dualhead with "gnome-display-properties" on MacBook 4,1 does not work

[Jens-Christian]

Binary package hint: xserver-xorg-video-intel

Hardware:

~$ sudo dmidecode -s system-product-name
MacBook4,1

Linux: Ubuntu 8.10 RC

A dualhead configuration with xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.4.1-1ubuntu10 does not work. I have tested it with "gnome-display-properties", from gnome 2.24.

I used three different xorg.conf, but none of them
lead to a real split screen configuration:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

1.) The default xorg.conf after installation:

[CODE]

Section "Monitor"
 Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
 Identifier "Default Screen"
 Monitor "Configured Monitor"
 Device "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

Section "Device"
 Identifier "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

[\CODE]

If the external monitor is not plugged in,
the default conf will set the resolution to the native
value "1280x800".

If the external monitor is plugged in, it
will set the resolution to "1023x768" for both monitors
and clone the screen.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

2.) The configuration from the gnome-display-properties tool:

[CODE]

Section "Monitor"
 Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
 Identifier "Default Screen"
 Monitor "Configured Monitor"
 Device "Configured Video Device"
 SubSection "Display"
  Virtual 2048 768
 EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Device"
 Identifier "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

[\CODE]

This works very buggy. The monitors have different resolution, but
its not possible to drag the mouse from one monitor to the other.
Also, the second monitor never gets a refresh, so all output
stays forever on the screen.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

3.) I tried to write my own configuration:

[\CODE]

Section "Device"
 Identifier "Configured Video Device1"
        Screen 0
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
 Identifier "Configured Monitor1"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
 Identifier "Default Screen1"
 Monitor "Configured Monitor1"
 Device "Configured Video Device1"
EndSection

Section "Device"
 Identifier "Configured Video Device2"
        Screen 1
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
 Identifier "Configured Monitor2"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
 Identifier "Default Screen2"
 Monitor "Configured Monitor2"
 Device "Configured Video Device2"
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
 Identifier "Default Layout"
        # singlehead
        #screen "Default Screen1"
        # dualhead
        screen 0 "Default Screen1" 0 0
        screen 1 "Default Screen2" rightof "Default Screen1"
 #Option "Xinerama" "On"
        Option "Clone" "Off"
EndSection

[\CODE]

It didn't work with "screen 0" and "screen 1". It could only clone
the displays.

Regards,
beauman

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Hi jc-lache,

Please attach the output of `lspci -vvnn`, and attach your /var/log/Xorg.0.log file from after reproducing this issue. If you've made any customizations to your /etc/X11/xorg.conf please attach that as well.

[Jens-Christian (beauman)]

Hi!

I did some more testing today.

It is working almost now. It's a bit tricky to explain.
One big problem was caused by compiz.

Without compiz, I could configure a dualscreen,
that worked almost, but 256 pixel in horizontal direction on
the Mac screen were still cloned (two mouse pointers, ...)

Compiz version: 1:0.7.8-0ubuntu4.1

I try to explain what I did step by step.

1. boot MacBook WITHOUT external monitor attached,
compiz enabled and with a std xorg.conf:
Section "Monitor"
 Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
 Identifier "Default Screen"
 Monitor "Configured Monitor"
 Device "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

Section "Device"
 Identifier "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

2. attach external monitor
3. start gnome-display-properties
4. laptop screen and external screen are detected with their native resolution:
 1280x800@60Hz and 1680x1050@60Hz
5. i configure dualscreen. The external remains black
It asks me to set virtual resolution.
xorg.conf

Section "Monitor"
 Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
 Identifier "Default Screen"
 Monitor "Configured Monitor"
 Device "Configured Video Device"
 SubSection "Display"
  Virtual 2960 1050
 EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Device"
 Identifier "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

(Looks correct.)

6. I alt-ctrl-backspace out of X and login again
7. The dualscreen is buggy: the resolution of both monitors is correct
(1280x800 and 1680x1050), but it is not one big dualhead screen.
On the laptop screen there seems to be a smaller screen within,
with a resolution of 1024x768. I can 't move the mouse outside this
area. By dragging a window to the external monitor I can "free" the mouse.
On the other display is no refresh of the background, when compiz
enabled. See the two pictures. On the pictures you can also see
from the background picture, that the desktop is totally confused.

When I disable compiz, the refresh problem is gone, but invicible borders
remain
8. I alt-ctrl-backspace out of X and login again
9. Now it works almost! Both screens have the right resolution.
On the laptop there is still the smaller screen within (1024@768),
but no invicible boardes. The rest of the screen in horzontal dir
 (from 1024 to 1280= 256 pixel)
is a cloned area of the left beginning of the external area. For these
256 pixel the mouse will appear on both screens. The desktop backgound
is still as confused as on the pictures.

[Jens-Christian (beauman)]

P.S.: Everything works fine, if I reduce the resolution of the external monitor to 1280x1024.

[Kehan Harman (kehan)]

I have similar problems and even the same resolution external screen. Disabling desktop-effects (compiz) does fix most of the problems but there are still a few issues. I also didn't get the errors about virtual resolution being too small if I placed the macbook screen below my other screen rather than next to it (actually quite effective - you just need to make sure your other screen is high enough off the desk).

If I leave a window unattended for a few minutes suddenly the characters start appearing quite strange (I've attached a screenshot). Looking into ways of fixing this.

[Kehan Harman (kehan)]

screenshot had wrong (no) file extension. New version attached.

[Ricky Campbell (cyberdork33)]

Make sure that you virtual resolution is large enough to accommodate the resolution of both screens. None of the above configs look to be large enough.

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Xorg_RandR_1.2#the_Virtual_screen

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

[This is an automatic notice.]

We'd like to forward your bug upstream, however upstream requires
that you first test it against their newer driver code.

To save you the effort of building the driver from source, we've built
packages for the driver and its new dependencies.

So you have a couple options:

 1. Download and test .debs for intrepid, from:
     https://edge.launchpad.net/~intel-gfx-testing/+archive

 -or-

 2. Download and test the Jaunty alpha-2 (or newer) Live CD,
     (which includes a beta of the new xserver 1.6 as well).
     See http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/9.04/ for ISOs

Thanks ahead of time! You can simply reply to this email to report your
findings.

P.S., if you wish to forward your bug upstream yourself, please follow
these directions to do so:
  http://intellinuxgraphics.org/how_to_report_bug.html

[Kehan Harman (kehan)]

I've just upgraded to the xorg in the intel-gfx-testing ppa, and the
problem still persists - ie compiz really garbles most of the screen,
and even with it turned off fonts start degrading over time eventually
becoming black squares. I find this works best when setting gnome font
rendering to Monochrome as in the attached screenshot
(System>Preferences>Appearance).

I've also attached my Xorg log file just for reference.

Thanks for this.
Kehan

On Sat, 2008-12-20 at 02:35 +0000, Bryce Harrington wrote:
> [This is an automatic notice.]
>
> We'd like to forward your bug upstream, however upstream requires
> that you first test it against their newer driver code.
>
> To save you the effort of building the driver from source, we've built
> packages for the driver and its new dependencies.
>
> So you have a couple options:
>
> 1. Download and test .debs for intrepid, from:
> https://edge.launchpad.net/~intel-gfx-testing/+archive
>
> -or-
>
> 2. Download and test the Jaunty alpha-2 (or newer) Live CD,
> (which includes a beta of the new xserver 1.6 as well).
> See http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/9.04/ for ISOs
>
>
> Thanks ahead of time! You can simply reply to this email to report your
> findings.
>
>
> P.S., if you wish to forward your bug upstream yourself, please follow
> these directions to do so:
> http://intellinuxgraphics.org/how_to_report_bug.html
>
>
> ** Changed in: xserver-xorg-video-intel (Ubuntu)
> Status: Confirmed => Incomplete
>

[Kehan Harman (kehan)]

Restarting X seemed to fix some of the font issues. (the issues had
continued to persist on a system restart but only went away on an x
restart (CTRL-ALT-Backspac)0 if that makes sense.

My desktop backgound and folders however seem to be limited to my laptop
resolution (but displayed on the external display). And I can only right
click within that desktop area rather than the whole desktop.

Please let me know if there's any further information I can give.
Cheers,
Kehan

On Sat, 2008-12-20 at 02:35 +0000, Bryce Harrington wrote:
> [This is an automatic notice.]
>
> We'd like to forward your bug upstream, however upstream requires
> that you first test it against their newer driver code.
>
> To save you the effort of building the driver from source, we've built
> packages for the driver and its new dependencies.
>
> So you have a couple options:
>
> 1. Download and test .debs for intrepid, from:
> https://edge.launchpad.net/~intel-gfx-testing/+archive
>
> -or-
>
> 2. Download and test the Jaunty alpha-2 (or newer) Live CD,
> (which includes a beta of the new xserver 1.6 as well).
> See http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/9.04/ for ISOs
>
>
> Thanks ahead of time! You can simply reply to this email to report your
> findings.
>
>
> P.S., if you wish to forward your bug upstream yourself, please follow
> these directions to do so:
> http://intellinuxgraphics.org/how_to_report_bug.html
>
>
> ** Changed in: xserver-xorg-video-intel (Ubuntu)
> Status: Confirmed => Incomplete
>

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Jens-Christian, as the original reporter, can you confirm that the bug still persists with the newer driver?

It is possible this could be an xserver or mesa issue - could someone please test on the Jaunty Alpha-2 (or newer) LiveCD and see if the issue can be reproduced there?

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

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.