Problems with external display on Dell Precision M70

gugrim · 10-24-2005, 04:39 AM

Hi!

I've just bought myself a Dell Precision M70 laptop. It has an LCD with resolution 1680x1050 and I want to be able to use a projector that can only handle 1024x768.

The laptop has a button (Fn-LCD/CRT) for rotating between internal, external
and both.

I use SuSE 9.3 and has installed the nvidia driver from YOU.

My problem is that when I activate both the external and internal display the picture on the internal LCD seems to be zoomed twice! When I lower the resolution I'd expect the pixels to either remain the same size and the picture to be centered on the screen, or that the picture is zoomed to fit the screen. Now it is zoomed so much that it doesn't fit the display. Moving the cursor around causes the internal display to scroll.

I don't think I want or need twinview. I want to see the same picture on the internal display as is shown on the projector.

Does anyone know how to solve this problem?

TIA,
Gunnar

Tino27 · 10-28-2005, 03:27 PM

I can sort of give you some guidance on this one. I, too, have a laptop that runs at 1400x1050. Problem is during presentations, most projectors only run at 1024x768. So ...

The bad news is that I gave up on having the EXACT same thing on both my laptop screen and the projector. I just couldn't get the darn thing to work and there was such scant info on the web about anyone who had successfully done it.

The good news is that I figured out how to do a dual-headed mode so that when I start X, the projector sits to the "right" of the LCD screen. This is also what the Xinerama extensions do. Plus, you can have your LCD running at one resolution while the projector/monitor/etc. runs at a second resolution.

If this interests you, let me know and I can give you some additional details.

gugrim · 11-03-2005, 02:15 PM

Thanks, but I'm not ready to give up yet! I need to see exactly what my audience sees when I do presentations. If Windows can handle this (and it can, I've seen it), then there must be a way! If I'm successful I'll post.

stask · 11-17-2005, 10:59 AM

Hi Tino27,
Do you have an NVidia card on your laptop?
If yes, can you please post additional details (such as your xorg.conf)?
I have a different problem - several months ago i installed gentoo linux on my laptop, but i had to go back to winxp because i wasn't able to configure my video card the way i wanted it to work (similar to Dualview in windows).

thanks,

Tino27 · 11-17-2005, 02:43 PM

stask --

Actually, I don't have an nVIDIA in my current laptop. I have the Intel 915GM graphics card. That being said, the stuff in your xorg.conf that gives you the dual display doesn't have anything specific to do with your card. Here are the relevant portions of my xorg.conf.

First, I define the two monitors (one of which happens to be my Dell LCD screen on my laptop)

Code:

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier  "Dell LCD"
    HorizSync    31.5 - 48.5
    VertRefresh  40.0 - 70.0
    Option "DPMS"
    UseModes "Modes1"
EndSection

Section "Modes"
    Identifier "Modes1"
    Modeline "1280x1024"  75.13  1280 1336 1472 1664 1024 1025 1028 1050 -hsync +vsync
    Modeline "1400x1050"  84.76  1400 1472 1616 1832 1050 1051 1054 1076 -hsync +vsync
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier  "External Monitor"
    HorizSync   31-64
    VertRefresh 56-75
    Option      "DPMS"
EndSection

Next, I define my graphics card. Note, I only have one graphics card, but I am defining it first if I am only using my laptop screen (with all 128M of video memory) or second if I'm going to split the memory between two screens. You may need to do some research on the appropriate "Option" values for your nVIDIA card.

Code:

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "Intel i915GM"
    Driver      "i810"
    VideoRam    131070
    BusID       "PCI:0:2:0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "Intel0"
    Driver      "i810"
    VideoRAM    65535
    BusID       "PCI:0:2:0"
    Option      "MonitorLayout" "CRT,LFP"
    Option      "VBERestore" "false"
    Option      "DevicePresence" "false"
    Option      "DisplayInfo" "false"
    Screen      0
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "Intel1"
    Driver      "i810"
    VideoRAM    65535
    BusID       "PCI:0:2:0"
    Option      "VBERestore" "false"
    Option      "DevicePresence" "false"
    Screen      1
EndSection

Next, I define the different screens (resolutions and the like). I have defined an external monitor running at 1280x1024 and one for 1024x768 (for a projector).

Code:

Section "Screen"
    Identifier  "LCD"
    Device      "Intel0"
    Monitor     "Dell LCD"

    DefaultDepth 24

    Subsection "Display"
        Depth       16
        Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
    EndSubsection
    Subsection "Display"
        Depth       24
        Modes "1400x1050" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
    EndSubsection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier  "VGA"
    Device      "Intel1"
    Monitor     "External Monitor"

    DefaultDepth    24

    SubSection "Display"
        Depth 24
        Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600"
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier  "Projector"
    Device      "Intel1"
    Monitor     "External Monitor"

    DefaultDepth   24

    SubSection "Display"
        Depth 24
        Modes "1024x768" "800x600"
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Finally, I create several ServerLayouts which I can use to launch the various scenarios.

Code:

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier  "Normal"
    Screen "Screen 1"
    InputDevice "Mouse1" "CorePointer"
    InputDevice "Keyboard1" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier   "Dual"
    Screen       0  "LCD"
    Screen       1  "VGA" LeftOf "LCD"
    InputDevice  "Mouse1" "CorePointer"
    InputDevice  "Keyboard1" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier   "Projector"
    Screen       0 "LCD"
    Screen       1 "Projector" RightOf "LCD"
    InputDevice  "Mouse1" "CorePointer"
    InputDevice  "Keyboard1" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Using "startx" will default to the first ServerLayout section, thus "Normal". If I want one of the others, I do ...

$startx -- -layout Dual

stask · 11-17-2005, 03:05 PM

Thanks a lot for quick response, i'll definitely try it.
Another question: is it possible to switch between single and dual display modes without restarting X server?

Thanks,

Tino27 · 11-17-2005, 03:08 PM

Nope. You have to shut down an X-session before starting a different one. Also note that Xinerama disables DRI (Direct Rendering Interface, I believe), so video intensive things (like certain screen savers or watching DVD's) become unbearably slow -- at least that is how things are with my video card. If your nVIDIA has built-in hardware acceleration, this may not affect you as much.

stask · 11-17-2005, 03:18 PM

That's sad.
Thanks anyway, i'll continue to search for the solution though, i would really like to have linux on my laptop.