After installing Ubuntu 10.04 I lost proper dual monitor handling for my use case. Basically I want to use my notebook on the road as is and in the office I want to put it into the docking station while having the lid always closed.
Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx does not handle this properly any more. I found out that also in 9.10 it was probably pure luck for me because I upgraded from 9.04 and had some fixed entries in the xorg.conf.
But anyway, the xorg.conf file is legacy and there is now gdm with xrandr.
I found out that many have the same use case as I have and have problems. Some solutions are particular to NVidia cards, but I have an Intel. Thanks to
Nylex in the Linuxquestions-Forum +
Ubuntu XOrg documentation, I could find the solution:
I had to put this
into the file /etc/gdm/Init/Default before the line starting with /sbin/initctl (why the TV1 is there also look below in update 3):
xrandr | grep "HDMI1 connected "
# 0 is returned on success
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
xrandr --output HDMI1 --mode 1680x1050 --rate 60 --primary --output LVDS1 --off --output TV1 --off --output VGA1 --off --output HDMI2 --off --output DP1 --off --output DP1 --off --output DP2 --off --output DP3 --off
else
xrandr --current | grep "VGA1 connected "
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1680x1050 --rate 60 --primary --output LVDS1 --off --output TV1 --off --output HDMI1 --off --output HDMI2 --off --output DP1 --off --output DP1 --off --output DP2 --off --output DP3 --off
else
xrandr --current | grep "TV1 connected "
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
xrandr --output LVDS1 --mode 1440x900 --rate 60 --primary --output HDMI1 --off --output TV1 --off --output VGA1 --off --output HDMI2 --off --output DP1 --off --output DP1 --off --output DP2 --off --output DP3 --off
fi
fi
fi
What it does is: Using xrandr it probes whether an external monitor is attached (whether HDMI or VGA) and if so it turns off the LCD display of the laptop so it is not used. You need to adapt the resolution to fit your needs.
[Update] I had some cases when (maybe because of timing at startup) it did not work (sometimes it worked after gdm service restart then but not always) added --preferred and --primary to the xrandr call above and I added the script below to
System->Preferences->Startup applications:
#!/bin/sh
xrandr --current | grep "HDMI1 connected "
# 0 is returned on success
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
sleep 5s
xrandr --output HDMI1 --mode 1680x1050 --rate 60 --primary --output LVDS1 --off --output TV1 --off --output VGA1 --off --output HDMI2 --off --output DP1 --off --output DP1 --off --output DP2 --off --output DP3 --off
else
xrandr --current | grep "VGA1 connected "
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
sleep 5s
xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1680x1050 --rate 60 --primary --output LVDS1 --off --output TV1 --off --output HDMI1 --off --output HDMI2 --off --output DP1 --off --output DP1 --off --output DP2 --off --output DP3 --off
else
xrandr --current | grep "TV1 connected "
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
sleep 5s
xrandr --output LVDS1 --mode 1440x900 --rate 60 --primary --output HDMI1 --off --output TV1 --off --output VGA1 --off --output HDMI2 --off --output DP1 --off --output DP1 --off --output DP2 --off --output DP3 --off
fi
fi
fi
[Update 2]:It still did not work 100%. Sometimes when I moved the mouse outside the desktop it was gone so I found the laptop monitor being still active (so I could move windows over there and they were gone). I could immediately notice that after login when the workspace icons on the bottom right were displayed with increased width. It helped, explicitly turning of LVDS1 display (the laptop screen) in the script (see appropriate options in the updated script above).
[Rest of update 2 removed because of update 3]
[Update 3]:It turned out that (occasionally) on boot it recognized another monitor to be active, after first being the LVDS1 it happened also being the TV1 (occassionally) - and I don't know why because I never attached a TV to it. Anyway, I have added the options to turn that off explicitly also to the scripts (see updated gdm default script portion and startup script above).
Apart from that sometimes occassionally a re-evaluation of available displays might be triggered by an application (e.g. opening and closing the laptop lid or manually calling xrandr without parameters or starting arandr or other applications when started the first time). Such a re-evaluation can also occur right after graphical login and then your initial gdm xrandr modifications are forgotten. Therefore it helps having that script at hand (I have it in /opt) and added to the gnome menu under "Other" to run it when necessary on demand.
Apparently also a timing issue remained (I assume that because of the fact, that the startup applications are started in no particular order and all asynchroneously). However, adding a line with "
sleep 5s" to the script (only to the additional script and not to the gdm init!!!) helped. I currently use a 10 seconds delay (subject to change maybe) but in your case less might be sufficient or more might be required (for me 5 seconds was not enough to make it work each boot).
For you it might be necessary to switch additional displays explicitely off (as I did with TV1 for example).
Oh, and BTW:In
System->Preferences->Power Management make sure that lid closed action is "
Blank Screen". I made a lot of tests with setting to nothing (only possible via gconftool-2) but after all maybe the above setting is the better one.
If in your case the resolution(s) are not set correctly you can do this here in this script also. Use
man xrandr or look at
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Config/Resolution#Adding%20undetected%20resolutions for more information on the appropriate xrandr commands.
I noticed some flickering and login screen displayed in lower resolution, so I added
--mode 1680x1050 to the xrandr call in both cases (in both scripts) which is the resolution of my external monitor.
Honestly, using this script, I feel better than previously on Ubuntu 9.04 or 9.10 where I got it to work by accident after moving around monitors in the config (although in reality they were positioned the other way round). As I found out today, I wasn't either the only one with that experience (see
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1110407) although I am used to be the non-standard user. - With my use case of having the lid closed all the time when in the docking station I am by far not alone as I noticed and some either downgraded to 9.10 because they did not get it to work.
Many, many thanks again to Nylex and the Ubuntu documentation team!
Related links:
Related posts:
Ubuntu 10.04 with docking station part 2,
Firefox change default page format,
Ubuntu 10.04 Experiences,
OpenOffice and LibreOffice starts slow.
