[ltp] report: fglrx 8.25.18 dynamic display switching working, sort of

[Florian Manschwetus]

Jiang Qian wrote:
> Hi all:
> This is a feature that we dreamed about for a long time and has existed 
> only using vesa driver(allegedly, although I haven't even get that to 
> work): you use a linux machine for a presentation, plug in the projector 
> to VGA port and *dynamically* switch to dual screen(without needing the 
> projector connected when the machine is booting up or restarting X).  
> The new 8.25.18 fglrx drive adds an experimental support for this(so 
> experimental that it is not mentioned in the release notes).

well, works like a charm with xrandr and the radeon-driver (open source)
you just have to enter a line (forcecrt1present or something like that)
in your xorg.conf, then you can switch between the entered setups freely
with external, without, in clone or mergedFb, whatever...

> 
> It consists of two new command on aticonfig: --query-monitior to show 
> which monitor is connected. This works very well, when I plug 
> projector/external LCD, it shows up and when I unplug it disappear.  
> 
> Also --enable-monitor works to a limited extent: I can do
> aticonfig --enable-monitor=crt1
> to switch to use external display exclusively, with internal LCD 
> disabled. And I can do
> aticonfig --enable-monitor=lvds
> to switch back to use internal LCD exclusively, with external display 
> disabled, however if I do
> aticonfig --enable-monitor=lvds,crt1
> or
> aticonfig --enable-monitor=crt1,lvds
> to attempt to use both display simultaneously, the system hard locked, 
> and I can't even use ctrl-alt-Fn to switch to virtual terminal. I can 
> however hold down power button for a few second and wait till system 
> shutdown cleanly.
> The system is a T43 running linux 2.6.15.7 with suspend-to-ram patch.
> This is obviously an improvement upon previous situation but just a bit 
> short of perfection.

well just use th open source driver

> I'm filing a bug report to ATI.
> Any other experience or suggestions are most welcome.
> Jiang

Michael