unalbe to switch to external monitor on thinkpad x60

[Khosrow Hassani]

Hi everyone,
I just installed Debian 6.0.3 (testing) on my old IBM (Lenovo) thinkpad x60 laptop. the problem I am having is that by pressing the Fn-F7 combination, I cannot switch to an external monitor.
issuing echo video_switch (or other commands) > /proc/acpi/ibm/video does nothing.
acpi_listen shows an event, but nothing happens.
this has always been a problem for my laptop since I got it 5 years ago. I could never figure out how to resolve it. any help, please?

thanks,
Khosrow

[Bob Proulx]

Post by Khosrow Hassani
I just installed Debian 6.0.3 (testing) on my old IBM (Lenovo)
thinkpad x60 laptop. the problem I am having is that by pressing the
Fn-F7 combination, I cannot switch to an external monitor.

I use the 'lxrandr' program for this purpose.

$ apt-cache show lxrandr

Description: simple monitor config tool for LXDE
This is a very basic monitor config tool utilizing the X extension
called RandR. It can let you change the screen resolution on the fly.
Besides, when you run lxrandr with external monitor connected, its GUI
will change, and show you some quick options to get your projector or
external monitor working correctly.

This tool doesn't aim to be a full randr frontend. It's a utility for
grandma, not for geeks. If you need the full power of RandR, get
xrandr (console) or grandr (GUI) and read some tutorials.

LXRandR only gives you some easy and quick options which are intuitive.
It's very suitable for laptop users who frequently uses projectors or
external monitor and just want to get their work done without reading
a lot of "geek-centered" manuals or command line tutorials.

http://lxde.org

Bob