[Sussex] external video output

[Steve Dobson]

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Hi Steve

Steve Redshaw wrote:
> I have a Sony Vaio, with Windows XP and Mandriva 2008 (I have not had the
> courage to upgrade or re-install to 2009 yet!)
> 
> how can I get the external video output to work under Linux - on Windows the
> Fn keys will put the computer into the right mode of course, but do these
> function under Linux - I have tried to output to my TV, but without success

It's probably all in the drivers.  There are two types of drivers
available for some video cards propriety one supplied by the manufacture
and those developed by the FLOSS community.  Not all manufactures are
forthcoming with details about how to driver their hardware so the open
source drivers may not operate all the functionality available.

First, does your laptop drive the external video output if it connected
at boot time - not a soft boot, I mean a full power on boot up?  If it
does that is one way to use cope although you may find if you unplug the
external monitor/projector that you have no video at all to play with.

I did play around with the propriety for my video cards for a while but
personally I was not happy.  I was having to switch between kernels and
the propriety didn't like the switch at all.  A rebuild was needed if
the kernel changed for the propriety driver and that was more of a pain
for me than the extra functionality the drivers were offering - I really
didn't need them.  I found that if I need to use my laptop to drive a
projector it was less of a pain to reboot it with the projector attached.

Steve
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