Dual monitor (w/laptop): external monitor is blank.

Question

Hi! just installed arch for the first time a day ago. Right now what I'm working on is on getting my second monitor running (mostly for development purposes... and movies ^__^).
I'm using Arch64 with the open ATI driver and KDE. Whenever I connect the external monitor, the monitor seems to detect a connection occurred (the "check video cable" message disappears when I connect it and comes back when I disconnect it), and so does KDE. When I open my display settings, it tells me a new monitor was connected and asks me if I want to configure it.
Then I choose to configure and use the two monitors giving the following screens (right now I'm at college testing with monitors in there, thus the low resolution, but behavior seems to be exactly the same):
(EDIT: resized. In case of wishing to read full images, just take the "resized/" out of the URI)
However pretty the full screenshot looks like (... I just mean that even if it looks like the second monitor is working), the monitor remains blank.
Using arandr (xrandr's gui), it is exactly the same result. I might be doing something wrong (almost certainly I am ) (EDIT: decided it was a good idea to show what I did with xrandr).
In /home/<myuser>/.xinitrc my file looks like this:
#!/bin/sh
# ~/.xinitrc
# Executed by startx (run your window manager from here)
xrandr --output VGA-0 --mode 1440x900 --pos 1600x0 --rotate normal --output LVDS --mode 1600x900 --pos 0x0 --rotate normal --output HDMI-0 --off
if [ -d /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d ]; then
for f in /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/*; do
[ -x "$f" ] && . "$f"
done
unset f
fi
exec ck-launch-session startkde
# exec gnome-session
# exec startkde
# exec startxfce4
# ...or the Window Manager of your choice
The laptop's model is Toshiba Satellite L775d. I'm not sure what other information should be required in this situation, but I will be loving to give anything that isn't compromising
Thank you!
(PS: so far Arch has treated me nicely let's see for how long)
Last edited by Mamsaac (2012-03-16 12:24:27)

Answer 1

Thank you for your response!
# xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 3040 x 900, maximum 8192 x 8192
VGA-0 connected 1440x900+1600+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 410mm x 256mm
1440x900 59.9*+
1280x1024 75.0 60.0
1280x960 60.0
1152x864 75.0
1024x768 75.1 60.0
832x624 74.6
800x600 75.0 60.3
640x480 75.0 60.0
720x400 70.1
LVDS connected 1600x900+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 382mm x 214mm
1600x900 60.1*+
1440x900 59.9
1280x854 59.9
1280x800 59.8
1280x720 59.9
1152x768 59.8
1024x768 59.9
800x600 59.9
848x480 59.7
720x480 59.7
640x480 59.4
I wondered the same. I initially only used KDE for it (that's how it worked in other distros, but I'm guessing Fedora and Kubuntu have way more stuff on top). I moved to xrandr later after searching for options and I did select "Ignore" when KDE asked me to configure and just went ahead with xrandr. The same still happens.
Thanks, I hope I gave the right information.
EDIT: Adding some extra information. I tried rebooting with the CRT cable connected. When the kernel initiated its loading, the messages only appeared on the external monitor. It was afterwards (it was pretty quick, but I will assume it was when radeon's modeset hit) that the external monitor went blank again and, in that situation, the laptop's monitor went blank (so none of the two monitors worked... and I was so hopeful!)
Last edited by Mamsaac (2012-03-16 12:14:51)