Dual monitor - problems getting external monitor above laptop monitor

[eudemus]

Hi,
Apologies if this is somehow covered elsewhere. I've done a good bit of searching to no avail.

I'm running 2 monitors from a fresh install of F17 on my Dell Latitude D410.
Monitor 1: the laptop's LCD screen - detected, all fine and dandy.
Monitor 2: an external flatscreen monitor. It's sort-of detected (the system seems able to tell there's a monitor there, but not its resolution, so it defaults to 1024x768. That's ok-ish, for the moment.

My query is this:
I have the laptop on my desk, and the external monitor raised up on a box above the laptop screen. Thus, the physical location of the two is simply that the external monitor is directly above the laptop's screen. So, when I extend the desktop onto both monitors (so that I can - say - put a document, or my email program in the external monitor while I work on a document on the laptop screen), the most natural arrangement for me would be to mirror the physical arrangement of the monitors.

If I do this in system settings > display, moving monitor2 to be above monitor1, I get odd results. I can't move any windows up onto the second monitor, except occasionally they will snap into a position where all that is visible of the window is a tiny strip down the right hand side of the external monitor. I also find that on this arrangement, I have to move the mouse right up to the top left of the external monitor in order to see my open windows.

The only stable arrangement I've found is to have the external monitor arranged (in system settings > display) as though it were to the right of my laptop monitor. This is sort-of workable, and maybe I'll get used to it, but it's quite irritating:
(1) I frequently move the mouse to the wrong place because the settings for the relative positions of the monitors are unable to match their actual physical location.
(2) since the scroll bar is on the right of the screen, I frequently have problems using scroll bars on monitor 1 because the mouse drifts out onto monitor 2. Q annoying.

There MUST be a way to position a second monitor above the first.
But I can't work it out.

I'd be SOOOOO grateful for any advice anyone can offer (or direct me to).
Best wishes, Eudemus

p.s. sorry for the long post.

[cazo]

To see what you are talking about, I just hooked up my other display to my laptop.

I have to make my external display be the primary (by temporarily turning off the laptop screen), then I can place it on top of the laptop display & drag windows there. Of course, that makes gnome bar show up on the external. I think if it's on the lower (laptop) screen, it's what preventing you from moving windows up (I tried too).

As to your monitor not being detected properly, I ran into the same problem when I tried to use a VGA extension cable for my external display (I think I need an XVGA) - which is why I don't have it hooked up to my laptop normally.

Here's the output from xrandr in this configuration (but I used Settings, Displays) to set it.

Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1920 x 1848, maximum 8192 x 8192
VGA-0 connected 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 477mm x 268mm
   1920x1080      60.0*+
   1680x1050      60.0  
   1680x945       60.0  
   1400x1050      74.9     60.0  
   1600x900       60.0  
   1280x1024      75.0     60.0  
   1440x900       75.0     59.9  
   1280x960       60.0  
   1366x768       60.0  
   1360x768       60.0  
   1280x800       74.9     59.8  
   1152x864       75.0  
   1280x768       74.9     59.9  
   1024x768       75.0     70.1     60.0  
   1024x576       60.0  
   800x600        72.2     75.0     60.3     56.2  
   848x480        60.0  
   640x480        75.0     72.8     66.7     60.0  
   720x400        70.1  
LVDS connected 1366x768+0+1080 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 344mm x 193mm
   1366x768       60.0*+
   1280x720       59.9  
   1152x768       59.8  
   1024x768      120.1     60.0     59.9  
   960x720       120.0  
   928x696       120.1  
   896x672       120.0  
   800x600       120.0     60.3     59.9     56.2  
   848x480        59.7  
   700x525       120.0  
   720x480        59.7  
   640x512       120.0  
   640x480       120.0     59.9     59.4  
   512x384       120.0  
   400x300       120.6    112.7  
   320x240       120.1  
HDMI-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

[eudemus]

Wonderful reply, cazo. That's sorted the alignment of the screens (though whether I'll have to do that every time I boot up ... that's another matter, but it didn't take long). Thank you for that.

My xrandr output is mystifying to me. I can't even tell which of these the system thinks it's using. According to system settings > display, both my monitors have only 1024x768 and 800x600 resolution options, and both are using the former. My external appears there as "Unknown", so perhaps that's the "unknown connection" from xrandr? But I'd have guessed apart from that that the laptop's own screen was "Screen0" and that the external monitor was "VGA1".

It's not a cable thing, I'm pretty sure - the instructions for the monitor don't mention XVGA, only VGA.

Any idea how I could force the system to recognise the actual resolutions supported by these monitors? I fear I may be into xorg.conf territory (again! - I keep hoping I'd have left all that behind!)

Best, Eudemus

---------- Post added at 11:46 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:46 AM ----------

Oh, the xrandr output was this:


Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1024 x 1536, maximum 4096 x 4096
LVDS1 connected 1024x768+0+768 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 246mm x 184mm
1024x768 60.0*+
800x600 60.3 56.2
640x480 59.9
VGA1 connected 1024x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
1024x768 60.0*
800x600 60.3 56.2
848x480 60.0
640x480 59.9
DVI1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
TV1 unknown connection (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
848x480 59.9 +
640x480 59.9 +
1024x768 59.9
800x600 59.9

[cazo]

Once you hit "Apply" in Settings, Displays it should keep. At least, that's the way I remember it (it could have been F14, F15 or F16, though).

I think getting the resolutions may depend on which video driver your using (both system & X). I'm using an ATI Radeon (clean install) & it 'just worked' for me, so I don't know how you can fix it. I do have some vague memories of editing xorg.conf (and whatever it was called before). In fact, I don't even have an xorg.conf file.

I guess about the only thing I can recommend is to look through /var/log/Xorg.0.log and see what the probes picked up. Sorry.

[eudemus]

I've managed to sort out the resolution things with the help of these bits of advice:

http://tech.isatya.in/post/909031693...een-resolution
http://tech.isatya.in/post/909031693...een-resolution

Thankfully neither involved xorg.conf!
I'll hope you're right about "apply" preserving changes through shutdown/restart.

[droidhacker]

Just an FYI: What is going on is that the graphics card is not able to pull a sane EDID from your VGA monitor. Because of this, it is neither able to identify the monitor "unknown", nor the proper resolution, hence 1024x768.

Graphics drivers are growing so quickly lately, that breaking things like communications with ancient analog monitors (which probably aren't tested very frequently) do tend to happen.

As for the inability to drag things over the bottom monitor, I believe that's been addressed... yes, its the gnome shell panel that is blocking you. It acts like a barrier for window movements.

[eudemus]

Yep - it is indeed an EDID issue, and the monitor is not so much ancient as budget end of the market!

Thanks all for your help. Much appreciated. This seems to be sorted to my satisfaction now.