Arch Linux

icetonic

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2008-10-21

Posts: 104

Dual Monitor (VGA + DVI-I-to-VGA) Problem

This is not specifically Arch related, but maybe someone can help me with this anyway...

My problem is that when I boot up with both monitors plugged in, the BIOS uses the VGA one as primary, then in any OS I can't detect the second monitor hanging on the DVI port in any way, it seems that its like "invisible", like it hasn't been activated by the BIOS or something...

When I boot up with only the DVI monitor plugged in, it works fine and then I can plug in the normal VGA later and the strange thing is that both monitors work properly then!

So my question is - is there a way to make the BIOS "initialize" both monitors or is there a way to "wake" the DVI-plugged monitor up somehow after boot? Cause plugging one monitor out and in for each boot is not a thing I'd like to do on regular basis

Inxsible

Forum Fellow

From: Chicago

Registered: 2008-06-09

Posts: 9,183

Re: Dual Monitor (VGA + DVI-I-to-VGA) Problem

I could be completely off here but check your bios to see if it has the option to make DVI port as the default port instead of VGA. Also make sure that you have the latest version of the BIOS that your vendor provides for your machine.

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icetonic

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2008-10-21

Posts: 104

Re: Dual Monitor (VGA + DVI-I-to-VGA) Problem

Thanks for the reply... I tried to find such an option, there doesn't seem to be one...

Anyhow, for Linux, I found the fix - it was enough to add

Option "ConnectedMonitor "CRT-0,CRT-1"

to my xorg.conf and the monitor is force-enabled on X start...

It still does not solve this problem for Windows though, but I don't care that (Windows only for games ^^)

icetonic

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2008-10-21

Posts: 104

Re: Dual Monitor (VGA + DVI-I-to-VGA) Problem

My graphics card died a few days ago and now I've got an ATI Radeon X300 card instead, which means I have to start over with dual head configuration...

Now I'm facing the exactly same problem (monitor on DVI port is seen as "disconnected" which is not true), but the ConnectedMonitor option is not working.. it would be awesome if someone could tell me a similar option (to force monitor output) working with the xf86-video-ati (radeon) driver!