From Bugzilla Helper: User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.2.1) Gecko/20030215 Description of problem: https://listman.redhat.com/pipermail/phoebe-list/2003-February/003431.html In Red Hat 8.0 and previous versions of Red Hat Linux my laptop was able to switch between built-in LCD screen and external monitor with Fn-F7 key. In Phoebe2 and Phoebe3 I noticed that I completely lost this ability. If I change to a text console it works, but the running XFree86 session must be completely killed in order to change from LCD to monitor or vice versa. My laptop is a Sony Vaio FXA36, mobile Athlon with VIA KT133a chipset. https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/attachment.cgi?id=51325&action=view More hardware information. Two other people on phoebe-list have said that their laptop in Phoebe can no longer switch video output. Warren Togami warren Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): XFree86-4.2.99.902-20030218.0 How reproducible: Always
It's probably a good idea to report this to xfree86 as well, since I don't have any laptop hardware, it would be very difficult for me to investigate this matter personally. I will keep an eye peeled for bugfixes however, and provide test packages to try if a patch becomes available. You might want to attach your config file and log file in case they come in handy. Thanks.
Created attachment 90339 [details] XF86Config from Sony Vaio FXA36 laptop
Created attachment 90340 [details] XFree86.0.log from Sony Vaio FXA36
Created attachment 90342 [details] XFree86-4.2.99.902-20030220.1 log for Packard Bell Chrom@ (ATI RAGE Mobility M1) I'm unable to switch between LCD and external monitor on my computer. Video output is always displayed simulatenously on both the built-in LCD panel and the external monitor. Pressing Fn+F3 to switch output causes a little flash but video output still goes to both devices.
Created attachment 90343 [details] XF86Config for Packard Bell Chrom@ (ATI RAGE Mobility M1) NOTE: I have disabled XFS support for X11 but the reported problem is reproducible with standard XFS-based font support and current config.
Date: Tue, 25 Feb 2003 02:31:55 -0500 (EST) From: Leif Delgass <ldelgass> To: xfree86 Reply-To: xfree86 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Subject: Re: Laptop - Lost ability to switch between LCD and Monitor I think it's more of a feature than a bug. ;) Based on your X log in the bugzilla bug, your laptop has a Rage Mobility mach64 chip. Display switching via the BIOS (with the X server's VT active) was disabled for mach64s with dual-CRTCs in XFree86 4.2.99.1: http://cvsweb.xfree86.org/cvsweb/xc/programs/Xserver/hw/xfree86/drivers/ati/atil ock.c.diff?r1=1.14&r2=1.15&f=h (#105 in the CHANGELOG) My guess is that allowing BIOS-initiated display switches with the X server active could cause problems because the driver's cached register state might not be valid after the display switch. For example, if you switch from the LCD to the CRT, the driver would continue to program the card as if the LCD were still active, when in fact the BIOS has changed the card's state out from under the driver. In the revision above, the feature bit for display switching is re-enabled when switching away to a text console VT (assuming it was enabled in the BIOS at server startup), which is why the display switching works there, but the driver disables the feature bit and restores its cached state when switching back to the X server. --Leif
felipe_alfaro said: > Pressing Fn+F3 to switch output causes a little flash but video output > still goes to both devices. My laptop is Fn+F7, but I too have this screen flash when it attempts to switch video output and fails. ldelgass said: > I think it's more of a feature than a bug. ;) Based on your X log in the > bugzilla bug, your laptop has a Rage Mobility mach64 chip. Display > switching via the BIOS (with the X server's VT active) was disabled for > mach64s with dual-CRTCs in XFree86 4.2.99.1: Does this mean we forever lost this ability? It seemed to work in previous releases without crashing, though based upon that description I can see potential for problems...
I'm inclined to leave the decision up to the ATI driver maintainer personally. I suppose there might be a better solution, but I'm not inclined to look for one without having any of this hardware to work with. The ATI driver maintainer or ATI themselves IMHO make the call here. I'll leave this open for now to see what creeps up though.
Unfortunately, this has always been a problem with hotkey switching interacting with the saved register state. There are no easy solutions to this problem since it is BIOS specific. There are a few laptops that correctly save and restore all state, but most do not. I would suggest that you file this bug in the X.Org bugzilla (http://bugs.freedesktop.org using the xorg component), if it still doesn't work with the current release so that it can be tracked. Fixing the problem in a generic way will require involvement of several components working together, which would be need to be coordinated with X.Org.