[ltp] External Monitor revisited...

[Daniel Jimenez]

SEMI SOLVED!!

It's long and I posted my config. So I crossposted on Gentoo forums:

http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?p=943923#943923

Seems to be the only way to get a decent refresh rate.

Daniel

Daniel Jimenez wrote:
> Hi all--
> 
> I'm having some really annoying issues with my Thinkpad T41p.
> 
> I'm trying to work on an external monitor. I have a number of problems 
> but they go in this order.
> 
> 1- When I boot up with the laptop closed, the bios, grub, and everything 
> show up on the external monitor (CRT) just fine. When the framebuffer 
> kicks in both monitors are black unless I hit FN+f7 on my laptop. 
> Pressing FN+F7 switches to my LCD and pressing it again does nothing.
> 
> My Question: How can I tell the kernel to display on the CRT when it's 
> plugged in?
> 
> ----------
> 
> 2- Starting X, if I start X using the open source radeon driver it 
> switches over to my CRT. It puts the LCD in 1400x1050 with a virtual 
> desktop of 1600x1200. My CRT shows 1600x1200.
> 
> This is a good thing, except that I can't see anything on the CRT until 
> I start X and X runs on my CRT with 1600x1200 @ 50hz. 50hz REALLY hurts 
> my eyes.
> 
> I tried using xrandr to change to 75hz but I get this:
> 
> Code:
> djimenez@calculon djimenez $ xrandr --size 12/1600x1200 --rate 75
> X Error of failed request:  BadValue (integer parameter out of range for 
> operation)
>   Major opcode of failed request:  156 (RANDR)
>   Minor opcode of failed request:  2 (RRSetScreenConfig)
>   Value in failed request:  0x4b
>   Serial number of failed request:  12
>   Current serial number in output stream:  12
> 
> 
> My question: How I can tell X that I have an external monitor plugged in 
> and to set it's refresh rate to 75 hz?
> 
> My video card is an ATI Radeon Mobility 9000.
> 
> Using the ATI binary drivers (fglrx) I could get nothing on my external 
> monitor. Even though in fglrxconfig I specified laptop mode (which says 
> it lets you switch between the two).
> 
> Any tips?
> 
> Thank you so much for your help,

-- 
Daniel Jimenez <djimenez[at]pobox[dot]com>