[ubuntu-uk] Screen resolution problems on dual-monitor setup

[Jim Price]

Hi James,

On 11/08/11 10:14, James Morrissey wrote:
> - Asus A6Rp; Asus A6 series entertainment notebook

Rats - the ASUS page with the spec on it isn't working in Firefox or 
Chromium...

It should be here:

<http://support.asus.com/knowledge.aspx?SLanguage=en&p=3&s=41&m=A6Rp&os=&hashedid=aHR4WKHzgC0UPCGP>

but the link doesn't work.

> - I had a look in Bios but couldn't work out how to set any of this.
> In the Bios the only seemingly relevant header was under 'Display' -->
> Dsiplaye Settings --->  Video Devices. There the option was set to "LCD
> + CRT", and the options were to set it to "LCD only" or "CRT only".

Best leave that alone then.

> Could you give me some idea of where i might look so that i can fiddle
> with the memory settings?

I would expect that if there is a setting for it, it would be labelled 
something like "Graphics UMA shared memory", but the BIOS is not bound 
to have that setting - it depends on how Asus designed the machine.

>
> One more things, from google i managed to find the following, i am not
> sure if it is of any use:
>
> "lspci -v -s `lspci |grep VGA|awk {'print $1'}" into the terminal returns:

Good stuff - I was going to suggest something similar.

> 01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RC410 [Radeon
> Xpress 200M] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
> 	Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 1392
> 	Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 17
> 	Memory at c0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
> 	I/O ports at 9800 [size=256]
> 	Memory at fe1f0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
> 	Expansion ROM at fe1c0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
> 	Capabilities:<access denied>
> 	Kernel driver in use: radeon
> 	Kernel modules: radeon, radeonfb

OK, looks like it is using 256MB memory, so there is no problem with the 
amount of video memory for the resolutions you are trying to get.

> Regarding Colin's suggestion:
>
> This is the method I use to configure my laptop with an external
> monitor (different graphics to the OP of course).  The fact that this
> appears to be working initially, but with odd effects, suggests to me
> that you have successfully configured the system to use both monitors
> in the different resolutions and that the problems you are seeing are
> due to something else.  I suspect that if you achieve the same results
> by hand, so to speak, with one of the other methods, you may still run
> into the strange after effects.   Have you tried running the Classic
> interface instead of Unity?  Also try switching off special effects.
> This may throw light on the cause of the problem.
>
> - The problem persists even in the classic desktop. That said, what
> would be the settings, in Natty, for no desktop effects?

It should be possible to select something like "GNOME desktop - no 
effects" as you login. Once you've selected your login name, check the 
bottom of the scree for a dropdown box which allows you to select that 
option (or similar). I've seen the borderless windows effect on several 
ATI graphics cards when desktop effects are enabled, and turning them 
off like that frees up graphics resources and usually makes things work 
properly.

> I ask as that
> option has been removed from the 'Appearance' application. All the
> desktop effects are now set through CCSM now, i think. As such what
> would be the CCSM settings for no advanced effects?
>
> Thanks for all the advice,