OpenSUSE 11.4 - KDE: problem with Dual Monitor configuration

English Hardware
1

Hi to everybody.

I’ve just installed a fresh OpenSUSE 11.4 - bit - KDE 4 and almost all seems to work quite well.

I’ve a problem related to the use of a double monitor, one connected with VGA and the other connected with HDMI.

  • Monitor VGA: HannSpree Hi221D
  • Monitor HDMI: Samsung SyncMaster XL2270HD

When the PC boot with both monitors connected, only the VGA one is powered on: HDMI one remains without signal (on the screen it appears “No signal message”). I can see just the GRUB menu, some messages of the starting system and then nothing more.

If I reboot the PC with only HDMI monitor connected, this works without problems: moreover if, in this condition, after the login, I connect VGA monitor and then I configure it via Monitor Settings window, VGA monitor works too.

Please note that the same hardware works well on Windows Seven and Ubuntu 10.10 - GNOME (so it’s not an hardware fault).

Could someone please help me?
Thank you in advance.

Here below a short summary of my system:

  • OS: OpenSUSE 64 bit - KDE 4
  • Monitor VGA: HannSpree Hi221D
  • Monitor HDMI: Samsung SyncMaster XL2270HD
  • Scheda video: ATI Radeon HD 4550
2

First of all both monitors have sound?

3

First of all both monitors have sound?

@stamostolias: Why do you think that is relevant?

@maurobiffi: Can you supply details about your graphics card and driver.

This console command may help with that info

/usr/sbin/hwinfo --gfxcard

Anyway, I think you’re running into typical dual screen behaviour with kernel mode setting (KMS) drivers.

Some questions for you:

  1. Does it really bother you that only one screen is active during boot?

  2. When you’re in the KDE desktop environment, can you use System Settings to configure your dual screen set up the way you want?

4

@stamostolias: Why do you think that is relevant?

For me is relevant. I want to check his sound.

5

Hi Deano,

first of all, thank you! Here below my comments:

This is the response to hwinfo command:

mauro@linux-22ul:~> /usr/sbin/hwinfo --gfxcard
27: PCI 100.0: 0300 VGA compatible controller (VGA)             
  [Created at pci.318]
  Unique ID: VCu0.vngOn71UNWB
  Parent ID: vSkL.ojbBRYfR946
  SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:01:00.0
  SysFS BusID: 0000:01:00.0
  Hardware Class: graphics card
  Model: "ATI RADEON HD 4550"
  Vendor: pci 0x1002 "ATI Technologies Inc"
  Device: pci 0x9540 "ATI RADEON HD 4550"
  SubVendor: pci 0x1458 "Giga-byte Technology"
  SubDevice: pci 0x21ae 
  Driver: "radeon"
  Driver Modules: "drm"
  Memory Range: 0xd0000000-0xdfffffff (ro,non-prefetchable)
  Memory Range: 0xe5000000-0xe500ffff (rw,non-prefetchable)
  I/O Ports: 0xb000-0xbfff (rw)
  Memory Range: 0xe4000000-0xe401ffff (ro,non-prefetchable,disabled)
  IRQ: 40 (45843 events)
  I/O Ports: 0x3c0-0x3df (rw)
  Module Alias: "pci:v00001002d00009540sv00001458sd000021AEbc03sc00i00"
  Driver Info #0:
    XFree86 v4 Server Module: radeonhd
  Config Status: cfg=no, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
  Attached to: #9 (PCI bridge)

Primary display adapter: #27
mauro@linux-22ul:~>

For me it’s not important to have both screen active during boot: unfortunately, it’s not possible to recover the situation after the system is up and running.

No, it’s not possible: it says that I have installed only one monitor.

Thanks again.

6

Hi Stamostolias,

yes, both monitors have sounds… but I use external speakers.

7

With both monitors plugged in from boot, if I understand correctly, only the VGA monitor will be active when KDE is up and running. I would be interested in seeing the contents of /var/log/Xorg.0.log. This content is lengthy, so upload to SUSE Paste (set ‘Delete After’ to ‘Never’). Just post the link to it here. The other useful info would be the output of the ‘xrandr’ command. Even though only the VGA? monitor will be active, is the other (HDMI?) reported here? Maybe we can use xrandr to configure the desired dual screen operation from a console.

It would be ideal if a dual screen user, (preferably using the radeonhd driver), could chime in here. :slight_smile:

8

Yes, your understanding is correct.

I’ve uploaded the content of the file at this link: SUSE Paste

Here’s the output of xrandr command:
SUSE Paste

I hope this can help you in helping me :wink:

Just a note (I don’t know if this helps): during the system boot, just a moment after HDMI monitor loses the signal, I can see the error message “ata_piix not found” (on the VGA monitor).

Thanks again for your advices.

9

Your Xorg.0.log shows that both monitors are connected and EDID info from both looks ok. This is confirmed by your xrandr results, so its strange the the HDMI monitor remains blank.

What happens if you type this xrandr configuration

xrandr --output HDMI-0 --right-of VGA-0 --auto

Clone mode

xrandr --output HDMI-0 --same-as VGA-0 --auto

To turn the second monitor off

xrandr --output HDMI-0 --off

To make the HDMI monitor the primary display

xrandr --output HDMI-0 --primary

Do any of these work ok for you?