docking station and closed lid does not disable notebook screen

[Martin Wildam]

Binary package hint: gdm

I am on 10.04.1, Kernel 2.6.32-24-generic #38-Ubuntu SMP Mon Jul 5 09:22:14 UTC 2010 i686 GNU/Linux.
Hardware: Dell Latitude E-5500

I have a port replicator / docking station in the office and under 9.04 (and later upgraded to 9.10) I had no problem putting the notebook with lid closed into the dock and after turning on running with external monitor as the only used display.

Now, after clean install of 10.04 + applying all updates, when I do the same, the notebook monitor is kept considered by Ubuntu. Although I see the login screen on the external monitor (with lower resolution - maybe in parallel displaying also on the imaginary - because closed - notebook builtin monitor). After login I see empty desktop without notification area, task bar or menus.

When opening the notebook lid I can see all the elements there.
Changing monitor order (left and right) does not keep the settings until reboot.
I also tried using arandr - configured monitor settings - only lasted until next reboot.

After fiddling around a long time and trying a lot of things (other people have similar problems out in the wild) I got it to work with changing gdm startup script + adding an additional script that I run on X startup - a quite long story, that can be read here:
http://it-tactics.blogspot.com/2010/08/ubuntu-1004-with-docking-station.html

BTW: I don't have an xorg.conf.

This issue is a regression - it worked in 9.04 and 9.10 (upgraded from 9.04).

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: gdm 2.30.2.is.2.30.0-0ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-24.38-generic 2.6.32.15+drm33.5
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-24-generic i686
Architecture: i386
Date: Wed Aug 4 22:50:59 2010
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release i386 (20100429)
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: gdm

[Martin Wildam (mwildam)]

Oh, btw: Compiz is enabled - compiz configuration attached (exported from compiz settings manager).

[Martin Wildam (mwildam)]

I found out additional details: Occassionally it was TV1 recognized to be active even if I was completely unplugged from external monitors and docking station (I could see this by wide desktop icons below and moving the mouse completely out of sight on the right side was possible).

See updated blog post which describes the issue and offers a workaround (latest discoveries in update 3): http://it-tactics.blogspot.com/2010/08/ubuntu-1004-with-docking-station.html

[Martin Wildam (mwildam)]

My problem is still not solved. Although my scripts help, there are screen changes happening while working - e.g. plugging in a projector/beamer, starting teamviewer (for first start after reboot in 80% of test cases get my laptop screen activated although lid closed.

So I often need to manually deactivate LVDS1 which I find very annoying.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Hi Martin, can you update us on the status of your bug? Have you tried upgrading or reinstalling a newer version of Ubuntu?

If it's still a problem in Precise, would you mind turning on drm debug (run sudo xdiagnose, it's the first checkbox, then reboot and reproduce the bug, and collect the output of 'dmesg').

[bugbot (bugbot)]

We're closing this bug since it is has been some time with no response from the original reporter. However, if the issue still exists please feel free to reopen with the requested information. Also, if you could, please test against the latest development version of Ubuntu, since this confirms the bug is one we may be able to pass upstream for help.