Laptop doesn't know which display to use when docked/undocked

[Paul Johnson]

On Fri, Oct 19, 2012 at 8:26 AM, Terry Polzin <foxec208 at wowway.com> wrote:
> I am running xfce on F17 completely patched and current.
>
> My laptop is a HP probook 6460b.  When I boot it docked the grub screen
> appears on the external display.  When the boot has completed the
> background screen is displayed on the external display. I get no login
> prompt on the external display.  I press enter a couple of times the
> login display will appear and I'll log in then the external display goes
> dark.  I open up the laptop and it's display has the desktop on it and I
> have to manually switch to the external display and discontinue use of
> the laptop display.  If both displays are selected for use the whole
> thing wants to act like a twin head setup which I don't want.
>
> What do I have to do to get the laptop to use the external display when
> docked and it's own display when it isn't automagically. To undock the
> laptop I have to reverse the display procedure of course.  This also
> makes it impossible to "undock and run" without making manual changes as
> to which display to use.
>
I don't think there is any XFCE answer for this, and probably no good
linux answer, either.

My laptop uses Nvidia proprietary video drivers and Nvidia supplies a
config program called nvidia-settings.  Each time I put the machine on
the dock, or want to take the machine off the dock, I have to
explicitly run nvidia-settings to tell the laptop which displays to
use.

In my case, I like to use both the laptop's display and the external
monitor. When I start the system, on the dock or not, it always just
uses the laptop display, and I use nvidia-settings to tell it to use
Twinview to put up the external thing as well.

I wonder if you should try this. Start the laptop NOT on the dock, and
log in.  Then put the still-turned-on laptop on the dock, and then try
to tell X11 to use the external thing. I think how you do that will
depend on the particular kind of video hardware you have.

If you don't have Nvidia, so there is no program similar to
nvidia-settings, the only solution I've found is to manually edit the
/etc/X11/xorg.conf file, or interactively run xrandr commands to turn
screens on and off.

This writeup is about activating multiple displays, but it also shows
how to turn some off.

http://awesome.naquadah.org/wiki/Using_Multiple_Screens

I think you could write a script to turn one on, turn the other off,
if that's what you want to do.

pj
>
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-- 
Paul E. Johnson
Professor, Political Science      Assoc. Director
1541 Lilac Lane, Room 504      Center for Research Methods
University of Kansas                 University of Kansas
http://pj.freefaculty.org               http://quant.ku.edu