Xorg, Dual Head and Dell D630

Having the dual head working properly on Linux is a pain in the ass. Especially when your laptop comes with an Intel card.

For an unknown reason using the latest stable intel drivers of the Gentoo linux distribution, getting the DVI output of the docking station working is not possible ; you have to unmask the intel drivers package to get it work. Unfortunately, even with the last drivers, it fails to detects video modes of the DELL 2007WFP flat screen It detects a wrong 1680x1050 video mode (59Hz instead of the required 60Hz). Even worse, this video mode is not selected by default and only detected if X starts while the laptop is docked. To solve this, a ad-hoc xorg.conf file must be setup :

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "dvi"
Option "PreferredMode" "1680x1050@60"
Option "Position" "1280 0"
Modeline "1680x1050@60" 147.14 1680 1784 1968 2256 1050 1051 1054 1087 -HSync +Vsync
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "lcd"
Option "LeftOf" "dvi"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "i810"
ChipSet "965GM"
Card "i810 965GM"
Option "monitor-LVDS" "lcd"
Option "monitor-TMDS-1" "dvi"
EndSection

Even with this config specials scripts have to be written in order to get it work (this must be launched after the X startup) :

#!/bin/bash
/usr/bin/xrandr --output TMDS-1 --mode 1680x1050@60
/usr/bin/xrandr --output TMDS-1 --pos 1280x0