bohsocks

I have an HP laptop with VGA-Out and an ATI (Radeon Mobility 9100IP) card.... it worked fine to connect my laptop to my TV through MergedFB in feisty.....

There are a number of reasons I want to upgrade from Feisty to Gutsy (Trevino's repo is half-dead, ipod-convenience for my iPhone, compiz ccsm, etc.) but when I do I lose my MergedFB obviously... and cannot figure out how to get my dual-monitors back.

Since my card is pre-9500, fglrx doesn't work for me.....

When I have my VGA cable connected (to my new Vizio with a RGB(VGA) input.... Xrandr doesn't recognize it as being connected.....

I have had no success editing my xorg.conf on my own... because I have no idea what I'm doing... but I'm hoping that's the key to getting this to work.....

Here is my current xorg.conf:
Here is what I have tried:
Here are some of the edits I've tried... to no success!!!!!

kazler

If you don't want to manually edit you conf you could try the old Ubuntu tool "Screen and Graphics" try running this from the terminal to get the gui "gksu displayconfig-gtk" or the config below should work for you, before you replace you xorg.conf make sure you backup your old working one.


Section "Device"
Identifier "ATI1"
Driver "ati"
BusID "PCI:1:5:0"
screen 0
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "ATI2"
Driver "ati"
BusID "PCI:1:5:0"
screen 1
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "monitor0"
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "monitor1"
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "ATI1]"
Monitor "Generic Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Modes "1280x800"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen1"
Device "ATI2"
Monitor "Generic Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Modes "1280x800"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 1280 0
Screen 1 "Screen1" Rigthof "Screen0"

InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
InputDevice "Configured Mouse"

InputDevice "Synaptics Touchpad"
EndSection

bohsocks

Unfortunately the Screens & Graphics tool, at least in Gutsy, has been mostly useless... causing more headaches than it cures....

And I tried what you posted, and unfortunately with the usual result -- I broke X..... but do little things like in the Device section it reading "screen 1" instread of "Screen 1" be a problem? I already changed it when you put ATI1] instead of ATI1

Is xorg.conf picky about cases and formats?

Also these aren't identical monitors -- Screen 0 is my Laptop monitor, with a max resolution of 1280x800, and Screen 1 is a TV on VGA.... which means it maxes out at 1368x768 I believe... though I can only get 1024x768 working in XP because the former isn't available to me

kazler

Sorry in the device section the spaces must be removed it must be screen0 and screen1 and you were right to remove the square bracket. You will need to set screen1 to what ever resolution you require eg 1024x768 and no Xorg is not case sensitive. Have you also had a look in the xorg log to see why it fails?

bohsocks

Please don't apologize! This is the most constructive help I've gotten yet!

Yes, sometimes I've read the output when X craps out.... unfortunately I don't know exactly what to make of it... it's mostly gibberish to me... and since it's not in X I can't take a screenie or anything of it!

Edit: Okay I tried it and no luck.... and apparently another difference is that in Gutsy it doesn't give you that warm, comfy, box telling you that X crashed.... it just hangs FOREVER......

And even though my VGA from Laptop to TV is connected, Xrandr claims it isn't..... and I know it isn't the case since it works without a hitch in Windows XP:

$ xrandr -q
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 800, maximum 1280 x 1200
VGA-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right)
LVDS connected 1280x800+0+0 (normal left inverted right) 0mm x 0mm
1280x800 59.5*+ 60.0
1280x768 60.0
1024x768 60.0
800x600 60.3
640x480 59.9
S-video disconnected (normal left inverted right)

This is incredibly frustrating, lol.

kazler

I have found a page which may interest you here which talks about the aticonfig command which may give you some success aticonfig link here is also a link which is specific to the graphics card you have struggling with which will also give you something to try ati Dual Monitor Configuration
good luck

bohsocks

Unfortunately aticonfig is with the fglrx driver -- which my laptop is too old to use

Hang on, I'll try the other, it looks much more familiar and similar to my issue!

bohsocks

Okay forget editing.... this worked!.... KINDA!

Right now I have my 2nd thing cloning my main thing..... but since they differ in resolution (1280x800 vs 1024x76 it's only mirroring as much as it can go....

xrandr says

xrandr -q
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 800, maximum 1280 x 1200
VGA-0 disconnected 1024x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right) 0mm x 0mm
1024x768 60.0*
LVDS connected 1280x800+0+0 (normal left inverted right) 0mm x 0mm
1280x800 59.5*+ 60.0
1280x768 60.0
1024x768 60.0
800x600 60.3
640x480 59.9
S-video disconnected (normal left inverted right)
rob@rob-laptop:~$

I think I'm one command away! Any thoughts?

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

kazler

Are you looking to have cloned displays are two separate desktops? If you want two separate desktops you will need to add option "Xinearama" "1" to the serverflags section within your xorg.conf

bohsocks

Just to be entirely sure what you're talking about -- I don't want a separate X instance, I just sort of want an extension of my present desktop to the right, as if they were side by side... so I could drag a window from my main LVDS to the right over onto the VGA (TV screen)

...for like full screen video or something while I work on the rest of my desktop.... I suppose you'd call that multiple desktops.... but I don't want an extra workspace... just extra space on my current workspace spanning onto the second screen

I'll try your suggestion when I get home