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Hardware - Support => Video Cards => Topic started by: mountainhick on April 17, 2014, 12:54:03 PM

Title: Video output to TV screen problem
Post by: mountainhick on April 17, 2014, 12:54:03 PM
I am admittedly a Linux noob wanker, but I do search first before asking these kinds of questions. Haven't found this one yet:

I just loaded LL 1.08 to a Dell d620 laptop. This machine used to run Win xp and svga output to TV screen was just fine, it auto adjusted to fill the 1920x1080 screen.

It appears with LL the default display is 1280x800 which fills the latop screen just fine, but uses a much smaller area of the TV screen. In settings/display on LL it shows only the 1280x800 default and apparently offers no adjustments. And, I have not found any way to change res on the TV. Also, Fn/F8 does nothing.

Is there some way to increase the output size to fill the TV screen?

Here is the device info I could find through the LL menu:

x.org foundation 1.11.3

nvidia G72M quadro NVS 110M/geoforce  go 7300 (rev a1) prog-if 00

Thanks
Title: Re: Video output to TV screen problem
Post by: mountainhick on April 17, 2014, 03:58:26 PM
OK, installed Nvidia version 304 driver (recommended) in the install drivers function. Both that version and the 304 updates versions recognize the vizio monitor and will output in 1920x1080, but also changes laptop screen to same so display does not fit laptop screen.

Any other known versions that will display both simultaneously? XP did just fine.
Title: Re: Video output to TV screen problem
Post by: gold_finger on April 17, 2014, 04:38:18 PM
Here's a good article describing two ways to get job done.  I've used the 2nd option myself and it works fine.  I've not done the first option, but I do have a different Linux distro that came with that setup from the start and it works also.  So, take your pick -- both options will probably work fine.

http://www.webupd8.org/2012/11/how-to-use-multiple-monitors-in-xubuntu.html (http://www.webupd8.org/2012/11/how-to-use-multiple-monitors-in-xubuntu.html)
Title: Re: Video output to TV screen problem
Post by: mountainhick on April 17, 2014, 05:22:28 PM
OK, I had a look at the web page. My options does not include mirror as a selection. it has "clone" screens, but when selected it does not store/keep the selection. This comes up now with Fn/F8, but not from the display selection under settings in the menu system

So before I just wing it, is  ppa:xubuntu-dev/xfce-4.12 compatible in LL 1.08?
Title: Re: Video output to TV screen problem
Post by: gold_finger on April 18, 2014, 11:46:48 AM
LL uses Xfce desktop and is based on Ubuntu 12.04, so according to that site it should be compatible.  But, as I said, I haven't tested that myself -- so can't be 100% sure.  (A different distro that I also use happens to have that feature built-in and it does work -- so my best guess is that it will also work if added to LL.)

I can tell you that using the second option on that page (Arandr) almost certainly will work.  Before upgrading the distro version mentioned above, Arandr is what I used to get the multiple screens set-up properly on one of my computers.  Also, I set up a friend's laptop for the same purpose as you (hooking up a TV screen to a laptop) using Arandr.  Since she doesn't always have the laptop connected to the TV, I didn't put the script in the "Session and Startup" menu for auto-starting on every bootup.  Instead, I just put a link to the script on the desktop.  When she connects the computer to the TV, she just double-clicks the link and it activates the script to set-up the TV screen.