[ltp] Radeon: hot-swap VGA-out monitor

Andrey Kislyuk linux-thinkpad@linux-thinkpad.org
Thu, 06 Sep 2007 11:07:29 -0400


Monitor hotplug is in Xorg 7.3, which was released today. All you have 
to do is wait for it to hit your distribution.

Christopher Singley wrote:
> I have a Thinkpad R51 with an ATI Radeon 250 graphics card.  The card has a 
> VGA out port, and I like to run in dual-head configuration (external monitor 
> attached) using the MergedFB options of the Radeon X driver.
>
> This generally works well; however I'd like to be able to hot-swap monitors & 
> toggle at will between single-head & dual-head configuration.
>
> Using the radeon driver's "MergedFBAuto" option works to allow X to autodetect 
> single/dual-head configuration when it starts up.  If it starts up in 
> dual-head mode, setting "MetaModes" like "1024x768-1024x768 1024x768" 
> additionally allows me to use xrandr to dynamically switch back & forth 
> between single/dual-head when I plug/unplug the external monitor.
>
> However, if no external monitor is detected when X starts up, I don't know how 
> to force a configuration so that when I subsequently plug in an external 
> monitor, I can switch over to dual-head configuration on the fly without 
> restarting X.
>
> I imagine this must be a feature desired by many people other than just me.  
> Can anyone give me a hint how to set this up?
>
> Thanks,
> cs
>