enabling external display

[r3koob]

I have a Toshiba 2805-5201 with the latest Knoppix loaded on HD. I am pretty new to the linux OS and this is my first taste of Knoppix. I am trying to use this computer to play movies on the TV and for some reason with this distro the Fn-F5 key doesn't switch over to the external monitor or TV as it would be. Is there something I can do to get this enabled? it is not a VGA output, it is the Toshiba audio/video plug to RCA cable that I need to use. Thanks in advance,

[krishna.murphy]

I have a Toshiba 2805-5201 with the latest Knoppix loaded on HD.

HD-install is a tricky subject. See p.s. below.*

I am pretty new to the linux OS and this is my first taste of Knoppix. I am trying to use this computer to play movies on the TV and for some reason with this distro the Fn-F5 key doesn't switch over to the external monitor or TV as it would be. Is there something I can do to get this enabled? it is not a VGA output, it is the Toshiba audio/video plug to RCA cable that I need to use. Thanks in advance,

Since different manufacturers use different keystroke combos (my Gateway laptop has Fn-F4 as the means to switch on the S-video output) to activate external monitors (and other stuff as well), it's often best to use the menus to make changes like this. Try Preferences-System Settings-Display and let us know how it works.

Cheers!
Krishna

p.s. *How was this accomplished? The "Knoppix HD install" item on the Preferences menu? This is usually taken to be a special-case maneuver, mostly for people who want to re-master, or create their own version of Knoppix. Far better to do a poor-man's install, e.g.

knoppix tohd=/dev/sda1

or use the flash-install script; see the posts by Capricorny here and here for detailed explanations and how-tos on HD-install.

[Capricorny]

To me, the handling of external monitors seems to be a somewhat sad story in Knoppix 6.2.*. In 6.0.1, it seemed as every combination I tried just worked, now it's more like try out and hope for the best, find workarounds as you go. Every PC/screen combination seems to be a little different, I think I have about as many adaptations as use situations now - and they are a few. And for handling this adequately in a permanent install, I would say go Debian (or Ubuntu, in my view basically a Debian derivative) .

In the general case, I have found I have to choose one display at the time, I can't always make it work to switch between them. And, like now, working on a 1920x1200 Benq monitor and an ASUS UL30VT laptop, I had to start Knoppix with the cheat codes no3d screen=1920x1200. That is, drop Compiz, and forget about using the computer screen and the external display interchangably. This is plain VGA, for other outputs I would guess it is even more complicated, and rather hardware-dependent. And because this behavior has changed so much between releases, I haven't thought it worthwhile to dig deeper into it. Going all the way down to hardware detection, initialization and graphics drivers would be necessary, I guess. Otherwise, any working hack found might just be nullified in the next release.

[r3koob]

I didn't have a hard time installing to HD, it seemed pretty straight forward and went pretty well. I looked at the "Preferences-System Settings-Display" but there is no "system settings, or display settings." I looked at monitor settings but thats just the pixel setting for the laptop monitor. I went with Knoppix because of the "smaller" install and use of limited RAM availible. I have Ubuntu loaded on another laptop and like it but when I try to install on this computer it runs slow and the video is choppy on the TV. This version of Knoppix works well on this computer, it boots fast and funs smooth but the ability to switch to the external video output is a downfall. I would switch to the alt video output perminitly if thats an option, I jsut don't know what to do to get it to switch. the computer runs well with Knoppix on it but I really need it to work with the external video output... any ideas?

[krishna.murphy]

I didn't have a hard time installing to HD, it seemed pretty straight forward and went pretty well. I looked at the "Preferences-System Settings-Display" but there is no "system settings, or display settings." I looked at monitor settings but thats just the pixel setting for the laptop monitor. I went with Knoppix because of the "smaller" install and use of limited RAM availible. I have Ubuntu loaded on another laptop and like it but when I try to install on this computer it runs slow and the video is choppy on the TV. This version of Knoppix works well on this computer, it boots fast and funs smooth but the ability to switch to the external video output is a downfall. I would switch to the alt video output perminitly if thats an option, I jsut don't know what to do to get it to switch. the computer runs well with Knoppix on it but I really need it to work with the external video output... any ideas?

Perhaps if you boot off the CD, you'll get something better. Then, as mentioned elsewhere, you can look at (or better, copy) what is done with all of the faculties of live-Knoppix.

Cheers!
Krishna

[Capricorny]

If you did an ordinary HD install, some of the autodetection and adaptation faculties of Knoppix may have been reduced. I don't know how it is now, but I experienced something of that with HD installs of Knoppix5.X. In your situation, apart from doing a poor man's install and running from that, I think I would have checked Ubuntu, Mandriva and possible other live distros, and if they tackled the external monitor problems, I would have tried to find out how they did it. It may have to do both with hardware detection, module loading and Xorg configuration. And my experience is that Knoppix now, generally, needs to have the external monitor resolution specified at bootup.