Extending your desktop onto an external monitor

brentashley · Jul 15, 2008

Here is how I have my One set up with an external monitor.

Be extremely careful editing your xorg.conf file, you can really bugger things up. You have been warned, and I won't be helping you fix it.

I have a 1280x1024 17" external LCD plugged into the Aspire One.

When I boot up, the display comes up on both the builtin LCD display and the external monitor, both at 1024x600. Yechh.

Once booted up, get into the terminal. You can use the My Documents app in the Files section, and choose File...Terminal from the menu.

Edit your xorg.conf file:

sudo mousepad /etc/X11/xorg.conf

right near the bottom in the "Screen" section there is a line that says
Virtual 1024 600
change it to say
Virtual 2304 1024

also, I added the resolutions "1280x1024" and "1024x768" to the Modes line right above the Virtual line.

This will make sure the virtual screen space is big enough to accomodate a 1280x1024 screen *beside* a 1024x600 screen.

Save and exit mousepad, then reboot to get the activate virtual screen size.

It will come up as before, but this time, open a terminal and enter the following:

xrandr -s 1280x1024
xrandr --output LVDS --right-of VGA --auto

of course, if you want your One to the left of the external monitor, use --left-of instead.

You should now be able to drag open programs between your displays.

To change your background to be less confusing, use xfce-setting-show from the terminal, select Desktop and either choose a different background, or uncheck "show image" and change Color Style to Solid Color.

- Brent -

Davidcowling · Jul 22, 2008

Excellent!

Sid · Aug 1, 2008

Thanks, very helpful. The next question is how do I make the settings permanent, so I do not have to type the commands into terminal every time?

madisonman · Aug 2, 2008

Sid said:
Thanks, very helpful. The next question is how do I make the settings permanent, so I do not have to type the commands into terminal every time?

Yes. anyone figure this out?

eek · Aug 10, 2008

i get a "connection refused" message after entering the "sudo mousepad..." command. Could you please help?

Sid · Aug 10, 2008

A "normal error" !!

Altermac · Aug 14, 2008

What has to be done to mirror the lcd to external VGA? It should do something like that:
virtual 1024x768 (or 1280x1024)
Internal LCD with 1024x600
external VGA with 1024x768 (or 1280x1024) same-as internal LCD

Can someone please post a working xconf.org?

DiSK · Aug 16, 2008

Yeah, how would you mirror the AspireOne's display onto an external monitor?

-XoF- · Aug 17, 2008

This is how my external 1680x1050 works in clone mode:

- Add a new "monitor" section to xorg.conf
- adjust "virtual" settings

Furthermore, I adjusted some behaviors (e.g. CTRL-ALT-Fx switches to console)
xorg.conf:

Code:

# Xorg configuration created by system-config-display
Section "ServerFlags"
        Option "DontZap" "no"
        Option "DontVTSwitch" "no"
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
        Identifier     "Default Layout"
        Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
        InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
        InputDevice    "Synaptics Mouse" "AlwaysCore"
        InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier  "Keyboard0"
        Driver      "kbd"
        Option      "XkbModel" "pc105"
        Option      "XkbLayout" "de,gb,us(euro)"
        Option      "XkbOptions" "grp:alt_shift_toggle"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier "Synaptics Mouse"
        Driver     "synaptics"
        Option     "Device" "/dev/psaux"
        Option     "Protocol" "auto-dev"
        Option     "LeftEdge"  "1700"
        Option  "RightEdge"     "5300"
        Option  "TopEdge"       "1700"
        Option  "BottomEdge"    "4200"
        Option  "FingerLow"     "25"
        Option  "FingerHigh"    "30"
        Option  "MaxTapTime"    "180"
        Option  "MaxTapMove"    "220"
        Option  "VertScrollDelta" "100"
        Option  "MinSpeed"      "0.09"
        Option  "MaxSpeed"      "0.18"
        Option  "AccelFactor"   "0.0015"
        Option  "SHMConfig"     "on"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier  "Mouse0"
        Driver      "mouse"
        Option      "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
        Option      "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
        Option      "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
        Option      "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier  "Monitor0"
        Modeline  "1024x600" 48.96 1024 1064 1168 1312 600 601 604 622 -HSync +V
Sync
#       Option  "Above" "Monitor1"
EndSection


### This is the monitor section for an external VGA with DPMS (auto modeline selection)
Section "Monitor"
        Identifier  "Monitor1"
        Option  "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
        Identifier  "Videocard0"
        Driver      "intel"
        Option      "monitor-LVDS" "Monitor0"
        Option      "monitor-VGA" "Monitor1"
## You don't need clone mode here - cloning will be handled via xrandr
#       Option      "Clone" "true"
## Operate external VGA and internal LVDS on two seperate Pipelines
## If you want to operate both on the same Pipeline, just try "LVDS+VGA,NONE"
        Option  "MonitorLayout" "LVDS,VGA"
        BusID   "PCI:0:2:0"
#       Screen  0
EndSection


Section "Screen"
        Identifier "Screen0"
        Device     "Videocard0"
        Monitor     "Monitor0"
        DefaultDepth     24
        SubSection "Display"
                Viewport   0 0
                Depth     24
                Modes    "1024x600" "800x600" "640x480"
# set virtual to the resolution of the external VGA if you want to use clone mode
# if you want to have Xinerama-like setup, use "2704x1050" (extW+intW x extH)
                Virtual 1680 1050
        EndSubSection
EndSection

With the newest live-update (only install, if you haven't done any mods yet!) I can smoothly switch between internal and external Display using the Fn-F5 combination.
The only disadvantage is, that when using both outputs in clone mode, you'll only see a subpart of the whole screen on the internal display - scrolling is not possible.

HTH,
-XoF-

namaste · Aug 17, 2008

-XoF- said:

This is how my external 1680x1050 works in clone mode:

- Add a new "monitor" section to xorg.conf
- adjust "virtual" settings

Furthermore, I adjusted some behaviors (e.g. CTRL-ALT-Fx switches to console)
xorg.conf:

Code:

# Xorg configuration created by system-config-display
Section "ServerFlags"
        Option "DontZap" "no"
        Option "DontVTSwitch" "no"
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
        Identifier     "Default Layout"
        Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
        InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
        InputDevice    "Synaptics Mouse" "AlwaysCore"
        InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier  "Keyboard0"
        Driver      "kbd"
        Option      "XkbModel" "pc105"
        Option      "XkbLayout" "de,gb,us(euro)"
        Option      "XkbOptions" "grp:alt_shift_toggle"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier "Synaptics Mouse"
        Driver     "synaptics"
        Option     "Device" "/dev/psaux"
        Option     "Protocol" "auto-dev"
        Option     "LeftEdge"  "1700"
        Option  "RightEdge"     "5300"
        Option  "TopEdge"       "1700"
        Option  "BottomEdge"    "4200"
        Option  "FingerLow"     "25"
        Option  "FingerHigh"    "30"
        Option  "MaxTapTime"    "180"
        Option  "MaxTapMove"    "220"
        Option  "VertScrollDelta" "100"
        Option  "MinSpeed"      "0.09"
        Option  "MaxSpeed"      "0.18"
        Option  "AccelFactor"   "0.0015"
        Option  "SHMConfig"     "on"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier  "Mouse0"
        Driver      "mouse"
        Option      "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
        Option      "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
        Option      "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
        Option      "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier  "Monitor0"
        Modeline  "1024x600" 48.96 1024 1064 1168 1312 600 601 604 622 -HSync +V
Sync
#       Option  "Above" "Monitor1"
EndSection


### This is the monitor section for an external VGA with DPMS (auto modeline selection)
Section "Monitor"
        Identifier  "Monitor1"
        Option  "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
        Identifier  "Videocard0"
        Driver      "intel"
        Option      "monitor-LVDS" "Monitor0"
        Option      "monitor-VGA" "Monitor1"
## You don't need clone mode here - cloning will be handled via xrandr
#       Option      "Clone" "true"
## Operate external VGA and internal LVDS on two seperate Pipelines
## If you want to operate both on the same Pipeline, just try "LVDS+VGA,NONE"
        Option  "MonitorLayout" "LVDS,VGA"
        BusID   "PCI:0:2:0"
#       Screen  0
EndSection


Section "Screen"
        Identifier "Screen0"
        Device     "Videocard0"
        Monitor     "Monitor0"
        DefaultDepth     24
        SubSection "Display"
                Viewport   0 0
                Depth     24
                Modes    "1024x600" "800x600" "640x480"
# set virtual to the resolution of the external VGA if you want to use clone mode
# if you want to have Xinerama-like setup, use "2704x1050" (extW+intW x extH)
                Virtual 1680 1050
        EndSubSection
EndSection

With the newest live-update (only install, if you haven't done any mods yet!) I can smoothly switch between internal and external Display using the Fn-F5 combination.
The only disadvantage is, that when using both outputs in clone mode, you'll only see a subpart of the whole screen on the internal display - scrolling is not possible.

Thank you very much, so what I have to do is only to use your xorg.conf? I have a 1280x1024 external monitor crt , so the only change is Virtual 1280x1024 instead of 1680x1050 ?

HTH,
-XoF-