[conspire] help: linux scancode/keycode problem on Dell E6500 ?

[Mike Higashi]

On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 9:51 AM, =JeffH <Jeff.Hodges at kingsmountain.com> wrote:
>
> The terse problem description is: "Dell E6500 fn+f8 switch video mode
> (external monitor) does not work".
>
> Unfortunately, I'm a linux/ubuntu internals n00b. AFAIK/AFAICT, it ought to
> be a tweak to scancode->keycode map(s) and/or X modmap, but from the
> manpages I'm not sure how to accomplish it with the limited time I have to
> try to fix it.

Try this:  Forget about the keyboard and use the xrandr command-line
utility to talk directly to the hardware.

xrandr is short for X.org Resize and Rotate.  It can do freaky things like
rotate the display from landscape to portrait mode on the fly.  In your
case, you can use it to detect available video monitors and clone the
laptop display to the external one. You can optionally specify what
resolution the external monitor should display, in case it's different from
your laptop screen.

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Xorg_RandR_1.2#Using_xrandr_to_do_useful_things

Also check out the xrandr man page.


Mike