Gutsy and the new Intel Video Driver

For those of us with Intel Onboard Graphics, that used Feisty you probably used the “i810″ driver for your Graphic needs and probably also needed 915Resolution to fix your resolution problems. I have found that with Gutsy and the New X Server, Intel has a nicer new driver that will work much better and even detected my 1440×900 Resolution without using a special program to set it! First make a backup of your xorg.conf file by typing the following, then reconfigure your XServer

sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf_backup810
 
sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

When it ask’s for your driver, try the Intel driver instead of the “i810″ driver that you used to use. Now restart your X Server with Control-Alt-Delete and if you have problems rebooting then you can always restore the backup from terminal by typing

sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf_backup810 /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Then reboot and everything will be back to normal!

Yes, after much playing with XORG.CONF in Feisty, and giving up, I have discovered that with Gutsy you can have Dual Head Monitors working in No Time. All of this information comes from various sites I have seen on Google, So I can not link back to them all as it took 20-30 sites to finally make this work for me. Anyway Lets Get This Show on The Road!

xrandr Is your friend

In the Older X Server, your only chance at getting dual monitors was through heavy modifying your XORG.CONF file, which I try’d afew times and never got more then a cloned desktop using my Intel Chipset.
After the upgrade to Gutsy, I figured I would try again for my Extended Monitor Delights and found that X has given us a new command line tool with Intel’s new Driver. Let me explain how I Set mine up

Always Backup Conf Files

Ok First, Make a Backup of your working xorg.conf file like

sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg_backup.conf

With Gutsy Comes a new Intel Graphics Driver!

Ok this will give us a backup point just incase. Now Let’s reconfigure our XORG server and use the new Intel driver which i noticed supported my 1440×900 resolution natively and worked much better then the old i810 Driver. So Unplug your External Monitor so you just have your Normal Display on and Reconfigure X. You must use the Intel Driver instead of the i810 driver

sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

Ok, now that we have a new XORG.CONF file, let’s open it and add Virtual Size to the Display area

gksudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Locate the Display Section and Add the Following
Please Note : This is my Screen Settings Do Not Copy Paste the Entire thing, You just need the Virtual Size

Section "Screen"
	Identifier	"Default Screen"
	Device		"Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller"
	Monitor		"Generic Monitor"
	DefaultDepth	24
	SubSection "Display"
		Modes		"1440x900"
#		Virtual         3048 3048    # Just Add this To Your Display
		Virtual        2048 2048    # Anymore then This will Break Compiz
	EndSubSection
EndSection

Let’s Find What Monitors are Being Seen

Now in Terminal Type the Following to Verify your Monitors are there

xrandr

Take note of what it calls your Monitors, Your External is Normally TV or VGA and your Laptop LCD is normally LVDS

Let’s Make It Work

Now to Try To Make it All Work. That should turn on Both Monitors, The only main problem I found is your External will be your Main Monitor and for me I have to Drag the Top Menu bar back to the other
screen after I do this.

xrandr --output VGA --right-of LVDS --auto

If you get a error from this, then you will have to adjust your Virtual Screensize in XORG.Conf, Personally my Resolutions were so High I had to go above the 2048 Values and it broke Compiz.

Please note you will have to change the Names of the Monitors from VGA and LVDS to what names you got from running xrandr

The Best Part turning off the Extra Display

Now the Best Part of this is to Turn of this External Display all you need to do is Issue the Following Command

xrandr --output VGA --off

Please Note : I have play’d with this all night and finally decided with my current monitor resolutions I could not use this and keep Compiz Running. With the 2048×2048 Desktop Limit
but it was fun to play with and if you don’t want to use Compiz this is a execellent addition to your desktop!