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having problems with my new lenovo x230 - using dual montiors, only vga registers anything. This has the Intel graphics controller : 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Ivy Bridge Graphics Controller (rev 09)

TO get it to even boot, had to add the nomodeset parameter to the kernel. Otherwise will not even start up X

Ive upgraded my kernel to the latest 3.6 with no difference. The display section reads the monitor as the only display and labels it as laptop. Cant seem to get it to work!

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Aaron
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  • Ive made some progress for anyone who is in the same boat! The folks over at arch had some starting points: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Intel. Key points are that nomodeset will break the dual monitors, as KMS (kernel mode setting) is required. So eureka - this solves one problem, which is xrandr not showing the devices. – Aaron Sep 24 '12 at 14:04
  • However, it still leaves an issue with starting up with multiple monitors. The error message shows up : [drm:drm_crtc_helper_set_config] ERROR failed to set mode on [CRTC:7]. Ive managed to partially overcome this by preloading the drivers for intel_agp and i915. Do something like : sudo vi /etc/initramfs-tools/modules and add both i915 and intel_agp in there. Save and then run update-initramfs -u to add these to your setup. This allows me to boot into lightdm/unity, although it uses the laptop screen resolution (1366x768). Changing with xrandr causes a boot out to lightdm... Thoughts? – Aaron Sep 24 '12 at 14:18
  • well it turns out if you unplug the second monitor hooked up to HDMI2 (via the displayport) the resolution on VGA1 is now able to be changed to native, which in my case is 1680x1050 on a Samsung B2240. – Aaron Sep 24 '12 at 17:27
  • So here is where things stand - I can get a single monitor working, but if i plug in a second to the displayport on the dock: a) the first screen drops in resolution to the laptop native b) the second screen still dosent light up or anything.

    At this point I am attributing this to a failure of the intel driver for the i915 right now. Anyone have thoughts on anything else to try?

     – Aaron Sep 24 '12 at 19:33
  • Update! Tried various ppa's, https://launchpad.net/~glasen/+archive/intel-driver, https://launchpad.net/~xorg-edgers/+archive/ppa, https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-x-swat/+archive/x-updates with no love. Removed all with ppa-purge and started fresh. – Aaron Sep 28 '12 at 14:40
  • Final update - can get occasional dual screen by: 1)putting agpgart, intel_agp, drm, and i915 in the /etc/initramfs-tools/modules 2) installing newer 3.5 or 3.6 kernel (3.5.0-15 seems to work) 3) booting with only display port plugged in. DO NOT use nomodeset or other options to turn off KMS 4) once booted and in, logged in, plug in VGA 5) Change settings in display (top right) and everything lights up and works correctly sometimes. I also get kernel panics and lockups on boot from this occasionally, and sometimes no screens light up on boot. But at least 60% of the time both screens work! – Aaron Sep 28 '12 at 14:40
  • this is all using a stock 12.04 with a new kernel, and lots of fiddling. New intel drivers do not fix the problem. Hopefully they will eventually get these working correctly. – Aaron Sep 28 '12 at 14:46

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