[ubuntu-uk] Karmic won't boot with digital projector connected

[Bruno Girin]

On Mon, 2010-02-15 at 10:55 +0000, Graham Smith wrote:
> Simon,
> 
> > Stepping back a little, what happens if you plug a projector in after the
> > laptop has booted and logged in?
> 
> I did try that and nothing happens, ie no signal goes to the projector.
> 
> However searching for "external monitor" rather than digital projector
> on google and Ubuntu forums has shown many people having similar
> problems, with many, like my question to the Ubuntu forum, going
> unanswered.

Graham,

The way I did it last week on a ThinkPad T42 was to plug in the
projector to the VGA port, then go to System -> Preferences -> Display.
I will show a second monitor called "Unknown" and will enable you to
switch it on. It will then advise that it needs to enable something
(can't remember what, maybe randr) and will ask you to log out and log
in again. Once you log in again, the second monitor is operational, you
can set refresh rate, resolution, rotation for it and whether you want
it to mirror the laptop monitor. From that point on, it should all work
and you should then be able to enable an external monitor or projector
in a few clicks whenever you need to.

The only thing is that since I did that, I tend to have refresh
artefacts regularly but it works.

Bruno