ASUS M6000: dual head & upgrade to fedora 8

[dhhb2304]

Since my message earlier was sent in HTML-format, I repeat it here as 
text: (sorry for the inconvenience)

I have an Asus M6000 laptop that gives me two problems:
*1. *when attaching a separate monitor to the VGA-slot on the back, I 
get a copy of the picture I see on the laptop screen (as it should!). 
Then, as root I enter into monitor management (sorry, my F7 is in Dutch, 
so the correct term is probably different in English) and activate dual 
head, giving the screen size and resolution of the external monitor. 
after OK, I get the order to restart X for the change to take effect. 
After having done this by logging out and again logging in, the laptop 
screen remains black and only the external monitor shows a picture. 
After restarting the laptop without the external monitor all is back as 
it used to be.
The video card in this laptop is a ATI Technologies RV350 [Mobility 
Radeon 9600 M10]
Has anybody an idea how to use the external monitor in order to enable 
an extended desktop?
I have tried to see whether I could change /etc/X/xorg.conf but did not 
find a way to do this.
I hoped fedora 8 would solve this problem, but see below:

2. I have downloaded fedora 8, burned this on a disk and used the disk 
to install on a desktop. No problem. I took the same disk to my Asus 
(dual boot with Windows XP) and started up from the disk and chose the 
option "upgrade an existing system". the system began collecting 
installed packages end thereafter checking dependencies. about 40% 
through this the system hangs completely (no mouse action either) and 
only using the on/off button  of the laptop gives any result.

B.

[Kai-Thorsten Hambrecht]

Hello,
> I have downloaded fedora 8, burned this on a disk and used the disk
>
> to install on a desktop. No problem. I took the same disk to my Asus
> (dual boot with Windows XP) and started up from the disk and chose the
> option "upgrade an existing system". the system began collecting
> installed packages end thereafter checking dependencies. about 40%
> through this the system hangs completely (no mouse action either) and
> only using the on/off button  of the laptop gives any result.

maybe you should see Redhat Bugzilla:
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=372011

but in F8 there is also an issue with dual-head on ATI cards. See:
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=374901

Kai.

[dhhb2304]

Kai-Thorsten Hambrecht schreef:
> Hello,
> > I have downloaded fedora 8, burned this on a disk and used the disk
> >
> > to install on a desktop. No problem. I took the same disk to my Asus
> > (dual boot with Windows XP) and started up from the disk and chose the
> > option "upgrade an existing system". the system began collecting
> > installed packages end thereafter checking dependencies. about 40%
> > through this the system hangs completely (no mouse action either) and
> > only using the on/off button  of the laptop gives any result.
>
> maybe you should see Redhat Bugzilla:
> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=372011
>
> but in F8 there is also an issue with dual-head on ATI cards. See:
> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=374901
>
> Kai.

Thanks. After reading through the items posted for bug 372011 (=upgrade 
to F8), I decided to stick with F7 and wait for a new iso-image (or F9...).
Especially since the dual-head problem seems as yet unresolved, also in F8.
B.

ASUS M6000: dual head & upgrade to fedora 8: Solution?!

[dhhb2304]

dhhb2304 schreef:
> Kai-Thorsten Hambrecht schreef:
> > Hello,
> > > I have downloaded fedora 8, burned this on a disk and used the disk
> > >
> > > to install on a desktop. No problem. I took the same disk to my Asus
> > > (dual boot with Windows XP) and started up from the disk and chose the
> > > option "upgrade an existing system". the system began collecting
> > > installed packages end thereafter checking dependencies. about 40%
> > > through this the system hangs completely (no mouse action either) and
> > > only using the on/off button  of the laptop gives any result.
> >
> > maybe you should see Redhat Bugzilla:
> > https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=372011
> >
> > but in F8 there is also an issue with dual-head on ATI cards. See:
> > https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=374901
> >
> > Kai.
>
> Thanks. After reading through the items posted for bug 372011 
> (=upgrade to F8), I decided to stick with F7 and wait for a new 
> iso-image (or F9...).
> Especially since the dual-head problem seems as yet unresolved, also 
> in F8.
> B.

My statement here above  was after all not satisfactory to me, so I 
tried to find a solution anyhow. Success obviously is the joint effort 
of inspiration and transpiration...

A. Upgrade: I got it working! The reason nothing happened at first when 
I gave, after hitting the ESC-key, the boot command:
updates=http://katzj.fedorapeople.org/updates-f8-yumloop.img
was simple: as usual I relied on the wireless connection. But at 
start-up of the F8 DVD there is no wireless connection yet. After 
plugging in the Ethernet cable and again booting the DVD the upgrade 
started and after about 2 hours was complete. A few personal settings 
were lost in the upgrade, but it definitely is less work than installing 
completely new and then apply the personal settings.

B. Dual head: I got it working also by using the right items in 
/etc/X11/xorg.conf after installing the necessary driver by the command:
yum install kmod-fglrx

My copy of xorg.conf is:
=========
# Xorg configuration created by system-config-display

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Multihead layout"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" LeftOf "Screen1"
    Screen      1  "Screen1" 0 0
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Synaptics" "CorePointer"
    Option        "Xinerama" "on"
    Option        "Clone" "off"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier  "Keyboard0"
    Driver      "kbd"
    Option        "XkbModel" "pc105"
    Option        "XkbLayout" "us"
    Option        "XkbVariant" "intl"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier  "Synaptics"
    Driver      "synaptics"
    Option        "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
    Option        "Protocol" "auto-dev"
    Option        "Emulate3Buttons" "yes"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
    Option "RandR" "on"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier   "Monitor1"
    VendorName   "Monitor Vendor"
    ModelName    "LCD Panel 1024x768"
    HorizSync    31.5 - 48.0
    VertRefresh  56.0 - 65.0
    Option        "dpms"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "Videocard0"
    Driver      "fglrx"
    VendorName  "Monitor Vendor"
    BoardName   "ATI Technologies RV350 [Mobility Radeon 9600 M10]"
    BusID        "PCI:1:0:0"
    Screen        0
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "Videocard1"
    Driver      "fglrx"
    VendorName  "Monitor Vendor"
    BoardName   "ATI Technologies RV350 [Mobility Radeon 9600 M10]"
    BusID        "PCI:1:0:0"
    Screen        1
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen0"
    Device     "Videocard0"
    DefaultDepth     24
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     24
        Modes    "1280x800" "1280x720" "1152x864" "1152x768" "1024x768" 
"800x600" "640x480"
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen1"
    Device     "Videocard1"
    Monitor    "Monitor1"
    DefaultDepth     24
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     24
        Modes    "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
    EndSubSection
EndSection
===============

The desktop is stretched now over the two monitors, which was my aim. 
The only thing still bothering me is the resolution of the second 
monitor: 800x600, even though 1024x768 is mentioned in xorg.conf.
Altering the resolution should be possible by using xrandr, but so far I 
have not been able to make the xorg server "see" xrandr.
If I succeed therein, I will let you know. Hope that somebody beats me 
to it!

B.