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dual monitor problem (solved)

Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2013 3:43 am
by joshualibrarian
Hello! I've got a new fitpc3 pro with Linux Mint 14 (x64) installed. Connected to it I have two identical widescreen 19" monitors (the brand is V7) which have VGA connectors. So in order to connect both monitors I have adapters made by StarTech, one HDMI->VGA and one DisplayPort->VGA.

At first this seemed to work fine, and for the HDMI port, it is working fine. The monitor appears as 'RIS 19"' and has a maximum resolution of 1360x768, which is perfect. The other monitor on the other hand, shows only as 'Unknown' with a maximum resolution of only 1024x768, which works but since the monitor is widescreen everything on it is stretched horizontally.

The strangest part is that when I suspend the computer and bring it back, all of a sudden, the DisplayPort monitor lists correctly as 'RIS 19"' and has the correct resolutions available, though when I set the resolutions to it, the screen is offset to the right and no amount of fiddling with the buttons on the monitor and changing the horizontal offset can fix it, even when I set it all the way to the left, it's still offset to the right.

Rebooting resets the monitor back to 'Unknown'. Suggestions?

Thank you!
Joshua

Re: daul monitor problem

Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2013 1:48 pm
by gabrielh
Good Day Joshua

Your issue may be related to the fglrx propriety driver. Please try an open source radeon graphic driver. You can refer to https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RadeonDriver for additional info, and the driver installation manuals.

Your feedback about your experience will be highly appreciated.

Re: daul monitor problem

Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2013 9:04 pm
by joshualibrarian
Thanks for your quick response. That page doesn't seem to have much about installation, so I checked in synaptic and fglrx was not installed, but the radeon packages seemed to be, so it seems I am already running the radeon drivers. I am installing fglrx now to see if that helps.

Re: daul monitor problem

Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2013 9:18 pm
by joshualibrarian
Well, I installed the fglrx package and rebooted. This elicited a change during boot.

Before, on the radeon drivers, when I booted the computer, both monitors would come on just fine with the "bios splash screen" or whatever it's called, and then both monitors would DEACTIVATE, saying "No Signal" for a few seconds and then come back on (USUALLY they would come back on, about one in eight times or so they wouldn't come back on even though the computer seemed to have otherwise booted just fine, in cases like that I would press the power button, it would shut down and I would try again).

However, with the fglrx drivers, the monitors didn't de-activate when the OS started to boot and instead I got the Linux Mint splash screen while it was booting. Now when it boots though, both monitors detect just fine in the configuration utility, however when I try to turn off "Mirror Screens", apply fails (with an error in the corner I can't quite fully read because it's partly off the screen) and it revers to mirror screens.

There is another package is synaptic called fglrx-update which it wants to uninstall fglrx to install. Should I try this?

Re: daul monitor problem

Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2013 9:40 pm
by joshualibrarian
Well, I tried fglrx-updates instead of just fglrx figuring it can't hurt. Same behavior as with fglrx. I have uninstalled the fglrx drivers and now the original behavior has returned, with the radeon drivers, including the monitors turning off momentarily when booting instead of showing the "Linux Mint" booting splash screen and the "Unknown" monitor with the incorrectly stretched display.

Perhaps there is a way to set the available resolutions and monitor definition manually in the radeon drivers?

Re: daul monitor problem

Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2013 9:59 pm
by joshualibrarian
On a whim, I decided to try suspend again, and this time, it came up from suspend working PERFECTLY with both monitors detected and set to 1360x768! And the offset problem seems to have disappeared. Strange, eh?!

Oh, how I just want it all to work right. :)

Re: daul monitor problem

Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 7:37 am
by gabrielh
Dear Joshua

I am a little bit confused now. After all the well documented manipulation above, do you still have the issues from the first post, or the dual head performance is right now?

Re: daul monitor problem

Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 4:22 pm
by joshualibrarian
When the computer first boots, it is incorrect as it was, with the second monitor as "unknown" and incorrect resolution. However, when I SUSPEND and then bring the computer back on, it's perfectly fine. Shutting down and turning it back on restores the problem again.

Re: daul monitor problem

Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 12:31 pm
by gabrielh
If you follow this guide, do you still have a problems with your screens?

Re: daul monitor problem

Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2013 1:30 am
by joshualibrarian
That worked wonderfully, thank you! The "AMD Catalyst Control Center" was able to set the monitors quite correctly and now it works perfectly, even after suspend.

Thank you!
Joshua