Comment 38 for bug 754799

(In reply to comment #7)
> The GMBUS warnings are immaterial, the GPIO fallback is working just fine.
> Interesting that GMBUS should timeout when unplugged though.
>
> More useful would be an intel_reg_dumper with the monitor plugged in on boot
> (working), and with the monitor plugged in later (blank).
>
> We also need to rule out whether this is just the mishandling of DPMS
> information between the kernel and X. Normally that can be resolved by e.g.
> xrandr --output VGA1 --off; xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 800x600; xrandr
> --output VGA1 --auto;

Hi Chris,

I'm the original reporter of this problem and I have access to the hardware in question (Toshiba Tecra A11).

While looking at another, backlight-related problem (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/719620) it was suggested that it might be a BIOS bug. So I updated this machine's BIOS to the latest available from the manufacturer (Toshiba). The new BIOS made the backlight problem go away, and interestingly, it also took care of this problem; so now, with the updated BIOS, I can plug in an external monitor at any moment and everything works just fine.

The versions the machine shipped with were:
System BIOS Version: 1.40 (dated 12/13/09)
EC Version: 1.30

I downloaded an update that was published on May 25th, 2011. New versions are:

System BIOS Version: 3.10
EC Version: 1.90

Please let me know if you're still interested in more information about this machine, or how best to handle this report now.