External display not recognised when booting in docking station

simes · 2018-01-29 13:22

Hello everyone, I discovered Q4OS last week and have been very impressed with it - ease of installation, speed, appearance, and this forum which I have used extensively. I use IBM/Lenovo ThinkPads and have installed Q4OS on several without problems, including on a T430. I see there is another thread here about T430 problems but I had none of the issues mentioned there - Q4OS Scorpion installed easily. I usually use the T430 in a docking station with an external monitor. However when booting Q4OS on the T430 in the docking station with the lid closed (usual method), the external monitor isn't recognised. If I boot it in the docking station with the lid open, I can use Control Centre -> System Administration -> Monitor & Display to recognise the external display and then I can operate as a dual-display setup (not my choice) or use the external monitor only, but to do this I have to keep the laptop lid open (for which I haven't got space!). I have read the other docking station thread here and used Control Centre -> System Administration -> Monitor & Display to create a profile for the external monitor, and set a HotPlug rule to use this profile when the external monitor is found, but it made no difference - still doesn't recognise the external monitor. In this configuration I can use Ctl-Alt-F1 to drop out to a command prompt and that does appear on the external monitor. From the command prompt, systemctl shows that tdm.service is running. So I tried systemctl stop tdm.service followed by systemctl start tdm.service; this causes connection with the external display to be lost and a blank screen again! It looks as if TDM doesn't want to play with the external monitor - but there is clearly driver support for the monitor because the dual screen setup works with the laptop lid open. Any ideas, please?

Dai_trying · 2018-01-29 14:08

I had a similar problem on my Mythtv server which is permanently connected to the main tv and it would not boot properly when the laptop lid was closed, I had to change a line in /etc/systemd/logind.conf to allow the system to boot regardless of the state of the lid switch. Not sure if it will help but it's the first thing I thought of. Uncomment (or edit) the line that says HandleLidSwitch=??? to read HandleLidSwitch=ignore and see if it helps.

bin · 2018-01-29 14:50

I'm probably stating the bleedin' obvious - but you did use the 'Use this device as the primary monitor' check box for the external monitor?

Not familiar with Lenovo docking stations - and I guess there are various models, but are you using the video take off from the D/S or from the laptop itself? Last time I tried this with a laptop and linux was with a Dell a while back - and it only worked with VGA from the laptop - not HDMI and not from the D/S.

simes · 2018-01-29 15:41

Thanks to you both for the fast replies!

I have now tried editing /etc/systemd/logind.conf. There are two lines that look relevant; HandleLidSwitch and HandleLidSwitchDocked. Both were commented out, so I uncommented them both and set them to read '=ignore'. Rebooted, but this change made no difference.

I did create a new profile for the external monitor, checked 'Use this device as the primary monitor' and unchecked using the laptop screen as a secondary so only the external monitor should be used. I am using a Lenovo docking station and taking the VGA video from the docking station port. I know the hardware works because this operates correctly in Ubuntu, Windows 7, and even in Puppy Linux. I will try connecting the cable to the laptop's own VGA port as a test, but it would be a nuisance to work this way regularly.

Putting the two together, the existence of the line HandleLidSwitchDocked in logind.conf suggests that Linux is aware of the possibility of the laptop being docked but as Dai had a problem with his TV server too I wonder whether there is a driver missing in Scorpion.

Dai_trying · 2018-01-29 15:50

simes wrote:

Thanks to you both for the fast replies!
Putting the two together, the existence of the line HandleLidSwitchDocked in logind.conf suggests that Linux is aware of the possibility of the laptop being docked but as Dai had a problem with his TV server too I wonder whether there is a driver missing in Scorpion.

You are welcome

And just to note my mythtv server is actually MythBuntu and as the name suggests is an Ubuntu derivative, I use it as it has the easiest setup, so no Q4OS connection there...

I think my offered suggestion is just an available option for using under certain conditions, and would not likely be used as the default for most users and so normally commented.

jackdanielsesq · 2018-01-29 17:17

Hi Simes

Thinking outside the box here - I love KDE3.5, but also installed KDE5/Plasma as a 'dual-boot' option
It is more polished and is easier to manipulate/configure - it simply rocks - add a couple wobbles, 5x
virtual screens and its full-time rock & rock - its only say 350Meg d/l - you will love it - might fix what
ails yo mosheen .... in terminal ... $ altdeski

Regards

Jack

tlmiller76 · 2018-01-30 02:15

I personally never did get q4os (or anything that uses TDM + TDE for that matter) to work properly on a dock with the lid closed.

Last edited by tlmiller76 (2018-01-30 02:16)

crosscourt · 2018-01-30 02:26

Same experience tlmiller and Ive tried it on a few Dell systems like my D430 and E5410 laptops.

simes · 2018-02-01 11:27

In the interests of science, I can report that I've tried bin's suggestion of using the external VGA port on the laptop instead of the docking station port. You can't actually use the docking station this way because the laptop's VGA port is disabled when it is docked, so it's a case of removing all cables from the dock and cabling the laptop directly - not something I want to do regularly. Cabled this way, I found that Grub supports Fn-F7 so at laptop boot stage I can manually switch to the external VGA display. Then after booting Q4OS, the display switches back to the laptop screen and Fn-F7 is not supported! I imagine I could switch to the external screen again using xrandr or similar utility, but I didn't pursue it because the point is to be able to use a docking station. So I'm inclined to agree with the other responders (thank you all) that the limitation is probably in TDE. I will try Jack Daniels' suggestion of downloading KDE5/Plasma (new to me!) which should bypass any TDE limitation.

simes · 2018-02-01 12:45

OK, done that... I used altdeski and installed KDE5/Plasma. I haven't tried KDE for years and I was surprised how fresh and polished it looked, just as Jack said. However.....! When the laptop's in the docking station, the KDE login screen appears on the external display but there is no mouse and the keyboard is unresponsive (except Ctl-Alt-F1, which curiously did work to get me back to the command line - but I couldn't then start any desktop environment without losing the display). So I think I've reached he same conclusion as others in this thread, which is that I can't get a docking station to work with Q4OS. It's something more than just TDE that's the problem. A pity.

And as for KDE5/Plasma; yes, it's beautiful, but installing KDE is moving quite a long way from the ultra-light simplicity of Q4OS, so it's unlikely to perform well on very old hardware where Q4OS shines. It's very fast on my T430 (core i5), though.

tlmiller76 · 2018-02-01 16:36

simes wrote:

And as for KDE5/Plasma; yes, it's beautiful, but installing KDE is moving quite a long way from the ultra-light simplicity of Q4OS, so it's unlikely to perform well on very old hardware where Q4OS shines. It's very fast on my T430 (core i5), though.

Same machine as one of mine, and yes, mine also runs Plasma 5 by KDE very well. Had been running Q4os on that machine for a while, but I migrated q4os to my much newer Acer laptop.

crosscourt · 2018-02-01 20:43

KDE 5 runs very well and honestly Ive used it on slightly older hardware with no issues. Its not as light as TDE but given the specs of my pc with 8gb of ram it runs great.

I actually run XFCE though as its light but has many features you typically see with full OS.

Q4OS Forum

#1 2018-01-29 13:22

External display not recognised when booting in docking station

#2 2018-01-29 14:08

Re: External display not recognised when booting in docking station

#3 2018-01-29 14:50

Re: External display not recognised when booting in docking station

#4 2018-01-29 15:41

Re: External display not recognised when booting in docking station

#5 2018-01-29 15:50

Re: External display not recognised when booting in docking station

#6 2018-01-29 17:17

Re: External display not recognised when booting in docking station

#7 2018-01-30 02:15

Re: External display not recognised when booting in docking station

#8 2018-01-30 02:26

Re: External display not recognised when booting in docking station

#9 2018-02-01 11:27

Re: External display not recognised when booting in docking station

#10 2018-02-01 12:45

Re: External display not recognised when booting in docking station

#11 2018-02-01 16:36

Re: External display not recognised when booting in docking station

#12 2018-02-01 20:43

Re: External display not recognised when booting in docking station

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