Yesterday I was giving a presentation, and I decided to give it from my MDK Linux laptop.

This intention was crashed very efficiently and quickly.

1. As soon as my laptop was connected via its serial port to the projector, my screen blacked out.

2. I could see on the wall screen the system being booted (lilo), but when the system actually booted up, I saw an error - No Input! Black screens - both on the wall, and on my laptop. It's not exactly what you want to see just when you are about to give your talk.

3. Without me or the owners of the projector to do something, both the black screen and the error disappeared, and I saw my Gnome desktop on the wall screen. My laptop screen was still black...

4. Resolution of my screen is 1400x1050, maximum resolution of the projector was 800x600. So, I had to downscale my resolution to 800x600.

I opened the Control Center and changed the resolution to 800x600 and, it was compulsory, logged-out in order to login with the new settings.

6.I logged-out and in again, but the resolution had not change. I checked the Control Center. It showed that my resolution was 800x600. This was not true. Regardless what the CC shows, I saw my desktop on the wall screen just as large. It did not fit on it.

I had only 10 minutes to prepare for my presentation. Having all these surprises, I had nothing else as to reboot to Windows. My presentation run very smoothly, as it was supposed to be.
The next time I will not try to play with Linux in serious situations like the above. It was a nasty experience.

Did anyone here had a similar experience? Any solutions found?

i had some presentations, and all went fine on my gentoo laptop ;>

what kind of laptop is it, what graphic chip, are u using xorg or xfree...


>>As soon as my laptop was connected via serial port to the projector
via serial port? uh hearing that first time...

and by the way, using 1400x1050 with a beamer which just make 800x600 was quiet brave ;> first scale down ya resolution, then start up x or whatever

it was a jurassic beamer, I had no choice.
I use xfree, ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 3D Graphic / 64Mb vram; ACER TravelMate 800 laptop, 1.3Hz Intel, 512DDR etc etc.
Does it actually matter what I use? It is supposed to work, I guess.

its always good to know what hardware is used, but actually u are right, the hardware shouldnt matter.

and the problem of ur resolution: i recommend to use the right resolution, from the start up. at least, when i understand right, u had not the resolution of 800x600; i would set it through ur X config file, not via a "command center" tool or such things...

That's right. Everything is possible, but these things should not be necessary in first place, or, better use an OS which does not require the waist of time of others.
In that situation I did not have the time to find out why the Control Center does not do what it is supposed to do: to give a possibility to change the screen resolution instantly (much like in Mac or Win).
I was very dissappointed, because since a few years I use Linux, and I sort of relied on it. I am happy I had a dual boot...