how to change which display is used during installation

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

I have an interesting situation, with an older macbook (early 2008)… which currently has a different linux distro installed… the screen is broken so a monitor is plugged in. It is at a location where there is no network or accessible internet.

First screens come up on the monitor, can choose to start the installation, the green bars show up (loading)… but then, the active screen switches to the broken display and the monitor turns into an extension of the first screen (ie. I can see the mouse pointer if I move it to the right, but it disappears to the main screen when moving it to the left.)

So my question is: is there a way to specify that the installer (Yast) use the second screen (monitor) or that the second screen would at least mirror the main display?
I have looked at the Boot Parameters but the only thing about displays has to do with doing a remote install… I may have missed something…

Thanks,
Colin

#2

Not being bothered by any Apple hardware knowledge:

  1. Try booting a Leap 15 live image.
  2. Does the machine have some magic key-combo to switch screens ?
#3

Thanks for the reply!
Macbook is supposed to switch screens with command F1, which didn’t work. I tried a variety of Fkeys and combinations of cntl / command / alt with Fkeys but nothing did the job. I believe this may be os controlled not hardware controlled? (I could be wrong.) That is why I was wondering if the Yast installer has a parameter or key combo for changing or mirroring displays.

Colin

#4

Hi
On booting the install media you need to edit grub by pressing e, then on the linuxefi line add the following option;


video=LVDS-1:d

It could also be vga, would need to fire up the old macbook3,1(2007) to check. It’s not a dual gpu system, just intel?

#5

Thank you so much, I’ll try that.
Yes, it is just intel.
Colin

#6

Source of above: https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/fb/modedb.txt IOW, it’s not specific to installation. :slight_smile:

#7

Hi
If you can see the grub menu, add textmode=1, on my system I also add by default to grub video=SVIDEO-1:d for an old bug (https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=96441) and chvt not working/kernel driver crash, anyway on my macbook3,1 I see the installer on both screens…

#8

Thank you so much Malcolm! That did it. System successfully installed!
Thank you for the help!