[gm45] X should consider laptop monitor disconnected if lid is closed

[Matt Perry]

Binary package hint: xorg

When I am using my laptop on its docking station, with laptop lid closed and using an external monitor, the display properties still sees the laptop monitor and allows me to turn it on/off and extend my desktop.

Expected result:
When the laptop lid is closed, the laptop screen should be considered disconnected.

Discussion:
Let me explain how this creates a problem. At home I use a docking station for my laptop. The lid is closed and the laptop is connected to the docking station. I use an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse. When I want to take the laptop away from home, I can undock it and open the lid and Ubuntu will switch to the internal screen. So far so good.

When I close the lid and connect the laptop back to the docking station, Ubuntu thinks that the display is still on the laptop screen and will do one of two things:

(1) Do nothing with the external monitor, leaving it off. If I then open the lid of the laptop while it's on the docking station, it will turn off the display on the laptop monitor and then show the display on the external monitor. Closing the lid turns off the external display and turns on the display on the closed laptop monitor.

(2) extends the desktop display onto the external monitor which leaves me without panels, desktop icons, etc. since they are on the closed and inaccessible laptop monitor.

Neither of these are helpful. If Ubuntu can consider the laptop monitor to be disconnected when the lid is closed, I believe that Ubuntu will see only one monitor and do the sensible thing.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: xorg 1:7.5+5ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-21.32-generic 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-21-generic x86_64
Architecture: amd64
Date: Fri Apr 16 16:13:01 2010
DkmsStatus: virtualbox-ose, 3.1.6, 2.6.32-21-generic, x86_64: installed
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release amd64 (20091027)
MachineType: Hewlett-Packard HP EliteBook 6930p
PccardctlIdent:
 Socket 0:
   product info: "RICOH", "Bay8Controller", "", ""
   manfid: 0x0000, 0x0000
   function: 254 (unknown)
PccardctlStatus:
 Socket 0:
   3.3V 16-bit PC Card
   Subdevice 0 (function 0) bound to driver "pata_pcmcia"
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-21-generic root=UUID=3c066ef8-c042-4116-976c-c782323609ce ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US:en
 LANG=en_US.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: xorg
dmi.bios.date: 12/08/2009
dmi.bios.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.bios.version: 68PCU Ver. F.16
dmi.board.name: 30DB
dmi.board.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.board.version: KBC Version 87.2A
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnHewlett-Packard:bvr68PCUVer.F.16:bd12/08/2009:svnHewlett-Packard:pnHPEliteBook6930p:pvrF.16:rvnHewlett-Packard:rn30DB:rvrKBCVersion87.2A:cvnHewlett-Packard:ct10:cvr:
dmi.product.name: HP EliteBook 6930p
dmi.product.version: F.16
dmi.sys.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
system:
 distro: Ubuntu
 codename: lucid
 architecture: x86_64
 kernel: 2.6.32-21-generic

[lspci]
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:2a42] (rev 07)
     Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:30db]

[Chris Halse Rogers (raof)]

This has been a deliberate move by the upstream developers, who were finding that many laptops lied about their lid status and so would disable the laptop screen. When there were no other monitors plugged in this obviously made those systems totally unsuable, and there were a continual stream of bugs about different laptops being broken by this.

That said, the Nouveau project responded to the same sort of bugs by setting the laptop screen's status as “unknown” if the lid was down, which causes the screen to be disabled unless there's definitely no other display plugged in. That might be a workable solution for -intel, too.

[Chris Wilson (ickle)]

Fix in raring, by altering how we sanitize for those broken laptops.