External Monitor Working for the First Time

mike-ward

Just an FYI and how I got it to work post.

I have a 34 inch Acer monitor with a windows/corporate laptop setup using display port. This setup works as one expects. However, I have never been able to get any Linux distro to drive this monitor on my hand-me-down 2010 Macbook Pro 15 inch until today.

At first when I plugged in the monitor, it would show the screen briefly and then Solus would lock-up.
Figuring that two displays might be too much for the old girl, I changed the power settings in the Tweaks program to NOT suspend when closing the lid.

Procedure:

Boot as normal with the laptop screen open and monitor disconnected
Login
Close the lid
Plug in the display port cable

That's it. Big, fat happy monitor working perfectly.

Side note: Solus is the only distro, (seriously, I've tried dozens) that suspends and resumes. Every other distro would not resume when I closed the laptop lid and later reopened it.

Not sure what you guys are doing different but I love it.

P.S. Using Gnome Desktop

brent

mike-ward Figuring that two displays mFiguring that two displays might be too much for the old girlight be too much for the old girl

(you mean it's own laptop display, plus the monitor, right)?

That you had the 34" active for a fleeting minute...part of me wonders how old/rickety the docking station is. my partner bought hers two years ago new and already the usb ports and vga get sketchy. We had to get a conversion plugin for one of her vga ports to work...I'm thinking hardware....but...
At least in Windows she can a move when her laptop leaves the screen behind.
So you have Solus Gnome on your Mac.
From everything I've read you need something enabled for Solus to talk to the external screen. I can't imagine this is a driver/kernel problem at all. Does Gnome have DoFlicky?
I'd do a search here at the forum. I think you are close to making this work. If it's not hardware it's something that has to be enabled.

mike-ward

OK, maybe not all sunshine and roses. If I try to play a YouTube video it locks up hard.

mike-ward

Well, dang. After about 20 minutes or so it will hang. Probably just asking too much of the old hardware. Still impressed that it worked at all given no other distro got close to working.

mike-ward

(you mean it's own laptop display, plus the monitor, right)?

correct

No dock involved. Just plugging into the display port. It works well for about 20 minutes if I keep the laptop lid close (disabling the laptop screen I presume) and then the desktop locks up (no mouse, no keyboard).

DoFlicky? Have to look at that one.

brent

mike-ward disable screen saver/sleep/hibernate/doze/etc etc and just kill all powersaving and turn it to never? I know it sounds weird but after 20 minutes and it fails you could rule that (settings) out.

mike-ward

I'll give it a try although I am actively using the laptop when it bonks.

brent

mike-ward doflicky is the graphics card driver manager--probably won't do you much good. If your problem is a straight vga plugin then try a different cable. Or if you have a different cable get an adapter. This happened to me once when one vga port wasn't enabled and the other one was. Pure hardware problem (for me at the time).

edit: but those 20 minutes then the kibosh is the weird part for sure