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PP133
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Joined: 02 Jun 2005
Posts: 192
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 Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 10:43 pm Post subject: Thinkpad External Monitor |
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Hey guys, I'm looking for a way to use an external monitor with my thinkpad. In windows I would hit fn+f7 and it would switch between the laptop's LCD and the external monitor, that's not working now, of course 
I've looked around but all of the solutions that I've found are for thinkpads with ati video cards, my x60 uses an Intel 945GM/GMS/940GML card.
I would REALLY appreciate some help with this, my neck's starting to ache from sitting hunched over all day
Thx in advance!
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embobo
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Joined: 19 May 2003
Posts: 311
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| Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 11:06 pm Post subject: Re: Thinkpad External Monitor |
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| PP133 wrote: | Hey guys, I'm looking for a way to use an external monitor with my thinkpad. In windows I would hit fn+f7 and it would switch between the laptop's LCD and the external monitor, that's not working now, of course
I've looked around but all of the solutions that I've found are for thinkpads with ati video cards, my x60 uses an Intel 945GM/GMS/940GML card.
I would REALLY appreciate some help with this, my neck's starting to ache from sitting hunched over all day
Thx in advance! |
Try booting with the monitor attached.
Also, have a look at app-laptop/configure-thinkpad and http://ibm-acpi.sourceforge.net/. The latter needs to be built into the kernel. Then see http://ibm-acpi.sourceforge.net/README.
| Code: |
Video output control -- /proc/acpi/ibm/video
--------------------------------------------
This feature allows control over the devices used for video output -
LCD, CRT or DVI (if available). The following commands are available:
echo lcd_enable > /proc/acpi/ibm/video
echo lcd_disable > /proc/acpi/ibm/video
echo crt_enable > /proc/acpi/ibm/video
echo crt_disable > /proc/acpi/ibm/video
echo dvi_enable > /proc/acpi/ibm/video
echo dvi_disable > /proc/acpi/ibm/video
echo auto_enable > /proc/acpi/ibm/video
echo auto_disable > /proc/acpi/ibm/video
echo expand_toggle > /proc/acpi/ibm/video
echo video_switch > /proc/acpi/ibm/video
Each video output device can be enabled or disabled individually.
Reading /proc/acpi/ibm/video shows the status of each device.
Automatic video switching can be enabled or disabled. When automatic
video switching is enabled, certain events (e.g. opening the lid,
docking or undocking) cause the video output device to change
automatically. While this can be useful, it also causes flickering
and, on the X40, video corruption. By disabling automatic switching,
the flickering or video corruption can be avoided.
The video_switch command cycles through the available video outputs
(it simulates the behavior of Fn-F7).
Video expansion can be toggled through this feature. This controls
whether the display is expanded to fill the entire LCD screen when a
mode with less than full resolution is used. Note that the current
video expansion status cannot be determined through this feature.
Note that on many models (particularly those using Radeon graphics
chips) the X driver configures the video card in a way which prevents
Fn-F7 from working. This also disables the video output switching
features of this driver, as it uses the same ACPI methods as
Fn-F7. Video switching on the console should still work.
UPDATE: There's now a patch for the X.org Radeon driver which
addresses this issue. Some people are reporting success with the patch
while others are still having problems. For more information:
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2000
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| Code: |
mark@jane /proc/acpi/ibm $ cat video
status: supported
lcd: enabled
crt: disabled
dvi: disabled
auto: enabled
commands: lcd_enable, lcd_disable
commands: crt_enable, crt_disable
commands: dvi_enable, dvi_disable
commands: auto_enable, auto_disable
commands: video_switch, expand_toggle
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I can't remeber if it worked for me but I have a T30. |
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PP133
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Joined: 02 Jun 2005
Posts: 192
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| Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2007 12:14 am Post subject: |
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Wow, thanks for the great info!
I read through most of the readme, it was pretty interesting stuff.
After making some changes to the /proc/acpi/ibm/video file, I'm still not able to just hit fn+f7 to switch to the external monitor. I know you said I should boot with the monitor attached, which I haven't tested yet, but is there no way to switch on the fly once booted up?
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tuexk
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Joined: 11 May 2004
Posts: 13
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| Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2007 1:28 am Post subject: |
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Make a script called Fn-F7.sh in /etc/acpi/actions.
#!/bin/bash
echo video_switch > /proc/acpi/ibm/video
Then make a file /etc/acpi/events/Fn-F7 in it put:
event=ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001007
action=sudo /etc/acpi/actions/Fn-F7.sh
make sure you have sudo set up to run it w/o password, and the first line should be what acpi_listen gives you for the Fn+F7 keypress. |
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PP133
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Posts: 192
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| Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2007 2:46 am Post subject: |
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| tuexk wrote: | Make a script called Fn-F7.sh in /etc/acpi/actions.
#!/bin/bash
echo video_switch > /proc/acpi/ibm/video
Then make a file /etc/acpi/events/Fn-F7 in it put:
event=ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001007
action=sudo /etc/acpi/actions/Fn-F7.sh
make sure you have sudo set up to run it w/o password, and the first line should be what acpi_listen gives you for the Fn+F7 keypress. |
I tried running [code]echo video_switch > /proc/acpi/ibm/video[code] manually and nothing happened.
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tuexk
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Joined: 11 May 2004
Posts: 13
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| Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2007 4:26 am Post subject: |
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Did you do it as root?
what does cat /proc/acpi/ibm/video give you? |
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PP133
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Joined: 02 Jun 2005
Posts: 192
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| Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2007 6:20 pm Post subject: |
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| tuexk wrote: | Did you do it as root?
what does cat /proc/acpi/ibm/video give you? |
yeah, I did it as root.
Here's the output:
| Code: |
tungsten ibm # cat /proc/acpi/ibm/video
status: supported
lcd: enabled
crt: disabled
dvi: disabled
auto: disabled
commands: lcd_enable, lcd_disable
commands: crt_enable, crt_disable
commands: dvi_enable, dvi_disable
commands: auto_enable, auto_disable
commands: video_switch, expand_toggle
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PP133
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Posts: 192
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| Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 6:13 pm Post subject: |
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<shameless bump>
Anyone, anyone?
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toralf
Developer
Joined: 01 Feb 2004
Posts: 3943
Location: Hamburg
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| Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 6:28 pm Post subject: |
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Have a look at radeontool (at least for T41 it is nice tool) and play with the following settings of xorg.conf: | Code: | Section "Device"
Option "MonitorLayout" "CRT,LVDS"
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PP133
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Posts: 192
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| Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 7:40 pm Post subject: |
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| toralf wrote: | Have a look at radeontool (at least for T41 it is nice tool) and play with the following settings of xorg.conf: | Code: | Section "Device"
Option "MonitorLayout" "CRT,LVDS"
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Can I use that even though I don't have a radeon card?
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embobo
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Posts: 311
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| Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 8:11 pm Post subject: |
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| PP133 wrote: | <shameless bump>
Anyone, anyone? |
Shameful reply:
I tried doing what I recommended and it didn't work for me either. 
I've always booted with a monitor attached. |
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PP133
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Posts: 192
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| Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 8:16 pm Post subject: |
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I've tried resuming (from using hibernate) with an external monitor attached and it didn't work. But I haven't tried a fresh reboot with the monitor attached.
My neck hurts from looking down all day, lol
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toralf
Developer
Joined: 01 Feb 2004
Posts: 3943
Location: Hamburg
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| Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 8:41 pm Post subject: |
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| PP133 wrote: | | toralf wrote: | Have a look at radeontool (at least for T41 it is nice tool) and play with the following settings of xorg.conf: | Code: | Section "Device"
Option "MonitorLayout" "CRT,LVDS"
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Can I use that even though I don't have a radeon card? |
Oh yes, and you can try "LVDS,CRT" too. |
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PP133
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Posts: 192
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| Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 9:24 pm Post subject: |
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| toralf wrote: | | ...Oh yes, and you can try "LVDS,CRT" too. |
What are LVDS? Is that supposed to be LCDS?
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PP133
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Joined: 02 Jun 2005
Posts: 192
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| Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 9:37 pm Post subject: |
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| toralf wrote: | | PP133 wrote: | | toralf wrote: | Have a look at radeontool (at least for T41 it is nice tool) and play with the following settings of xorg.conf: | Code: | Section "Device"
Option "MonitorLayout" "CRT,LVDS"
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Can I use that even though I don't have a radeon card? |
Oh yes, and you can try "LVDS,CRT" too. |
Hrmmm, so i tried running radeontool, but it complains that I don't have radeon hardware:
| Code: |
tungsten mnt # /usr/sbin/radeontool
Radeon hardware not found in lspci output.
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rejon
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embobo
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latch.r
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Joined: 04 Apr 2006
Posts: 38
Location: Ulm, Germany
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| Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 6:56 am Post subject: |
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I've got a ThinkPad X60s, and have just recently been trying to get an external monitor to work.
I have played with /proc/acpi/ibm/video as mentioned earlier in this thread, but had no luck. Echoing commands to this file seemed to have no effect (cat /proc/acpi/ibm/video showed that the settings had not changed).
Plugging in an external monitor and then closing the ThinkPad lid and opening it again caused my display to shift to the external monitor, in line with the Automatic Video Switching behaviour described in the documentation quoted by embobo.
I've now tweaked my xorg.conf according to the suggestions at http://archlinux.atspace.com/ , and had success getting display on both monitors when I first start the X server. However, after changing any settings (with Fn+F7, or closing the lid) I cannot get display back on both screens. The normal cycling behaviour of Fn+F7 seems to work, except the mode where both screens should be used just results in both screens remaining blank. |
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PP133
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Posts: 192
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| Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 8:21 pm Post subject: |
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| latch.r wrote: | I've got a ThinkPad X60s, and have just recently been trying to get an external monitor to work.
I have played with /proc/acpi/ibm/video as mentioned earlier in this thread, but had no luck. Echoing commands to this file seemed to have no effect (cat /proc/acpi/ibm/video showed that the settings had not changed).
Plugging in an external monitor and then closing the ThinkPad lid and opening it again caused my display to shift to the external monitor, in line with the Automatic Video Switching behaviour described in the documentation quoted by embobo.
I've now tweaked my xorg.conf according to the suggestions at http://archlinux.atspace.com/ , and had success getting display on both monitors when I first start the X server. However, after changing any settings (with Fn+F7, or closing the lid) I cannot get display back on both screens. The normal cycling behaviour of Fn+F7 seems to work, except the mode where both screens should be used just results in both screens remaining blank. |
Hey latch, thx for the reply.
My x60 doesn't auto-switch to monitor when I close/open the lid. Can you paste the output of /proc/acpi/ibm/video? Did you have to do anything else to get it to switch to an external monitor when re-opening the lid?
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latch.r
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Joined: 04 Apr 2006
Posts: 38
Location: Ulm, Germany
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| Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 3:19 am Post subject: |
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With my X server started without any external monitor attached, /proc/acpi/ibm/video contains
| Code: |
status: supported
lcd: enabled
crt: disabled
dvi: disabled
auto: disabled
commands: lcd_enable, lcd_disable
commands: crt_enable, crt_disable
commands: dvi_enable, dvi_disable
commands: auto_enable, auto_disable
commands: video_switch, expand_toggle
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After attaching an external monitor, and then shutting and re-opening the lid of my X60s /proc/acpi/ibm/video contains
| Code: |
status: supported
lcd: disabled
crt: enabled
dvi: disabled
auto: disabled
commands: lcd_enable, lcd_disable
commands: crt_enable, crt_disable
commands: dvi_enable, dvi_disable
commands: auto_enable, auto_disable
commands: video_switch, expand_toggle
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Leaving the external monitor attached, and shutting and re-opening the lid again gives me no display on either screen, but /proc/acpi/ibm/video contains
| Code: |
status: supported
lcd: enabled
crt: enabled
dvi: disabled
auto: disabled
commands: lcd_enable, lcd_disable
commands: crt_enable, crt_disable
commands: dvi_enable, dvi_disable
commands: auto_enable, auto_disable
commands: video_switch, expand_toggle
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With the external monitor still attached, repeating the shut-open cycle once again returns the display to my laptop LCD and /proc/acpi/ibm/video has the same content as the first listing above.
This same cycle occurs if I press Fn+F7.
There are two significant mysteries. Firstly, why are both screens blank when they should both be enabled? Secondly, why does this "automatic" switching happen even though I've set
I don't have any need at the moment for showing my display on both the internal LCD and an external screen, but I would love to find out what is happening. |
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PP133
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Posts: 192
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| Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 4:13 pm Post subject: |
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| latch.r wrote: |
This same cycle occurs if I press Fn+F7.
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Hrmm, so there's lots I want to ask/comment about/on regarding your post, but first off, your Fn+F7 works? When I hit mine, nothing happens. Did you emerge anything or modify any particular configs to get that working?
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latch.r
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Joined: 04 Apr 2006
Posts: 38
Location: Ulm, Germany
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| Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2007 4:22 am Post subject: |
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Yes, my Fn+F7 works.
I have not set anything up for this function button, and can't remember emerging anything that was IBM specific (other than thinkfinger for the fingerprint reader).
Have you got the ACPI-IBM option enabled in your kernel? |
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PP133
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Joined: 02 Jun 2005
Posts: 192
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| Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 12:01 am Post subject: |
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| latch.r wrote: | Yes, my Fn+F7 works.
I have not set anything up for this function button, and can't remember emerging anything that was IBM specific (other than thinkfinger for the fingerprint reader).
Have you got the ACPI-IBM option enabled in your kernel? |
Yup, it's enabled in the kernel:
| Code: |
Symbol: ACPI_IBM [=y]
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Also, some of the function keys DO work, Fn+PgUp turns on the light on the upper-lip of the laptop monitor, Fn+Home/End increases/decreases the brightness of the LCD, Fn+ScrLk enables numlock, etc. It seems as if the Fn+F keys aren't working maybe?
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latch.r
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Joined: 04 Apr 2006
Posts: 38
Location: Ulm, Germany
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| Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 12:55 am Post subject: |
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As I understand it, the Fn+PgUp turns the keyboard light on in a way that is somehow independent from the OS ACPI drivers. I also suspect that Fn+ScrLk enables numlock in a similar way, which is not relying on the ACPI drivers. For the record, both of these combinations work for me also.
The Fn+Home / Fn+End buttons do not work properly for me. Both of them cause the screen to go black. I can get my display back by cycling through the display options (Fn+F7 or closing/opening lid). Using commands like
| Code: | | echo up > /proc/acpi/ibm/brightness |
and
| Code: | | echo down > /proc/acpi/ibm/brightness |
do work to alter the screen brightness, and so I could probably write my own etc/acpi/events and /etc/acpi/actions files to get the function brightness keys to work.
Even then there is some slightly mysterious behaviour. With my screen on full brightness (such as when the computer is first turned on), the "down" command does not work. I have to give one "up" command (which has no result) and then "down" commands do work. I'd love to know what is going on here.
I've had a quick look through my /etc/acpi/events/ files, and can't see anything that would give me my Fn+F7 behaviour - so I don't know why mine seems to work. |
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