Hi, I'm having problems setting the display resolution for an external monitor connected to the VGA port of my dell latitude d610, running lm 17.3 mate. The monitor settings in the os only offer a max resolution of 1024x768@60.0hz for both displays, which is fine for the LVDS, while at the same time the screen of the external monitor stays dark, with the following exceptions: 1) While in 1024x768@60.0hz-resolution-"mode", the back light of the external display seems to go on and off while the power-led stays lit, indicating that there is some type of signal being received. If there were anything wrong with the physical connection, the led would blink and the monitor (a samsung bx2440, by the way) would display a message indicating signal loss. 2) Playing around with the display settings in the DE, I was/am able to set screen resolution to 800x600, which is actually displayed by both screens (albeit with slight color changes in the external display) but making it impossible to reach any of the window command buttons, let alone working with the os. Good part about that being verification of an intact signal connection (I hope?). Another weird thing I've experienced is that while playing mp3 on totem player with "whatagoom" visualizer in fullscreen mode, the external monitor erratically (about the same intervals as the described "darkscreen/backlight"-flashing) shows about 2/3 of the visualizer effects in the above described 1024x768 res. mode, which alternates with an error message on the monitor, indicating an "out-of-range" display setting. 3) It is virtually impossible to set the screen resolution of each display indepently: When I untick the "display mirroring" box, I seem to get the 800x600-resolution on the VGA display panel while the LVDS stays in 1024x768-mode, but the desktop is spread over both screens. When the box stays ticked, there's only one mode for both displays, with the VGA sometimes obviously losing the signal altogether, which is indicated by the power-led flashing at regular intervals. The signal seems somehow to become "revived" as I take pause from messing with screen resolutions and turn to other things like doing research on this problem or getting aquainted with the operating system, as I'm a linux-noob of the first order right now. Whatever causes this connection-"revival" I cannot say, I just become aware of it after a while. My aforementioned research has produced 2 posts on this and other forums which seemed to come close to solving this dilemma. They are adressed in this post on free drivers supplied by amd
viewtopic.php?f=59&t=250143, and this one, describing the adding of display resolutions per cvt modeline insertion:
viewtopic.php?f=59&t=248059. The first of the 2 posts didn't do much for me because I have no Idea about how to find out which driver is currently driving my display adapter (?), let alone configuring the same. As I've already stated I'm a (ex-ms windows-) noob and on top of that pretty much exhausted after foraging around different forums and www at large, on the possible causes of this (probably/hopefully minute) problem. The second post takes me a little further towards a possible solution inasmuch as I was actually able to install several testing-solutions, which even showed up in the configuration dialog and were changeable with the "display mirroring" box unticked. Needless to say, the changes did not have any effect on the display at all, the screen stayed dark. As I write this down, one other question also comes to my mind: In this congiguration dialog, my external display (VGA-0 in cvt modprobe) is named "Unknown" and VGA-0. Maybe this is some indication for potential informed readers of this post? Anyway, this is all I have on specifying this princess of nagging problem. I am, -as we germans say-, "at the end of my latin capabilities" and am hoping that someone out there might be able to help me out. Even though I found many posts on several forums about people with d6xx laptops having problems with graphics drivers, some even pertaining to lm (albeit other, mostly newer, distros) specifically, but differ in their setups, like using nvidia or VGA being hooked up by the dock (which I don't, and will not-, own). Thank you for your patience in reading this very long post and (at least trying to) helping this poor wretch that I've become
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posting.php?mode=post&f=59#Oh, and now for my inxi --Fxz:
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~ $ inxi -Fxz
System: Host: mcminty Kernel: 4.4.0-81-generic i686 (32 bit gcc: 4.8.4)
Desktop: MATE 1.12.0 (Gtk 3.10.8~8+qiana)
Distro: Linux Mint 17.3 Rosa
Machine: System: Dell product: Latitude D610
Mobo: Dell model: 0C4708 Bios: Dell v: A06 date: 10/02/2005
CPU: Single core Intel Pentium M (-UP-) cache: 2048 KB
flags: (nx pae sse sse2) bmips: 3458 speed: 1733 MHz (max)
Graphics: Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] RV370/M22 [Mobility Radeon X300]
bus-ID: 01:00.0
Display Server: X.Org 1.18.3 drivers: ati,radeon (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
Resolution: 1024x768@60.0hz, 1024x768@60.0hz
GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on ATI RV370
GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 11.2.0 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio: Card Intel 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Audio Controller
driver: snd_intel8x0 ports: ed00 ec40 bus-ID: 00:1e.2
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.4.0-81-generic
Network: Card-1: Broadcom NetXtreme BCM5751 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express
driver: tg3 v: 3.137 bus-ID: 02:00.0
IF: eth0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Card-2: Intersil ISL3890 [Prism GT/Prism Duette]/ISL3886 [Prism Javelin/Prism Xbow]
bus-ID: 03:03.0
IF: N/A state: N/A speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: N/A
Drives: HDD Total Size: 144.5GB (24.5% used)
ID-1: /dev/sda model: KingSpec_KSD size: 64.5GB
ID-2: USB /dev/sdb model: HTS541680J9AT00 size: 80.0GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 58G used: 8.6G (16%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/dm-0
ID-2: /boot size: 236M used: 96M (43%) fs: ext2 dev: /dev/sda1
ID-3: swap-1 size: 1.07GB used: 0.40GB (37%) fs: swap dev: /dev/dm-1
RAID: No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 54.0C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info: Processes: 159 Uptime: 2 days Memory: 640.0/1000.1MB
Init: Upstart runlevel: 2 Gcc sys: 4.8.4
Client: Shell (bash 4.3.111) inxi: 2.2.28