(SOLVED) Dual monitor help

Hi,
I'm a brand shiny new Zorin user with limited previous Linux experience so apologies if this has been done to death. In fact, feel free to point me in the right direction of a solution as I've looked around and tried many things.

I'm trying to setup a second monitor using the VGA connection on my HP DV8387EA laptop (ATI Radeon Xpress 200 graphics). The Zorin installation is fresh and fully updated but without any proprietary graphics drivers installed. Everything works fine until I plug the second monitor in - a 24" AOC - at which point both screens show a scrambled mess and I have to force shutdown.

The same scrambling occurs if I boot up with the second monitor connected - but only after logging in. Both displays work fine up to that point.
I have tried installing the fglrx package and that just makes things worse with me getting stuck in a low graphics mode hell (usually forcing me to reinstall Zorin from scratch).

I've not found any information that addresses this specific issue, hence asking for help here. Any assistance gratefully received.

Hi,

check out this guide about fglrx, read it carefully!:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=6951

In order to get both monitors; you should check out: System Settings > Hardware > Displays > Detect Displays/Miirror displays

Before you do anything else, run this terminal (Ctrl + Alt + t) command and restart afterwards:

Code:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade -f

Let us know what happens.

Hi Wolfman,
Thanks for your reply.
The fglrx doesn't seem to work - when initialising the drivers it says no supported devices found.
And can't do detect displays as I'm unable to plug the second monitor in without both displays becoming scrambled.
Anything else to try? If you need more info about the laptop, let me know how to get it and I'll post accordingly.
Cheers!

Hope this works for you too!

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2194601

Hi Swarfendor437,
No joy there either. In fact, that made things worse as it killed the laptop display and the only thing showing on the external monitor is 'input not support'.
The laptop display is blank with or without the other monitor connected so have had to reinstall Zorin from scratch. I think fglrx is a red herring perhaps since it only makes things worse when installed.
I can't even load up in failsafe graphics mode.

The second photo shows the issue I'm having without fglrx installed - just using the generic driver (Gallium 0.4?).
The first photo is after fglrx is installed - BUT this is the only time I'm able to see anything on either monitor.

Cheers!

Hi,

check you BIOS settings in both PC's and see if there is an option to swtch ACPI on/off, try enabling/disabling should it be available!.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/bio ... 126-8.html

Haven't got that option - very few options actually!
Have discovered that the laptop only has 128MB dedicated graphics memory.
I selected the bios option to enable shared memory, potentially boosting gfx to 256MB.
It hasn't helped with this problem but I'm wondering if that is perhaps a big part of the issue.

I'm not trying to run games or anything remotely graphics heavy (just internet and office stuff) but the laptop monitor is so dim now (and my eyesight bad enough) that using an external monitor would help a lot.
Can't see any settings on the monitor that I could change (refresh, etc).

Stumped!

Hi,

do you have a switch on your laptop so you can turn off the laptop screen and only use the monitor?. On my laptop it is FN + F6.

Hi I wonder if some of these commands added to the Boot command could help?:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1613132

Morning both,
Fn+F4 (in my case) has worked. It took many presses to cycle through the options available - I hadn't tried pressing as many times as it took this time round.

I now have mirrored displays or the laptop display disabled and just using the other monitor.
Thanks for your assistance with this. Of course, now that we've gotten this far, if like to try and stretch the desktop across both monitors but I'm guessing my ageing laptop isn't able to do that. Always wanting more, huh!

Thanks again!

Well another 60 blue jewels to Wolfman - I just hope my jewel manager says my credit is good!