Another External Monitor issue!!! Now with F16

[rinjo]

Hi All,

I just installed F16 on my laptop and walah, I got the new Gnome 3 interface.
I was using F10 on my laptop previously.

I have been using an external monitor as my primary monitor with my F10 installation. So went ahead and connected my external monitor to my laptop.

F16 detected the monitor, but as an extended display.
I went to Display Settings and shut-off my laptop display and just kept my external display on.
With this configuration I am having the following issues....

1. When F16 boots with external monitor connected, first it detects the external monitor as a extended display and places the login screen on the laptop monitor! Only when I login does the primary display shift to the external monitor and the laptop monitor switches off.

Now this is an issue, as I have to always use the laptop display to login to F16. I was not facing this issue with my last F10 installation as the login screen used get displayed on both the monitors.

2. Since I have connected the external monitor, the look and feel of Gnome 3 has gone back to Gnome 2 format!!!
It no more shows the activities lab, and has started displaying the taskbar at the bottom!

How do I get the original Gnome 3 interface with the external monitor connected?

[rinjo]

Hi All,

Any pointers to the issues that I have listed will be very helpful....
To give an idea how my F16 desktop looks when I have connected the external monitor I am attaching a screen shot of my desktop.

[ariel]

Do you have any extensions such as Gnome Frippery installed?

I have had similar issues with the inbuilt monitor management software in Gnome. I recommend that you try arandr. It's a very simple external display management GUI. Installing it solved all my external display problems on F15 as well as F16.

Arandr: http://christian.amsuess.com/tools/arandr/

[rinjo]

Thanks Ariel.
I will checkout the arandr display management tool.

---------- Post added at 04:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:53 PM ----------

@Ariel: I checked the link that you have provided. I understand that Arandr is just a GUI on top of xrandr.
I have already tried with xrandr to fix the issue that I am facing, but did not get the results that I am looking for.

[ariel]

Originally Posted by rinjo

[/COLOR]@Ariel: I checked the link that you have provided. I understand that Arandr is just a GUI on top of xrandr.
I have already tried with xrandr to fix the issue that I am facing, but did not get the results that I am looking for.

Sorry about that. My knowledge and troubleshooting skills are pretty limited in linux. Hopefully someone else more knowledgeable about this will come along and offer a solution soon. Best of luck.

[rinjo]

@Ariel: Hey... You should not feel bad about it. At least you tried to help with what you know in Linux.
Cheers!! your skills will grow as u keep using Linux.

---------- Post added at 05:12 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:59 AM ----------

Just a thought....

Could this have something to do with the graphics drivers installed on my laptop???
Is the driver not able to support the Gnome 3 look and feel on the external monitor?

If so, how do I update by graphics driver?

Any help/pointer is highly appreciated....

[rovitotv]

Ringo,
I got the same problem but I have a HP DM1 4050 notebook. My problem might be a little worse because I have nothing on my external display then on my laptop I have the Gnome2 instead of the nice Gnome3 gui. Which graphics chip are you using? I am using the Intel HD 3000, if I find a solution I will be sure to post back to this forum.

[YogiBare]

Hey Rinjo,

Just a couple questions about your setup so I can try to help out.

1. What type of graphics card are you using?
2. Which driver are you using for your card ( i.e. 3rd party or nouveau etc etc..)?
3. Are you connecting via an HDMI or a DVI port?
4. Can you pastebin the contents of you xorg.conf file?

I'm using an Nvidia GT330M with an HDMI connection and the nvidia akmod driver.
Thus far I've been able to use both "mirrored" and "extended" desktop with my monitor.

Havent tried it at boot but I'll give it a go if our setups are similar.

[rinjo]

Thanks rovitotv and YogiBare for your inputs. The details you are looking for are below...

The graphics controllers on my laptop are as follows:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)

I am not sure which is the graphics driver installed, however following is the output of rpm -qa | grep xorg

[rinjo@localhost ~]$ rpm -qa | grep xorg
xorg-x11-drv-acecad-1.5.0-2.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-drv-sisusb-0.9.4-7.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-drv-dummy-0.3.4-7.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-drv-s3virge-1.10.4-9.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-drv-geode-2.11.12-1.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-drv-voodoo-1.2.4-7.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-server-Xephyr-1.11.1-1.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-drv-synaptics-1.5.0-2.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-drv-i740-1.3.2-9.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-font-utils-7.5-6.fc15.i686
xorg-x11-drv-savage-2.3.2-5.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-drv-hyperpen-1.4.1-2.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-drv-openchrome-0.2.904-16.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-drv-nv-2.1.18-8.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-drv-sis-0.10.3-7.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-drv-apm-1.2.3-8.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-drv-ast-0.91.10-7.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-drv-aiptek-1.4.1-2.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-xauth-1.0.6-1.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-drv-tdfx-1.4.3-9.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-drv-fpit-1.4.0-2.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-drv-mouse-1.7.1-2.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-drv-vmware-11.0.3-6.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-drv-neomagic-1.2.5-2.fc15.i686
xorg-x11-proto-devel-7.6-12.fc16.noarch
xorg-x11-drv-siliconmotion-1.7.5-2.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-xkb-utils-7.5-5.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-drv-penmount-1.5.0-3.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-drv-mach64-6.9.0-2.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-drv-ati-6.14.2-2.20110727git8c9266ed2.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-drv-mutouch-1.3.0-2.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-drv-i128-1.3.4-9.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-drv-cirrus-1.3.2-10.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-utils-7.5-3.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-xinit-1.3.1-1.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-drv-v4l-0.2.0-14.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-drv-glint-1.2.5-2.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-drv-vesa-2.3.0-9.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-drv-mga-1.4.13-8.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-drv-qxl-0.0.21-8.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-drv-nouveau-0.0.16-27.20110720gitb806e3f.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-drv-fbdev-0.4.2-2.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-drv-elographics-1.3.0-2.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-drivers-7.4-2.fc15.i686
xorg-x11-drv-vmmouse-12.7.0-2.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-server-common-1.11.1-1.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-drv-keyboard-1.6.0-2.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-drv-rendition-4.2.4-7.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-server-utils-7.5-7.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-server-Xorg-1.11.1-1.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-drv-r128-6.8.1-11.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-drv-intel-2.16.0-2.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-drv-trident-1.3.4-7.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-drv-wacom-0.11.99-4.20110527.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-drv-evdev-2.6.99-3.20110601giteaf202531.fc16.i686
xorg-x11-drv-void-1.4.0-2.fc16.i686

I am using VGA output port of my laptop.

I checked my F16 installation, but did not find xorg.conf file. It seems that F16 is using some other method of configuring the display settings.

---------- Post added at 09:32 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:27 PM ----------

If I am not wrong, Fedora no more uses xorg.conf as its default display configurations.
In my previous F10 installation too xorg.conf file was not present and I had to yum install xorg to get this file.

Do you suggest that I do the same with F16, that is yum install xorg??

[rinjo]

Do you think that if I create a xorg.conf on my system, using "xorg : -l configure" this display issue can be resolved?

[rinjo]

Hi All,

Any help/suggestions relating to this issue please...

[rovitotv]

I finally got my problem solved. After months of frustration and living with the small 11.6" inch screen I about gave up, then I updated the bios on my laptop and everything started working. So you might want to make sure your bios is up to date. Good luck.