Hiya
First, I'm a *little bit* intrigued by the "9 pin SVIDEO" plug. Are you sure it's SVIDEO? S-Video has 4 pins, and looks like a PS/2 mouse or keyboard plug (I'm sure of this, because I'm using mine as we speak, after having cut and lengthened the 4 wires so it would reach my TV)
Anyhow, it's neither here nor there, I was just curious.
Also, as you say you don't mind which plug we use, but, does your TV have a VGA input, or a plug for a cable to go from the VGA output?
For the time being, let's address the issue assuming we will use the VGA plug. It really doesn't matter, except for typing a few less words to use the VGA plug.
First, are you wanting to use the VGA plug alone, INSTEAD of the LCD screen, or do you want to use it WITH the LCD so that you have two screens?
The configuration file for the X server (that gives you the graphical desktop environment) is located at /etc/X11/xorg.conf and in there, you'll see sections named Monitor, Screen, Device, ServerLayout, and ServerFlags.
You will need to add another Monitor section, nearly the same as the existing one, but with the Horizontal and Vertical frequencies for your external TV/Monitor. For a 'normal' TV a 60.0 Hz Vertical Refresh rate is usually fine, and is standard. For the horizontal, you'll hafta look up the make and model of the thing, and get the correct Horizontal Refresh rate and put that in there. Also, lets say the existing Monitor section has the line
Identifier "monitor-0" then you would use a different name in your new section, like
Identifier "Monitor-1"
Now, add a new device section (ONLY if you only want to use both displays at once), identical to the existing device section. When using a device such as your x300, which has multiple outputs, you need to specify the PCI BusID or the video cards, in each device section. By typing 'lspci' in a root console, you will see a list of all the devices on the PCI bus in your machine. One of them will be the x300 device. The letters/numbers at the beginning of the line is the BusID. For example:
00:01:00.1 VGA compatible video device: ATI Radeon x300 Blah Blah video device - blah blah blah
So the PCI BusID line would look like:
BusID PCI:1:0:1
...and you would put that line in BOTH Device sections. And now, you need to associate each device section with a Screen. To do this, simply put a line
Screen 0 in the existing device section, and in your new device section, put a line
Screen 1. And finally for the device section, it needs a name. If the first Device section has a line like
Identifier "Videocard0" then your new device section would have
Identifier "Videocard1"
Ok cool.. Now, the Screen Section. As above, you will need a second one, very much like the first one which is already there. there are a few more details in this section, which I can't exactly put here for you until you provide some more info, but basically, The first (existing) screen section will have lines like
Device "Videocard0" and
Monitor "Monitor-0" and
Identifier "Screen0" so in your new Screen Section, you will use the new names you gave in the new device and Monitor sections above:
Videocard1, Monitor-1, and
Screen1.
Next to last, look at your ServerLayout section. It lists only one screen, right? You need to add a second, so it should look like:
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0 # this is your original one
Screen 1 "Screen1" RightOf "Screen0" # this is the new one.
Finally, IF you want to use BOTH screens at once, you will want the ServerFlags section. In it, you will want to have either:
Option "Xinerama" "1"
or
Option "TwinView" "1"
****
Basically****, this will do it. NOW, BEFORE YOU BEGIN: Read the man page for xorg.conf, and if you have it, the documentation and/or man page for your video driver, so that you can see the official explanations of the options I have shown here, and get an understanding of how the file is laid out and what the different sections mean.
Chances are, if you are a relatively new user, you WILL do something wrong and your X server will not start. DOn't panic! If/when this happens, you will need to edit the xorg.conf file from the console, or using a tool like Midnight Commander, Vi, or Nano, or Pico, or whatever, to fix it and try again. To learn what was wrong, read the X log file, located at /var/log/xorg.0.log.
So.. Read the man pages, BACKUP YOUR ORIGINAL xorg.conf before beginning, make sure you can navigate around where you need to go, from the console or Midnight Commander or whatever, and make sure you have access to an editor you can use if your X server doesn't start the first time.
Best of luck; I hope this helps you
and if you're unsure, please ask first. It will save you headaches, especially regarding the Screen Sections -- there are parts you need to read about, Like Metamodes for example, which I did not cover here.
If you would like me to post my xorg.conf for you to look at, I will.
