[SOLVED] 2 monitors, turn one off

vendtagain · 12-29-2009, 08:35 PM

I have a laptop hooked up to an external monitor.

The normal monitor is broken, but when in X window system, the backlight is still lit. And I would like this to stay off. (only happens in xwindow system, it's off when in command line).

I normally use fluxbox, but same issue has been seen in kde.
I'm using Slackware 13.

kbp · 12-29-2009, 09:30 PM

Does your laptop have a function (Fn) key option for cycling between [laptop|laptop+external|external] monitors ? .. eg. mine is [Fn]+[F7]

cheers

vendtagain · 12-30-2009, 12:22 AM

Yes I have been using the fn key to switch, but that is not the issue here.

It is a power saving issue here. The broken monitor lights up ONLY when i enter the X window system.

example:
I load computer, hit fn f8: normal monitor light goes off, and video goes to external monitor.

I do whatever, and then decide to "startx". My window manager loads up. For some reason the broken monitor lights up at this point. (just blank backlighting of course, no video signal as its broken).

kbp · 12-30-2009, 08:41 PM

Sorry... should have read your post more closely. You could try disabling the lcd screen in your xorg.conf -

Code:

Option "Disable" "True"

cheers

Nylex · 12-31-2009, 12:45 AM

You can use xrandr. Just run "xrandr" to see what it's calling your devices - for example, my external monitor is "VGA" and my netbook screen is "LVDS". To turn off the netbook screen, I issue

xrandr --output LVDS --off.

kbp · 12-31-2009, 05:30 PM

Nice.. didn't know that existed

cheers

vendtagain · 01-01-2010, 12:31 PM

Quote:

xrandr --output LVDS --off

Thanks, worked like a charm.

vendtagain · 01-01-2010, 03:18 PM

Quote:

xrandr --output LVDS --off

If I were to run this whenever x11 fluxbox begins..not sure where to put it?
I noticed there is fluxbox "init" file and "startup" file, not to mention X11 init scripts.

Nylex · 01-02-2010, 05:22 AM

I'm not sure about this. I tried putting it in my .xinitrc, but that doesn't help. I'm going to create a thread on this problem in the Slackware forum, because I'm confused about what to do. Hopefully someone will be able to help us

.