Questions about supported video projectors in Linux

[hoojchoons]

I hope that some of you guys can give me some help with this.O.k here it goes:

I've got a really important presentation coming up at my University and I really need to know if video projectors are currently supported in Linux.

Unfortunately, I'm still writing my thesis on a Toshiba Satellite 1730 laptop, running Windoze Me. I'd appreciate your help cause I'm fuckin' fed up with M$'s joke of "operating systems"!  :mad:

[voidmain]

All of them that use a VGA type connection should be supported as long as you set X up with the right resolutions and refresh/sync rates.

[hoojchoons]

Thanks VoidMain! I'm gonna give it a try and see what happens because, as you know already, a Linux installation on a laptop can turn out to be a real adventure, especially if you have to use X.   :confused:

[voidmain]

I guess it depends on the laptop.  I have two Dell Laptops and have no problem with either. One is a newer Latitude w/512MB RAM and the Mobility video card and the older laptop is also a Latitude, don't recall the video card type at the moment.

The *only* thing that was a little tricky for me is to get X configured to work with the external monitor when the system was docked in my C/DockII.  Turns out this was very simple as well. And it might give you a headache with an external monitor (video projector in your case).  On the Dell I had to add an option to my /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 file.  Under the 'Section "Screen"' I had to add the line 'Option "Display" "BIOS"' for it to work both docked and undocked.

Now that option is specific to the Mobility video card driver (r128 driver), which has a man page "man r128".  What video card do you have in your laptop?

[hoojchoons]

I've got the ATI Rage Mobility -C, which uses the "ati" driver under Xfree86 4.2.0. Unfortunately, the "ati" driver doesn't support 3D hardware accelaration, but that's o.k since I use the laptop mainly for text editing. I forgot to mention that I recently installed SuSE Linux 8.0 on the Tosh. The installation with YAST2 went so smoothly even a 3yr old could do it. I'd also set up the X server to load at startup and KDE as my default desktop environment. I was really surprised with KDE's (3.0) robustness and stability. Anyway, to cut it short I uninstalled Linux    and reinstalled Windoze ME  :mad:  cos I was very worried about my presentation and all, as it's really important to me.

[voidmain]

I just did a google search and found that other people are using Toshiba Satellites with External monitors and are able to switch between external/LCD/BOTH with no problems.  

The only issue I can think of is a lot of projectors require 800x600 or less on the video signal so you need to make sure you have the lower resolutions defined in your XF86Config.  You can then cycle between the resolutions using your CTLR+ALT+KeypadPlus.  Do you have a projector of the type you are to give your presentation on that you can test with?

And you might want to check this out:
http://www.astro.umd.edu/~teuben/linux/laptop-display.html

[ May 06, 2002: Message edited by: VoidMain ]

[hoojchoons]

Great link! Couldn't be more accurate (Bull's eye as you'd say)!! As a matter of fact, I don't think that my laptop's resolution will cause any problems since it's running on 800X600 anyway (doesn't get higher for me because of the Tosh's crappy 12.1" TFT display    ).

Unfortunately, I don't have a projector of my own so I'll have to use theirs. I'm gonna have a closer look at the projector they're using at my school and see what happens. Anyway, I'm installing Linux later today on the Tosh! Thanks for all your help and feedback once more    !

[voidmain]

Well, my Dell is only capable of 800x600 on the LCD but I run 1280x1024 on my external monitor.  That's where I would be concerned.

[hoojchoons]

Hey VoidMain, I guess that I belong to the lucky ones! I installed SuSE Linux 8.0 from scratch the day before yesterday, hoping that I could get my external 15" monitor to display the video signal from the Tosh. To my great relief, I found that I could use with extreme ease, my Fn-F5 to switch between the two monitors. In fact I was able to cycle between the 3 modes: LCD, CRT and both. Hopefully, I didn't have to use any of the tips from the link you provided but anyway it was great help. Now, I've got to try out the projector but I don't think that it will pose any problems.

[voidmain]

The only problem I can see you running in to is only having resolutions configured for 1024x768 or higher in SuSe and your projector only supporting 800x600 or below. Hopefully SuSe has a nice configurator to help you configure more resolutions. Let us know how it comes out.

[hoojchoons]

Looks like I'm not in good luck after all! Eventhough I managed to send the video signal to my external monitor as I told you, I realized later that I would have to re-edit my paper, as it's not finished yet, in another word processor like Star Office or kword or something.

Unfortunately, that was where I stumbled because despite of all my efforts I couldn't get Star Office to recognize the text completely . The main reason for that was the language (Greek)and the fonts (although that's not a big problem any more since you can fetch Microsoft's True Type fonts to Linux). In spite of the fact, that SuSE supports greek fonts (package xfntgreek.rpm) and also provides a greek translation package for KDE 3.0 (kde-i18n-el.rpm), I couldn't do much about it    .

On top of that, I couldn't get a descent print on my Lexmark Z23 (I'm using Lexmark's drivers for Linux)from Star Office. As for printing from kword? That was even more tragic!! Anyway, I'm going to keep Windoze   :mad:  for the time being, until I finish my paper. After that, it's Linux again or MacOSX if I buy another laptop. I'm still running Linux on my other machine, but I'm mostly working on the tosh? Tough break, huh    ?

[hoojchoons]

Well, VoidMain despite of all my fears everything worked like a charm. I gave my presentation today and fortunately everything went great   . And the best part is that I didn't have to reinstall Windoze as I said I would do in my last post. I finished my paper on a friend's machine who still uses Windoze and I created all of my slides in StarOffice. Thanks again for the input. 5 stars to you       !!

[voidmain]

Great news!  "That's one small step for man. One giant leap for mankind."

[hoojchoons]

Thanks, but why did you quote Neil Armstrong's words? I didn't step on the moon or something, I just gave a presentation! If it's such a great achievement then thanks again. I'm deeply honoured anyhow. Something tells me though that you were being a bit sarcastic as well. If you were, no offense taken. I realise that simple tasks like the aforementioned ones, must be "child's play" for you. Hell, you seem to have the answer to every question posted here, so you've got every right to be sarcastic or ironic  

[voidmain]

I wasn't trying to be sarcastic at all. What I meant was that it was one small step for you into the Linux world and hopefully out of the M$ world.  And because of that it may open the door to one day be M$ free. And because people may have seen the success that you had and try the same thing. Maybe I should have used a snowball analogy instead. Sorry about that.