Problem using LCD Projector on HP Pavilion (G6-2323DX) and Linux Mint Cinnamon 18.1

kg8da · 01-17-2017, 09:37 AM

Howdy! My name is George. I've been using Linux (Ubuntu distributions) for about 4 years. I settled on Linux Mint Cinnamon for my main computer, which is an HP Pavilion. Presently I'm using version 18.1. It is working very well.

However, I tried to connect it to a NEC NP110 LCD projector (serial connection), and that did not work. My laptop screen went black and the projector displayed only the background of my desktop. Everything froze. I had to manually shut down and try again. Once more I got a repeat performance, and after that no display at all.

Going to "display," for settings, I I see that the "Mirror displays" option is both unchecked and grayed out. I suspect this is a driver problem. My video card is the Radeon HD 7640G. I'm going to paste in some system information, as my expertise is nearing its limits.

My question is simply what to do to get this laptop to work on the LCD projector? Other than the projector, it is working very well.

Thanks!

George

Here’s my system information:

H/W path Device Class Description
====================================================
system HP Pavilion g6 Notebook PC (D1C17UAR#AB
/0 bus 1849
/0/0 memory 1MiB BIOS
/0/1c memory 4GiB System Memory
/0/1c/0 memory SODIMM [empty]
/0/1c/1 memory 4GiB SODIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1600 MHz (
/0/24 processor AMD A8-4500M APU with Radeon(tm) HD Gra
/0/24/25 memory 192KiB L1 cache
/0/24/26 memory 4MiB L2 cache
/0/100 bridge Family 15h (Models 10h-1fh) Processor R
/0/100/1 display Trinity [Radeon HD 7640G]
/0/100/1.1 multimedia Trinity HDMI Audio Controller
/0/100/4 bridge Family 15h (Models 10h-1fh) Processor R
/0/100/4/0 wlo1 network AR9485 Wireless Network Adapter
/0/100/10 bus FCH USB XHCI Controller
/0/100/10/0 usb6 bus xHCI Host Controller
/0/100/10/1 usb5 bus xHCI Host Controller
/0/100/10.1 bus FCH USB XHCI Controller
/0/100/10.1/0 usb8 bus xHCI Host Controller
/0/100/10.1/1 usb7 bus xHCI Host Controller
/0/100/10.1/1/1 generic KYOCERA_Android
/0/100/11 storage FCH SATA Controller [AHCI mode]
/0/100/12 bus FCH USB OHCI Controller
/0/100/12/1 usb3 bus OHCI PCI host controller
/0/100/12.2 bus FCH USB EHCI Controller
/0/100/12.2/1 usb1 bus EHCI Host Controller
/0/100/12.2/1/3 multimedia HP TrueVision HD
/0/100/13 bus FCH USB OHCI Controller
/0/100/13/1 usb4 bus OHCI PCI host controller
/0/100/13.2 bus FCH USB EHCI Controller
/0/100/13.2/1 usb2 bus EHCI Host Controller
/0/100/14 bus FCH SMBus Controller
/0/100/14.2 multimedia FCH Azalia Controller
/0/100/14.3 bridge FCH LPC Bridge
/0/100/14.4 bridge FCH PCI Bridge
/0/100/15 bridge Hudson PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 0)
/0/100/15/0 generic RTS5229 PCI Express Card Reader
/0/100/15.1 bridge Hudson PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 1)
/0/100/15.1/0 eno1 network RTL8101/2/6E PCI Express Fast/Gigabit E
/0/101 bridge Family 15h (Models 10h-1fh) Processor F
/0/102 bridge Family 15h (Models 10h-1fh) Processor F
/0/103 bridge Family 15h (Models 10h-1fh) Processor F
/0/104 bridge Family 15h (Models 10h-1fh) Processor F
/0/105 bridge Family 15h (Models 10h-1fh) Processor F
/0/106 bridge Family 15h (Models 10h-1fh) Processor F
/0/1 scsi0 storage
/0/1/0.0.0 /dev/sda disk 500GB Hitachi HTS54505
/0/1/0.0.0/1 volume 511MiB Windows FAT volume
/0/1/0.0.0/2 /dev/sda2 volume 461GiB EXT4 volume
/0/1/0.0.0/3 /dev/sda3 volume 3552MiB Linux swap volume
/0/2 scsi1 storage
/0/2/0.0.0 /dev/cdrom disk CDDVDW SN-208DB
/0/2/0.0.0/0 /dev/cdrom disk
/0/2/0.0.0/0/2 volume 15EiB Windows FAT volume
/1 power MU06047

------------------------------------------

$ inxi -Fx
System: Host: RWV Kernel: 4.4.0-57-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
Desktop: Cinnamon 3.2.7 (Gtk 3.18.9-1ubuntu3.1)
Distro: Linux Mint 18.1 Serena
Machine: System: Hewlett-Packard (portable) product: HP Pavilion g6 Notebook PC v: 088A120000305910000620100
Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 1849 v: 57.35
Bios: Insyde v: F.27 date: 04/12/2013
CPU: Quad core AMD A8-4500M APU with Radeon HD Graphics (-MCP-) cache: 8192 KB
flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm) bmips: 15172
clock speeds: max: 1900 MHz 1: 1600 MHz 2: 1400 MHz 3: 1400 MHz
4: 1600 MHz
Graphics: Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Trinity [Radeon HD 7640G]
bus-ID: 00:01.0
Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: ati,radeon (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
Resolution: 1366x768@59.99hz
GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on AMD ARUBA (DRM 2.43.0, LLVM 3.8.0)
GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 11.2.0 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio: Card-1 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] FCH Azalia Controller
driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:14.2
Card-2 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Trinity HDMI Audio Controller
driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:01.1
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.4.0-57-generic
Network: Card-1: Qualcomm Atheros AR9485 Wireless Network Adapter
driver: ath9k bus-ID: 02:00.0
IF: wlo1 state: up mac: 20:16:d8:ac:ac:bd
Card-2: Realtek RTL8101/2/6E PCI Express Fast/Gigabit Ethernet controller
driver: r8169 v: 2.3LK-NAPI port: 2000 bus-ID: 05:00.0
IF: eno1 state: down mac: 38:ea:a7:f7:00:c6
Drives: HDD Total Size: 500.1GB (63.6% used)
ID-1: /dev/sda model: Hitachi_HTS54505 size: 500.1GB temp: 0C
Partition: ID-1: / size: 455G used: 294G (68%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
ID-2: swap-1 size: 3.73GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda3
RAID: No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 57.5C mobo: N/A gpu: 56.0
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info: Processes: 196 Uptime: 22 min Memory: 2253.9/3418.2MB
Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 5.4.0
Client: Shell (bash 4.3.461) inxi: 2.2.35

hydrurga · 01-18-2017, 02:04 AM

Hi George, I don't know much about this stuff, but have you tried using any other connection method than the projector's serial port?

I see from the projector's spec that it also has s-video, composite and VGA inputs. I also see from your computer's spec that it has a VGA output. It might be an idea to throw a VGA cable between the two and see if that works.

kg8da · 01-18-2017, 03:43 AM

Thank you. The LCD projector is in the class room where I was teaching, not in my home. But I will swing by this afternoon and give that a try. I hadn't realized that the projector could connect by VGA cable, and I had neglected to check that out. I'm hopeful! Will report back.

George

kg8da · 01-21-2017, 11:14 AM

Well, it took me a couple days to get back to that projector. I took along a VGA cable and, lo and behold, there is no VGA port on the projector. I have my presentation in an hour, so I can't use my main laptop. My wife loaned me her Windows 10 machine, which we know will work. I also brought along my Toshiba Satellite L35-S2161 running Linux Lite 3.2. I connected this laptop to the projector and it does work. Just have to adjust the display resolution to make the images stay on the screen. But apparently the Celeron M processor in that machine can't handle our videos very well. So, I may have to humble myself and use the Windows machine. I have an aversion to doing that. I imagine some here can relate. I like to think I can do anything on Linux (when I want to). Also, I've gotten a bit rusty on MS Powerpoint.

I'll keep pecking away at this.

George

hydrurga · 01-21-2017, 11:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kg8da

Well, it took me a couple days to get back to that projector. I took along a VGA cable and, lo and behold, there is no VGA port on the projector. I have my presentation in an hour, so I can't use my main laptop. My wife loaned me her Windows 10 machine, which we know will work. I also brought along my Toshiba Satellite L35-S2161 running Linux Lite 3.2. I connected this laptop to the projector and it does work. Just have to adjust the display resolution to make the images stay on the screen. But apparently the Celeron M processor in that machine can't handle our videos very well. So, I may have to humble myself and use the Windows machine. I have an aversion to doing that. I imagine some here can relate. I like to think I can do anything on Linux (when I want to). Also, I've gotten a bit rusty on MS Powerpoint.

I'll keep pecking away at this.

George

George, sorry about the VGA. Here is where I had got the info that I assumed was correct: http://www.projectorcentral.com/NEC-NP110.htm

Weirdly, the official NEC site (http://www.necdisplay.com/p/multimed...0?type=support) also says that the NP110 has a VGA input slot and it shows it as being on the back (see the images on that page). Does your NP110 not look like that one?

See p6 in the manual: http://www.necdisplay.com/documents/...UserManual.pdf - the VGA is slot 2 (marked as Mini D-Sub 15 Pin).

michaelk · 01-21-2017, 11:57 AM

Did you provide the correct model number? The manual on page 12 shows how to connect a computer to the projector.

http://www.support.nec-display.com/d..._manual_E2.pdf

Nevermind... to late once again.

kg8da · 01-21-2017, 08:47 PM

Again, I thank you for your input. Looking at those links, I have the sinking sensation that most likely I just didn't/don't understand what a VGA cable is. The pictures look exactly like the machine I was working with. So, now, the question is more like... what was that cable I thought was a VGA cable? I will work on this more on Monday when I can take my cable to a friend in IT and ask him.

I am correct that this site doesn't have capability to upload pictures? At any rate, bear with me. I'll get the information and get back here again.

kg8da · 01-24-2017, 03:00 PM

Indeed, yesterday, after work, I went by and checked it out again. Before that I did some research. The cable I used was a VGA cable, not a serial cable. What I had in mind, when I previously thought "VGA cable" was an HDMI cable, which, of course, is not usable for that projector.

I did try booting the laptop after I plugged into the VGA of the projector. For a moment, the Mint symbol showed on the screen. But then the screen went black. I did notice, however, that on the left hand side of the screen there was a very slender sliver of light. I looked closely and realized that it was the edge of the desktop background. It even changed backgrounds, as evidenced by the change of color, just like the login screen would do if I didn't log in. But that was it. I couldn't make it proceed any farther.

Any ideas?

kg8da · 02-15-2017, 12:53 PM

I get to work on this problem in "snatches." Last week I tried booting my laptop from a 32 bit version of the latest version of Linux Lite. With that I was able to both access my materials and use the projector. It's not my preferred method, but I prefer it over using my wife's Windows laptop when I do my next presentation.