Gerardo,
This is no Gnome bug, its just a misconfiguration issue with your X
server driver settings. I had the same issue and ran across your thread.
I didn't even know the lcd was continuously on until I checked after
reading your thread. I only wanted the 1600x1200 resolution I get in
windows.
Here is the problem, you had specified
Section "Device"
~ Identifier "Generic Video Card"
~ Driver "radeon"
~ Option "AGPMode" "4"
# Option "AGPFastWrite "true"
~ Option "DDCMode" "true"
~ Option "MonitorLayout" "LCD, VGA"
~ Option "CloneMode" "1600x1200"
~ Option "CloneHSync" "30-107"
~ Option "CloneVRefresh" "40-160"
~ Option "EnablePageFlip" "true"
~ Option "PanelOff" "true"
EndSection
These are the only ones that are necessary
you call the driver to activate the LCD with your monitor layout
options "LCD, VGA"
then you try to turn it off with "PanelOff". Instead just set the
primary (LCD) head to NONE like below.
Driver "radeon"
Option "AGPMode" "4"
Option "AGPFastWrite
Option "DDCMode"
Option "MonitorLayout" "NONE, CRT"
Option "EnablePageFlip" "true"
If you wanted a dual-head setup where the laptop was docked but the
screen was split in xinerama mode you'd use "LCD, CRT" and set them both
up as displays.
Your problem pointed me towards mine- cloned display by default and
couldn't escape the 1400x1050 native LCD resolution.
Just wanted to document this since I found very little info via google.
This is for a Dell Latitude C640 with a radeon mobility 7500 M7 32mb
using a C/Dock II Expansion Station. This is on Ubuntu 5.04 Hoary- a
debian based distro. Should apply to anyone using the gatos drivers.
Regards,
T
Indeed. I argue that:
1) something in the
Gnome startup procedure
ignores/overrides the
"PanelOff" option and
turns the backlight on
-- I regard this as a
Gnome bug, and I'm going
to file a bug report.
2) the above doesn't
happen to you because
your X configuration is
actually screwed, as a
consequence the laptop
panel is disabled,
docked or not.
I tried to fix the X
configuration by setting
"MonitorLayout" to
various combinations,
but the undocked laptop
only seems to work with
"LVDS" as first value,
and if I set that, the
resolution for the
internal monitor is used
also when docked.
Removing options
"DDCMode" and
"MonitorLayout" however
works -- in fact, they
were missing from my
original X
configuration. I regard
this as an indication
that DDC autodetection
fails on this hardware.
Thus we are still left
with the problem with
Gnome, but I've found a
(rather ugly)
workaround. After some
googling, I found a
little program called
"radeontool" that can
turn the backlight
on/off, and do a few
other things. I've
edited it and added a
check on the screen
resolution, so that it
only turns the backlight
off if it matches that
of the external monitor
(if you know a better
way to check whether the
laptop is docked, please
let me know), and I've
set up my Gnome session
so as to run it
automatically at login.
Here's the exact
procedure:
1) remove options
"DDCMode" and
"MonitorLayout" from
your X configuration,
and restart X.
2) compile backlight-off
(source attached;
original radeontool.c
file included as well).
I've set the external
monitor resolution to
1280x960; you may want
to change this number.
3) install it *setuid
root*.
4) add it to the list of
programs to be run at
startup (Applications ->
Desktop Preferences ->
Advanced -> Sessions ->
Startup Programs).
5) put this line at the
end of your ~/.gnomerc
file (if it doesn't
exist, create it): "exec
gnome-session
--purge-delay=5000".
This is needed to work
around Debian bug
#253729 (which is marked
as closed, but it looks
like it isn't, see
http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-list/2004-September/msg00028.html). For me, a delay of 5000 (milliseconds) is fine, since that's roughly what it takes to complete startup; you may want to decrease it.
Now, when you log into
Gnome docked, the
backlight should turn on
for a very short time,
then off again.
Gerardo