On Wed, 22 May 2002, Brian Wellington wrote: > I'm running X (4.2.0) on a laptop, occasionally plugged into an external > monitor. If I start X with the built-in display is active and later > switch to an external monitor (using the hot-keys), I end up with a > 1024x768@60Hz display on a CRT, which is less than optimal. Starting X > with the external display active works fine, and displays at 85Hz. > > Is there a way to kick the server and get it to notice the monitor change, > perhaps doing DDC, and change the mode to one with a better refresh rate? > I didn't see a way for xvidtune to do this. I also tried writing a simple > program to fetch the current modelines (with XF86VidModeGetAllModeLines), > update the modeline with appropriate values for an 85Hz refresh rate, and > switch modes (with XF86VidModeSwitchToMode), but nothing happened (even > though all of the calls succeeded). > > I'm not sure if adding multiple Modelines to XF86Config-4 will work, > since the server appears to discard all but the best modeline for each > resolution on startup.
Monitor redetection isn't implemented at the moment. If you are happy with what happens when you start X with the external monitor, you could add the monitor ranges from DDC to your config file; running "X -configure" will probably give you a suitable monitor section. Some laptops allow you to have different refresh rates on the internal and external displays, and some of these are supported by some XFree86 video drivers, which gets around the problem you describe. Monitor redetection could probably be implemented as an addition to the XFree86-VidModeExtension, if anyone felt like it. Laptops would have to be treated specially as many don't report DDC for the internal display. More and more laptops are effectively dual head, and many of them switch active video outputs with hot-keys supported by the BIOS calls which may or may not be documented and available to XFree86. -- Dr. Andrew C. Aitchison Computer Officer, DPMMS, Cambridge [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.dpmms.cam.ac.uk/~werdna _______________________________________________ Xpert mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://XFree86.Org/mailman/listinfo/xpert
