Bug 435679

Me too with a Compaq nx9010, same graphics card.  I can make the external
display work by forcing installation of these packages over the rawhide versions:
xorg-x11-server-Xorg-1.3.0.0-40.fc8.i386
xorg-x11-drv-ati-6.7.196-2.fc8.i386

It certainly doesn't work with these f9 packages:
xorg-x11-drv-ati-6.8.0-2.fc9.i386
xorg-x11-server-common-1.4.99.1-0.26.20080227.fc9.i386
xorg-x11-server-Xorg-1.4.99.1-0.26.20080227.fc9.i386

I suspect the step from the ati-6.7.* driver to the ati-6.8.* driver broke it.

Thanks for the bug report.  We have reviewed the information you have provided
above, and there is some additional information we require that will be helpful
in our diagnosis of this issue.

Please attach your X server config file (/etc/X11/xorg.conf) and X server log
file (/var/log/Xorg.*.log) to the bug report as individual uncompressed file
attachments using the bugzilla file attachment link below.

Could you please also try to run without any /etc/X11/xorg.conf whatsoever and
let X11 autodetect your display and video card? Attach to this bug
/var/log/Xorg.0.log from this attempt as well, please.

We will review this issue again once you've had a chance to attach this information.

Thanks in advance.

Created attachment 296587 [details]
xorg.conf with external display working

Created attachment 296588 [details]
Xorg.0.log with external display working

Created attachment 296602 [details]
xorg.conf -- fails

This xorg.conf uses the "radeon" driver, and leads to a blank VGA external
screen.
Changing "radeon" to "vesa" bypasses the problem.

Created attachment 296603 [details]
Xorg.0.log created when no xorg.conf exists -- fails

I have dropped back to:
xorg-x11-server-Xorg-1.3.0.0-40.fc8.i386, and
xorg-x11-drv-ati-6.7.196-2.fc8.i386

Screen is still initially blank, but now I can again wake it up with:
"xrandr --output LVDS --mode 800x600" followed by
"xrandr --output LVDS --mode 1024x768"

Created attachment 296612 [details]
Default xorg.conf file - external display not working

This is the default file created by system-config-display using the rawhide
xorg installation.  The external display fails to work whether this file exists
or not.

Created attachment 296613 [details]
Xorg.0.log - external display not working

Created attachment 296615 [details]
xrandr output - external display not working

Note that the external display has been detected by xrandr and a legitimate
mode has been selected.  However, the VGA-0 display is still blank.

Update: To roll back from rawhide xorg to a working f8 setup I actually had to
force install a few more components:
The two files in comment 7 plus ...
xorg-x11-drv-evdev-1.1.2-5.fc8.i386.rpm
xorg-x11-drv-keyboard-1.2.2-2.fc8.i386.rpm
xorg-x11-drv-mouse-1.2.3-1.fc8.i386.rpm
xorg-x11-drv-vesa-1.3.0-10.fc8.i386.rpm
xorg-x11-drv-void-1.1.1-6.fc8.i386.rpm
I don't know if all are required or if one of these fixes the external display
problem, but if I don't replace these, xorg crashes when trying to start.

Might be duplicate of bug 435382, but I am not sure about that.

Might be the same issue, but after the xorg-x11-drv-ati-6.8.0-1.fc8 upgrade,
although my X display still works, my virtual consoles are extremely dim. I
thought they were blank at first, but bumping up the contrast and brightness all
the way shows very faint consoles. My virtual consoles were working fine before
the xorg-x11-drv-ati-6.8.0-1.fc8 upgrade, and they work fine until X starts.
Stopping X and dropping back to, say, runlevel 3 has no effect -- the console
displays are extremely dark (detectable, but unreadable).

Just booted this laptop (compaq nx9010, Radeon IGP 340M graphics) with the F9
Beta Live-CD release and I get nothing at all on the VGA-0 output, not even text
output.  xrandr reports it as disconnected, which seems worse than my rawhide
version which at least reports the presence of the external display even if
though it still fails to display anything.  My working setup still requires
these F8 components to be overlaid onto the F9 installation:
xorg-x11-drv-void-1.1.1-6.fc8.i386
xorg-x11-drv-mouse-1.2.3-1.fc8.i386
xorg-x11-server-Xorg-1.3.0.0-42.fc8.i386
xorg-x11-drv-ati-6.7.196-2.fc8.i386 (not the later 6.8.0 version)
xorg-x11-drv-keyboard-1.2.2-2.fc8.i386
xorg-x11-drv-vesa-1.3.0-10.fc8.i386

Ongoing problem with the current rawhide (destined to be F9).  The void and vesa
drivers aren't needed to fix the problem.  So, to summarize the current position:

1. Fully update system to rawhide.  External (VGA-0) display goes blank as soon
as rhgb starts.  Display returns if I switch back to text mode with ctrl-alt-f1

2. From text mode, use "rpm -ivh --force" to install these four F8 packages:
xorg-x11-drv-keyboard-1.2.2-2.fc8.i386
xorg-x11-drv-mouse-1.2.3-1.fc8.i386
xorg-x11-drv-ati-6.7.196-2.fc8.i386
xorg-x11-server-Xorg-1.3.0.0-44.fc8.i386
The last one now also requires --nodeps because mesa-libGL needs the F9 server
package.

3. Restart the x-server using "init 3" and "init 5".  VGA-0 display now works
fine.  Note that using the xorg-x11-drv-ati-6.8.0-1.fc8.i386.rpm doesn't work.

any chance of trying the latest F9 driver?

Laptop fully updated from rawhide today. External monitor (HP L1906) connected,
both displays show text output.  External monitor goes to sleep as soon as rhgb
starts.  From the laptop display I can see that xrandr reports that VGA-0 is
connected and it lists the correct display modes but there is no * against the
1280x1024 60.0 + mode.  Typing "xrandr --output VGA-0 --auto" puts a * against
this mode but the external display remains asleep.  Following steps 2 and 3 in
comment #15 gets me back to a working external monitor (although I still need to
type "xrandr --output LVDS --off" to put the gnome panel at the bottom of the
1280x1024 external display).

No problems with F10 (from rawhide).  Both displays work and are easy to configure with the screen resolution tool.

Reporter, are you still able to reproduce this problem with the latest packages?

Problem was reported on FC8, and is still readily reproduced.  Since reporting the problem, I have installed all updates as they became available.  No change.

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I have not installed FC10 on the affected hardware, but have booted the Live CD and find the problem to be apparently the same as on FC8.  Symptoms identical, workaround identical, by issuing
xrandr --output LVDS --mode 800x600  followed by
xrandr --output LVDS --mode 1024x768

Ubuntu 8.10 behaves the same as FC10, but Windows XP continues to see the external display without apparent difficulty.

Fedora 8 changed to end-of-life (EOL) status on 2009-01-07. Fedora 8 is 
no longer maintained, which means that it will not receive any further 
security or bug fix updates. As a result we are closing this bug.

If you can reproduce this bug against a currently maintained version of 
Fedora please feel free to reopen this bug against that version.

Thank you for reporting this bug and we are sorry it could not be fixed.