Thinkpad T61 and Iogear 4-port USB KVM Switch
Friday November 2, 2007
This, the next exciting story in my Adventures With the Thinkpad T61 At Work (TM) =;)…. So I got a really sweet-looking IOGEAR 4-port USB KVM Switch at work. But when I plugged it into the T61, although the nVidia driver was able to find the external display (auto-detect button thingey), it only gave me 2 options for resolution, the larger of which was 640×480, which obviously is rubbish. So I stumbled across this helpful ubuntu page which gave me the clue I needed:
It would seem that xorg cannot detect the possible resolutions when using the “nvidia” driver. For me, the only resolution I could use was my LCD’s native resolution (1680×1050).
Here’s how you fix this:
1) Make a backup of your /etc/X11/xorg.conf as shown in the previous examples
2) Open /etc/X11/xorg.conf as shown in the previous examples
3) Add the following line to your existing “Screen” section:
Option “UseEdidFreqs” “false”
If all else fails, try running the following command:
sudo nvidia-settings
Under Video Configuration set your resolution and refresh rate, click apply, then save X Config.
I added the UseEdidFreqs as false Option, restarted X, and am now happy once again. Hope this helps the next poor soul who hits this… =:)
Just took a look at your “SWEET Dual-Head Desktop” picture on Flickr.
Mmmm, did notice the _MICROSOFT_ keyboard and the _MICROSOFT_ mouse… 😉
Heh. Microsoft makes nice hardware, I’ll give them that. Just don’t try to run any of their Operating Systems. =;)
Have to confess I’m using the same mouse here 🙂
Thanks for your posts concerning the T61, I’m currently thinking of ordering one, but I do think that I’ll opt for the X3100 Intel chip this time, I’m a little bit tired with the Nvidia closed source drivers (not sure the “black window bug” is solved, was unable to use Beryl last time I gave it a try on my 6600 GT with _only_ 128M and WUXGA).
=:) Actually, the best mouse I’ve ever seen is the Logitech VX Revolution. But it’s at home right now.
And yeah, no problem!! =:) Mine was work-provided, so I didn’t have much choice in the hardware details on the T61, but I get the feeling that the Intel drivers might be a little better than the nvidia ones right now. I fully expect that nVidia will get a good set of drivers out for the Quadro NVS 140m soon enough, but it stinks to have silly problems like this until they do. I can say, however, that everything other than suspend to ram and suspend to disk is working really, really smoothly for me on the T61 at this point. I’d love to hear how your experience goes with the T61 when you get one. =:)