For the past few days i was trying to configure the external Monitor on my laptop. I am using a Dell Latitude D610 laptop with ATI Technologies Inc M22 [Mobility Radeon X300] graphics card. My external Monitor is Dell 1905FP.
The utility displayconfig-gtk which can be accessed by Sytem->Administration->Screens and Graphics is not working in Ubuntu 7.10. And configuring Dual Monitor on Ubuntu was a painful task for me. Initially i tried with Xinerama for configuring but it didnt help me.
These some of the steps i did to make my dual monitor work :
1. $ sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg
This creates a new xorg.conf file and avoids unnecessary extra lines.
2. Add a Virtual section under the Display subsection of xorg.conf file. So my Screen section looks like this :
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "ATI Technologies Inc M22 [Mobility Radeon X300]"
Monitor "Generic Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Modes "1024x768"
Virtual 2304 1024
EndSubSection
EndSection
3. Run the xrandr command to find out the configuration of your Laptop LCD screen and the External monitor.
$ xrandr -q
My Laptop LCD screen is shown as LVDS and the external Monitor is shown as DVI-0. These are the names should be used for configuring.
4. Now run the xrandr command :
$ xrandr --output LVDS --auto --output DVI-0 --auto --left-of LVDS
This makes External Monitor to be my left of the LCD screen. You can also use --right-of , --above , --below to configure according to your need.
In case you get an error like this: xrandr: screen cannot be larger than 1280x1024 (desired size 2304x1024)
Then change the Virtual section in xorg.conf file to 2304x1024 and restart the X server.
If you need the complete documentation about using xrandr to configure Dual Monitor refer to :
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Xorg_RandR_1.2
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Configuring Dual Monitor on Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon
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8 comments:
Will this also work with a Fujitsu T4220 that has a Dell monitor attached?
Will this also work with a Fujitsu T4220 that has a Dell monitor attached?
This should work for you also.
In my case my Dell monitor was shown as DVI-0 when i ran "xrandr -q" .
Just replace it correspondingly from you "xrandr -q" output
-Arula
I ran through the process and am now going into a graphic safe mode. I have a feeling its because my graphics card is a Mobile Intel 965 Express. Is there any other possible reasons?
The graphics card can also be problem.
your xorg.conf file might have someother settings. Just do 'dpkg-reconfigure' like below to create a new xorg.conf file.
sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg
Then modify stuffs in xorg.conf like i have said in the post.
For a complete documentation on using xrandr you can go to http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Xorg_RandR_1.2
Probably this helps you in your graphics card as well.
I'm using a compaq presario m2000
my xrandr -q output is:
colin@Umbrella:~$ xrandr -q
Screen 0: minimum 640 x 480, current 1024 x 768, maximum 1280 x 960
default connected 1024x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right) 0mm x 0mm
1024x768 75.0*
800x600 56.0
640x480 60.0
1280x960 75.0
colin@Umbrella:~$
but I have a Dell e151fpb attached and its mirroring the laptop screen
I can't figure out how to make this work
First off, THANK you Arula!
I hope you don't mind but I have reworded your instructions a bit and have added a few things to them for other people's benefit. I'm also going to be updating my blog with a link back to you.
Here is what I have for you:
Getting dual monitors to work in Ubuntu
First off, run this command: sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg
This creates a new xorg.conf file and avoids unnecessary extra lines.
Then, just in case something goes wrong, create a backup of the xorg file:
sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.bak
Add a Virtual section under the Display subsection of xorg.conf file:
Just look for the sequence of words: Section "Screen" and add to SubSection "Display":
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1280x854" "1280x800" "1280x768" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600"
Note two things: You don't have to have the same modes as I do; your monitor may support others or you may only want one mode. It is really up to you. Changing stuff here won't break anything unless you specify a mode your monitor doesn't support, in which case, you can always revert back with your backup if necessary.
Now add the Virtual section:
Virtual 1280 1024
Now run the xrandr command to find out the configuration of your Laptop LCD screen and the External monitor:
xrandr -q
My Laptop LCD screen is shown as LVDS and the external Monitor is shown as VGA. These are the names should be used for configuring.
Now start the dual monitors:
xrandr --output LVDS --auto --output VGA --auto --left-of LVDS
If you get an error similar to "xrandr: screen cannot be larger than 1280x1024 (desired size 2304x1024)", note the "2304x1024" part and use that for your Virtual mode instead. This is done by editing xorg once more and replacing:
Virtual 1280 1024 with Virtual 2304 1024
At this point, you can restart your computers and rerun the command:
xrandr --output LVDS --auto --output VGA --auto --left-of LVDS
That is it!
@ Ray Griffin,
Thanks Ray. thanks for re-phrasing it and making it more clear.
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