You must enable it from the BIOS first, then it works just fine in mirror mode, dual screen mode, etc. I've run an external monitor using Gnome and Xmonad without issue. Greg On Wed, Jan 16, 2013 at 12:14 PM, Michael Moore <stuporglue at gmail.com> wrote: > Has anyone gotten external VGA to work on a Thinkpad W530 or similar? > > I'm running Debian and have the latest version of bumblebee installed, which > is working just fine. Pressing fn-F7 (the key with the projector icon on it) > causes the screen to blink for a moment, then come back with no changes. > > The Monitor Preferences list only one screen (I'm using MATE as my desktop). > > > I've tried using xrandr, but VGA1 still says its disconnected. > > > michael at speed:~$ xrandr --addmode VGA1 1024x768 > michael at speed:~$ xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --right-of LVDS1 > michael at speed:~$ xrandr > Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2944 x 1080, maximum 8192 x 8192 > LVDS1 connected 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) > 344mm x 193mm > 1920x1080 60.0*+ 59.9 50.0 > 1680x1050 60.0 59.9 > 1600x1024 60.2 > 1400x1050 60.0 > 1280x1024 60.0 > 1440x900 59.9 > 1280x960 60.0 > 1360x768 59.8 60.0 > 1152x864 60.0 > 1024x768 60.0 > 800x600 60.3 56.2 > 640x480 59.9 > VGA1 disconnected 1024x768+1920+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) > 0mm x 0mm > 1024x768 60.0* > > The monitor is on and plugged in. > > If I can, I'd like to have my cake and eat it too. If not, I can switch to > the nouveau drivers, or even just use the Intel card if that's what it > takes. > > > Thanks, > Michael Moore > > _______________________________________________ > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list >