Remember when we needed antennas to watch TV and sometimes the reception wasn't good and the image was all noisy? I have this problem now with a monitor connected to a notebook.

At first, the monitor was not detected at all. I had to reboot the notebook with the monitor connected. Now it works, but the image is bad.

Then I realized that it must be a resolution problem. The notebook's integrated screen is 1024x768 while the external monitor is 1366x768.

Neither xrandr or arandr detects the external monitor so I don't know how I can set a different resolution for the external screen.

Is there a fix for this?

could you please be more specific? what distribution of GNU/Linux. What type of connection (vga or HDMI)? What GUI (gnome, kde, fluxbox... etc). Have you tested another cable to rule out that possibility? Can you test same cable with another computer/notebook on the same TV? My way around this (i'm using KDE) is simply use kde menus to turn off notebook screen, leaving only the tv as output.

You can restart Xorg without rebooting, which is a lot faster.

In addition to providing the already requested information, upload your Xorg.0.log file and share the link here. Debian has a terminal command pastebinint to make this easy without having X running. Optionally use http://paste.debian.net/ with a web browser. Other useful information to provide is notebook brand and model, output from 'dmesg | grep error', 'inxi -c0 -v4' and 'lspci -nnk | grep -A4 VGA'.

Sure.

> what distribution of GNU/Linux?
Debian 9 (Stretch)

> What type of connection (vga or HDMI)?
VGA

> What GUI (gnome, kde, fluxbox... etc)
Openbox/LXDE

> Have you tested another cable to rule out that possibility?
No. I only have this one.

> Can you test same cable with another computer/notebook on the same TV?
Yes, it works fine on my desktop machine, also Debian 9.

> My way around this (i'm using KDE) is simply use kde menus to turn off notebook screen, leaving only the tv as output.
I don't use KDE, but please note I specified above:

So I can't turn either one off. I can turn the external one off by disconnecting it, and the integrated one by closing the lid. Just not quite the same, right? :-\

Since the notebook's internal screen has 1024x768 resolution, I'm betting this is a very old laptop and the external monitor connection is VGA.

Could you post the output of the following:

Normally, xrandr should list at least two outputs. But if there's only one output listed, then the proper video driver may need to be installed.

My experience is that if the VGA monitor's native resolution isn't detected, it's possible to add the resolution by adding a modeline for the desired resolution. The code would look something like:

You'll have to replace "VGA-1" with whatever xrandr tells you the relevant output is. Then, after adding this mode arandr will see it and you can use arandr to create a useful script to set the desired resolutions and placements.

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I can't do any troubleshooting anymore. The machine is broken and I'm taking it to a shop:

https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...ng-4175617705/

I'll get back to you when I have it in working order. Thanks for the help so far.

So the machine is back from the repair shop. If anyone still wants to help me with this, I'll appreciate it.

It is a very old laptop.

# xrandr
xrandr: Failed to get size of gamma for output default
Screen 0: minimum 640 x 480, current 1024 x 768, maximum 1024 x 768
default connected 1024x768+0+0 0mm x 0mm
1024x768 61.00*
800x600 61.00
640x480 60.00

# lspci
00:00.0 RAM memory: NVIDIA Corporation MCP67 Memory Controller (rev a2)
00:01.0 ISA bridge: NVIDIA Corporation MCP67 ISA Bridge (rev a2)
00:01.1 SMBus: NVIDIA Corporation MCP67 SMBus (rev a2)
00:01.2 RAM memory: NVIDIA Corporation MCP67 Memory Controller (rev a2)
00:01.3 Co-processor: NVIDIA Corporation MCP67 Co-processor (rev a2)
00:02.0 USB controller: NVIDIA Corporation MCP67 OHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev a2)
00:02.1 USB controller: NVIDIA Corporation MCP67 EHCI USB 2.0 Controller (rev a2)
00:04.0 USB controller: NVIDIA Corporation MCP67 OHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev a2)
00:04.1 USB controller: NVIDIA Corporation MCP67 EHCI USB 2.0 Controller (rev a2)
00:06.0 IDE interface: NVIDIA Corporation MCP67 IDE Controller (rev a1)
00:07.0 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation MCP67 High Definition Audio (rev a1)
00:08.0 PCI bridge: NVIDIA Corporation MCP67 PCI Bridge (rev a2)
00:09.0 IDE interface: NVIDIA Corporation MCP67 AHCI Controller (rev a2)
00:0a.0 Ethernet controller: NVIDIA Corporation MCP67 Ethernet (rev a2)
00:0c.0 PCI bridge: NVIDIA Corporation MCP67 PCI Express Bridge (rev a2)
00:0d.0 PCI bridge: NVIDIA Corporation MCP67 PCI Express Bridge (rev a2)
00:12.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation C67 [GeForce 7000M / nForce 610M] (rev a2)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Qualcomm Atheros AR242x / AR542x Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)

What driver would that be?

But it seems to me that xrandr isn't telling me anything about that external VGA output.

That 7000M is about 12 years old. If I'm not mistaken, the first 1366x768 resolution screens had yet to make an appearance when the 7000M was current technology. Do you have access to another screen to test that has a native resolution common by that time, maybe 1920x1080 or 1440x900 or 1680x1050?

How old is the laptop's BIOS? Is it the latest available?

Once upon a time with some GeForce gfxchips (e.g. 6150SE, close in age to your 7000M), various Xorg problems could be solved by adding nouveau.config=NvMSI=0 to the kernel cmdline. Maybe it's worth trying here.

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you should show us what is currently in use:
i suspect it's the nouveau driver.
my experience with nouveau is that it tends to work less reliably the older the card is; so maybe you need to hunt down the suitable driver from nvidia.
i have used this how-to succesfully.

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nVidia and xrandr don't play well. Perhaps nvidia-xconfig would be better suited. Although I wouldn't expect much support for a 1366x768 screen on something old (or even new) via external connections. The best one of my older laptops could do on a 1600x900 display was 1280x800 or some such. You could probably get 1280x720, but still a non-native resolution, so less than optimal / pretty.

If xrandr was well supported you could turn screens off.

$ xrandr --output default --off

With --on to turn it back on. It's useful for saving the backlight life if you're not using the LCD. Saving battery life without closing the lid. And boosting GPU performance since it has one less screen to handle. But nvidia doesn't speak xrandr very well. So all amd/intel on my end, except for my arm based things.

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FWIW, 9.2 works as expected here on a desktop using onboard GeForce 6150SE and 1360x768 Samsung TV with VGA cable and modeset Xorg driver.

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I never managed to make the older laptop work with this 1366x768 monitor. But I have a slightly newer laptop here, and this one works. I think I have a keeper. Thank you all.