickups with some hardware, but everything resolved just fine in less than few hours thanks to magic of Google and Arch Wiki. As you probably guess I am quite new to Arch, but I am kind-a noob in disguise since I have beem Redhat user since around version 5.1 of their "Fedora" predecessor. Anyway I still consider myself a newbie since I have always been more of a user less of sysadmin/tweaker. I am a programmer and don't really care much about os internals as long as everything *just works*.

Now I have installed Arch on a laptop with external screen attached to it and have troubles with GRUBs boot screen not showing up on 2nd monitor. Boot menu only shows up on a built-in laptop screen, not on external one, There are no problems with my monitors, everything works as intended once system boots to X, however I can't get GRUB to show up on both screens. As my setup considered, I use this laptop as a dekstop replacement, so it sits on a shelf below my desk and since I don't see laptop screen at all, you understand, it is quite of inconvenience :-).. I have external monitor, keyboard and a mouse attached to it to VGA and usb ports so it really don't feels as laptop at all. I have managed to confiugre window managers to turn off laptop screen after login (shame to waste power and burn pixels if I can't see them), but I can't manage to get GRUB to show up on external monitor. Of course I have Arch as default so it boots into Arch anyway, and Windows is just below so I can blindly switch to windows by just pressing one arrow key, but I still have to look below the desk just to pick the right timing to press the arrow key for those rare occasions when I have to boot into windows :-). And most notably: I never had this problem with GRUB before and yes I had Fedora installed on this system as well.

I am using grub in text mode, I don't care for fancy splashes at boot time and so on.

I have googled quite a bit and seen that other people also have this issue, but I haven't seen any good answer yet. On one forum there is an answer that GRUB can't see the 2nd screen at boot time since it speaks only to BIOS (or uefi better to say), but I don't think its true. I am using my 2nd screen without problems in uefi bios mode, and windows boot mngr shows just fine on both screens, so it must be some setting for GRUB that I can't find.

I hope I am asking question in proper section, if not feel free to move it around.

Thanks in advance fo help and hope you don't mind my noob question.

PS:
Of course easiest way woud be to just format c:\ to ext4 and not need to boot into Windows at all, but alas, I do make money on guess what: programming VBA and automating databases with Access and Excel - I can tell you, vba programmers seem to be an extinct art so there is money to be made :-).

GloW_on_dub

Member

Registered: 2013-03-13

Posts: 391

Website

Re: Grub2 with two screens only shows up on one

Still did you look in your bios for any related options ?
Did you try another bootloader ?

TheSaint

Member

From: my computer

Registered: 2007-08-19

Posts: 1,536

Re: Grub2 with two screens only shows up on one

These options are out of the kernel scope. Only BIOS should be able to address the internal or external VGA.
Unless booting a UEFI partition that will have a program to to find the external VGA, nothing can be done at that early stage.

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do it good first, it will be faster than do it twice the saint

memory_leak

Member

Registered: 2015-03-02

Posts: 43

Re: Grub2 with two screens only shows up on one

@The Saint - yeah, I realized after I posted that this was wrong thread. I am new to Arch wiki and was too fast to post. I came to forum with intend to ask this question, looked quickly through sections, saw "hardware" and posted just to realize afterwards it is ment hardware in context of kernel. This should probably be moved to some other section of the forum. I am sorry for inconvenience.

@Glow - I see uefi bios on my 2nd screen, no problems here. When I run live dvd I also see it on 2nd screen, but I think the dvd is using Syslinux instead of Grub. I have not tried another boot loader with Arch and Windows. Would like to use Grub2 actually just because I am familiar with it and it boots fine both linux and windows. So I would in first hand like to fix issue with Grub if possible, but if not I will have to look into some other boot loader.

Last edited by memory_leak (2015-03-06 01:18:39)

R00KIE

Forum Fellow

From: Between a computer and a chair

Registered: 2008-09-14

Posts: 4,734

Re: Grub2 with two screens only shows up on one

You may have to fiddle with your grub.cfg, I would try to comment the lines with 'set gfxmode=auto', 'insmod all_video', 'insmod gfxterm' and any other lines that might do any changes to the display configuration. As always, google is your friend and don't be afraid of a little trial and error

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R00KIE
Tm90aGluZyB0byBzZWUgaGVyZSwgbW92ZSBhbG9uZy4K

TheSaint

Member

From: my computer

Registered: 2007-08-19

Posts: 1,536

Re: Grub2 with two screens only shows up on one

I also came across to the point that grub may have the chances to address a different Video port. But I think it maybe a deep research.

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do it good first, it will be faster than do it twice the saint

memory_leak

Member

Registered: 2015-03-02

Posts: 43

Re: Grub2 with two screens only shows up on one

Ehh, I have googled a lot before I asked :-). Asking is always last desperation resort. I have tryed insmod all_video flag, but it changed nothing. From docs I understand it tells Grub to probe device for all grafic modes it supports, not to probe for all devices :-(. But thanks anyway for the interest.