Sorry for the length of this: OK, I have a new Dell laptop for work which has the new optimus graphics system on it. However I have that disabled, so it is using the Nvidia 4200M with 512MB vRAM. I have 64bit OpenSUSE installed.
When at work, this laptop is in a dock with a higher res monitor attached, unfortunately the dock doesn’t allow the laptop screen to be used at the same time. Consequently, I require ‘twinview’ to clone my laptop and monitor displays.
Now when I start the system it outputs to the monitor until X starts, where it stops and then outputs only to the laptop display (requiring me to peer into the laptop opened to about 10 cm…!). once logged in, using nvidia-settings I can activate the main monitor and clone the displays. On reboot, the settings aren’t maintained. However, running nvidia-settings as root I can save an xorg.conf file which then clones my screens when X starts, so all should be good. Except, it also means setting up the touchpad etc by hand in the xorg.conf file, but that is by the by.
My main problem is that when I disconnect the laptop from the dock whilst running the screen res can’t be changed in KDE (doesn’t allow any res except the monitor res) and it won’t let me pan around the screen, which means I can’t see part of the screen (including the taskbar). I briefly had SUSE 11 SP1 (but 32 bit) on the system and I didn’t have to use a manually saved xorg.conf and when I disconnected the laptop it reduced the screen res to that of the laptop.
I don’t know what the difference between the two systems is, but 1) if anyone can tell me how to set it up to change the screen res when taken off the dock and/or 2) how to get twinview to clone the screens without running a hand made xorg.conf file I would be grateful. I suspect 1 & 2 are related though…
Thanks for reading this far!