SamG22
December 23rd, 2008, 05:34 AM
Hello there fellow Ubuntus - if you can help with a quick question I have, it would be really appreciated.
I installed Ubuntu on an Acer Aspire One recently - the poor thing can just about handle it, and the superb documentation <a href="https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AspireOne" target="_blank">here</a> helped enormously. Everything worked more or less okay until recently.
Having...constructively borrowed a 19" TFT LCD monitor from work (a Samsung SyncMaster 931 to be precise), I took it home and hooked it up using the VGA port as opposed to a DVI converting cable, and after a while managed to get it working. My two questions are as follows, and the second is by far more irritating.
1) The external monitor will only function at a decent resolution if the laptop screen is completely disabled. I can have them both turned on and mirroring each other, but that looks horrible on the TFT as the AA1 resolution isn't high enough to really warrant it. If I leave the TFT enabled on 1024x786 and try to turn the AA1 screen onto any resolution, I get an error saying something like "The virtual something isn't big enough to contain my displays".
I know...sorry, should have copied it down really. So, if anyone knows what causes this and if there's any way around it that would be good to know. Haven't tried the monitor with the 15GB XP partition yet, so I dont know if windows can handle both the displays at once.
[EDIT - On reflection I'm guessing the tiny AA1 video card just can't handle two at once]
2) It's not so bad with the AA1 screen turned off though. I just close the lid and use the wireless keyboard and mouse and off we go. However, four times last night the picture on the screen died, twice during full screen video playback and once as I was clicking around OpenOffice. If it matters, one of the times the monitor became a uniform beige colour, once I think blue, and the other times black.
Nothing rectified it (or rather, clicking randomly and swearing profusely didn't fix it), so I put the PC into standby using a function key on the wireless keyboard, and then woke it up again. That fixed the problem instantly the first two times, after which the function key stopped working. I also determined that the PC is working perfectly when the screen is down, as I had called up a terminal and opened the calculator and bashed in some sums to see if they would be there when the issue was fixed - and, you know, they were.
I'm completely stumped as to why this may be happening. All the connections are secure, and as I say there is no breakdown in the PC itself, just in the external display. So far the only possible solution I can think of is to use a VGA-DVI converter and see if that works (as the TFT also has a DVI input), but seeing as sleeping and waking the PC fixed the problem, I'm inferring it's a software issue and not a hardware one, so am doubtful this would work.
I know this post verges on the tl;dr, but if anyone would care to chuck some thoughts at me it would be really greatly appreciated :) It's immensely annoying finally having a good screen and keyboard and having to keep on sleeping/waking the damn thing.
Thanks very much,
Sam.
I installed Ubuntu on an Acer Aspire One recently - the poor thing can just about handle it, and the superb documentation <a href="https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AspireOne" target="_blank">here</a> helped enormously. Everything worked more or less okay until recently.
Having...constructively borrowed a 19" TFT LCD monitor from work (a Samsung SyncMaster 931 to be precise), I took it home and hooked it up using the VGA port as opposed to a DVI converting cable, and after a while managed to get it working. My two questions are as follows, and the second is by far more irritating.
1) The external monitor will only function at a decent resolution if the laptop screen is completely disabled. I can have them both turned on and mirroring each other, but that looks horrible on the TFT as the AA1 resolution isn't high enough to really warrant it. If I leave the TFT enabled on 1024x786 and try to turn the AA1 screen onto any resolution, I get an error saying something like "The virtual something isn't big enough to contain my displays".
I know...sorry, should have copied it down really. So, if anyone knows what causes this and if there's any way around it that would be good to know. Haven't tried the monitor with the 15GB XP partition yet, so I dont know if windows can handle both the displays at once.
[EDIT - On reflection I'm guessing the tiny AA1 video card just can't handle two at once]
2) It's not so bad with the AA1 screen turned off though. I just close the lid and use the wireless keyboard and mouse and off we go. However, four times last night the picture on the screen died, twice during full screen video playback and once as I was clicking around OpenOffice. If it matters, one of the times the monitor became a uniform beige colour, once I think blue, and the other times black.
Nothing rectified it (or rather, clicking randomly and swearing profusely didn't fix it), so I put the PC into standby using a function key on the wireless keyboard, and then woke it up again. That fixed the problem instantly the first two times, after which the function key stopped working. I also determined that the PC is working perfectly when the screen is down, as I had called up a terminal and opened the calculator and bashed in some sums to see if they would be there when the issue was fixed - and, you know, they were.
I'm completely stumped as to why this may be happening. All the connections are secure, and as I say there is no breakdown in the PC itself, just in the external display. So far the only possible solution I can think of is to use a VGA-DVI converter and see if that works (as the TFT also has a DVI input), but seeing as sleeping and waking the PC fixed the problem, I'm inferring it's a software issue and not a hardware one, so am doubtful this would work.
I know this post verges on the tl;dr, but if anyone would care to chuck some thoughts at me it would be really greatly appreciated :) It's immensely annoying finally having a good screen and keyboard and having to keep on sleeping/waking the damn thing.
Thanks very much,
Sam.