[ltp] External monitor stays black

[John Jason Jordan]

I have a T61 running Fedora 14, x86_64 (Gnome), with nVidia Quadro NVS
140M. In a few days I will need to connect to a projector in a
classroom at a local university. The projector is a Hitachi CP-SX1350
which projects at 1400x1050 (4:3 ratio) and can accept signals from a
computer up to 1600x1200. My T61 has a 15.4" widescreen that is 16:10
ratio. One of the two will be somewhat distorted, therefore I want the
laptop to be distorted so the audience will see a correct screen from
the projector. It has taken me over two days of fiddling and googling,
but I finally managed to get my laptop screen running at 1400x1050
using the nouveau driver.

Because I do not have easy access to the classroom a friend lent me a
Viewsonic VG2021m monitor that does 1400x1050 native resolution, so I
have something at home to experiment with. I have it connected to the
VGA port on the T61, but no matter what I do the Viewsonic remains
black. Actually it is not entirely black; there is a hint of the
backlight, so I know it is receiving some kind of signal. Also "xrandr
-q" sees it, and it is visible in System > Preferences > Monitors,
where I have set it to be mirrored. Therefore, I know the cable is
connected. Also, I have a desktop running Jaunty and if I connect the
Viewsonic to it everything is fine - so I know there is nothing wrong
with the Viewsonic.

I have tried lots of things, but nothing gets the Viewsonic to display
a clone of my laptop display. I have spent hours googling, and
apparently I am the first person in the history of computers that this
has happened to. Or maybe I am just a bad googler. Probably the latter.

I am out of ideas. Any suggestions welcome.