VGA1 disconnected

English Hardware
1

Following is the present state of my Lenovo Thinkpad w530;
OS :
openSUSE 13.1 (x86_64)
VERSION = 13.1
CODENAME = Bottle



74xs:/etc/X11/xdm # xrandr 
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1600 x 900, maximum 32767 x 32767
LVDS1 connected primary 1600x900+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 345mm x 194mm
   1600x900       60.0*+   50.0  
   1024x768       60.0  
   800x600        60.3     56.2  
   640x480        59.9  
VGA1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
VIRTUAL1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

Followed the instructions at http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:NVIDIA_Bumblebee and have got Bumblebee working. Hoping this new driver might help with this problem.

How could the VGA1 be enabled and have the external monitor working ?

2

On most, if not all, Optimus systems only the built in display is connected to the Intel chip, the external display ports are connected to the nvidia card. Does this machine have an option in the bios settings for switching graphics mode? Lenovo laptops usually had that, but I’m unsure if that’s the case for newer machines.

3

I don’t know much about Optimus hardware, but maybe the following will be helpful:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/bumblebee

Output wired to the NVIDIA chip On some notebooks, the digital Video Output (HDMI or DisplayPort) is hardwired to the NVIDIA chip. If you want to use all the displays on such a system simultaniously, you have to run 2 X Servers. The first will be using the Intel driver for the notebooks panel and a display connected on VGA. The second will be started through optirun on the NVIDIA card, and drives the digital display.

4

This might also be relevant

http://www.unixreich.com/blog/2013/linux-nvidia-optimus-on-thinkpad-w520w530-with-external-monitor-finally-solved/

It’s Ubuntu-based, but it should be applicable to getting your external display working as you’d like

Basically, in order to have external monitor connected to DisplayPort or VGA, we have two options:

  1. Go to BIOS -> Config -> Display, and set graphics to “Discrete Only”. This will make NVIDIA your primary graphic card, which with proprietary nvidia drivers will make your external monitor to work. However, this also means your battery life will suck. In my case, I’ve got 60-70% decrease in battery life in such setup, so it was a no-go.
  2. As of few weeks now, I have a complete working solution, which does not eat your battery when you’re unplugged, does not require you to reset X or computer when you want to connect/disconnect or any of such inconveniences, gives you ability to connect one or two external monitors to your laptop, and it’s relatively easy to setup.

Needless to say, this blog post focuses on #2.

Good luck.