created: 1217006927|%e %B %Y, %H:%M
tags: 200m ati blog display dual kubuntu linux radeon xorg xpress
First day at work have brought first challenges :). Today I have encountered some problems with the electronic parts of my new workplace.
The main aim was to persuade Kubuntu to use dual-head display with Radeon Xpress 200M on my notebook (MSI). Kubuntu was the only distribution which has never disappointed me, because mostly everything was working fine just after the installation.
As most of users know, using linux on notebooks may cause several problems and issues, fortunately harder to avoid than to fix. Situation wasn't different in this case.
A friend of mine, Gabrys, definitely more advanced linux user than me, tried to fix the dual-head display uncompatibility. Seven configuration of Xorg.conf, different drivers: ati, radeon, mesa, fglrx, nothing wanted to work.
The main problem was caused by the difference in displays' resolution. Built-in monitor has a resolution of 1280x800 and external - 1650x1050. Cloning the display worked, but Radeon wanted to force the external display to show 1280x800 on 1024x768.
By using some strange manipulation in Xorg.conf, we could make extended desktop on two monitor but either with this strange resolution on external monitor, as mentioned above or with a virtual resolution on built-in display, causing desktop to move around, depending on mouse position.
The best what could we do, was to set native external monitor resolution (1650x1050), while built-in used 1280x800, but presented only part of the screen (on both monitors was the same image). Nevertheless, on the external monitor I was able to maximize windows only to the boundaries set to 1280x800. To make windows be visible on the whole screen I had to stretch them manually, which was very tiring and annoying.
Suddenly, Google helped to find solution. I found a way to solve this problem thanks to a post of medievalvent on ubuntuforums.org. You can find it here.
As the medievalvent, I calculated desired virtual resolution (1650x1050 above 1280x800 = 1650x1850).
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "ATI Technologies Inc RC410 [Radeon Xpress 200M]"
Monitor "MSI Laptop Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Virtual 1650 1080
Modes "1600x1200" "1440x900" "1280x1024" "1280x800"
EndSubSection
EndSection
Then I restarted X server and checked settings by invoking command:
gtf 1650 1050 60
And the result included in those commands:
xrandr --output VGA-0 --newmode "1650x1050_60.00" 106.47 1650 1520 1672 1904 900 901 904 932 -HSync +Vsync
xrandr --addmode VGA-0 "1650x1050_60.00"
xrandr --output VGA-0 --above LVDS --mode 1650x1050_60.00
Note that parameter —above LVDS defines how these two display are relatively positioned. If you want different position, you should use "left-of" "right-of" "above" or "below".
By running the last command everything looked fine. Displays were configured correct.
The xrandr command should be invoked every time, when the X server is started. It is quite problematic, so these commands were added as an executive file in .kde/Autostart. I created a file DualDisplay.sh:
#!bin/bash
xrandr --output VGA-0 --newmode "1650x1050_60.00" 106.47 1650 1520 1672 1904 900 901 904 932 -HSync +Vsync
xrandr --addmode VGA-0 "1650x1050_60.00"
xrandr --output VGA-0 --above LVDS --mode 1650x1050_60.00
Of course don't forget to add +x to this file:
squark@msi:~$ chmod +x DualDisplay.sh
Since that, everything is working fine :D
Comments: 0, Rating: 0
created: 1216810191|%e %B %Y, %H:%M
tags: blog
The first thing that should be done to create blog-like is to create specific category (I called it "blog"). To do it, I used address: squark.wikidot.com/blog:first_steps, which is my first post. Of course this page didn't exist, so I had to create it by clicking "create page". That's how I wrote my first blog page.
Ok, the page exists, but what next?
I had to edit top menu by editting page squark.wikidot.com/nav:top. It is obvious that you should use your own page: your_account.wikidot.com/nav:top.
As you can notice, the first position in the menu is: day_by_day.
Code for the link:
[[[blog:_start | day_by_day]]]
It refers to a page called: blog:_start which had to be created. It is the list of all my posts.
Page blog:_start looks like this:
[[module ListPages category="blog" rss="My Blog Posts"]]
+++ %%linked_title%%
by %%author%% %%date%%
%%short%%
[[/module]]
I used module called ListPages to list all pages from blog category. It can be done for each and every category by using parameter: category="name_of_category". Detailed information about using this module and it's syntax can be found in wikidot documentation here.
When I finished creating this particular post you are reading at the moment, the ListPages module added it to a list automatically in every place I used it: on day_by_day page or in the tab Latest on the main page.
Comments: 0, Rating: 0
created: 1216650449|%e %B %Y, %H:%M
tags: blog
These are my first steps in creating my own blog on the wikidot.com.
First of all, I have updated my personal profile information. Then I changed the layout style via admin:manage panel. On my TODO list is making my own layout, but it will be done later.
