Bumblebee-Project/Bumblebee — Issue #60: No proper scaling when connecting an external display
Author: a-rod
Created: 2012-01-26 20:55:21+00:00
State: open

Hi,

I have an ASUS k53sv laptop with an GeForce GT540M graphic card and have been following the Optimus/Bumblebee evolution since summer, mainly due to having problems with external displays.

I have updated Bumblebee to the latest stable release (3.0) and verified that it is up-and-running as expected but I still have problems with my external display, it doesn't scale right.

I am able to run the nvidia-settings as explained in the FAQ but still there are a number of oddities within this context so I have listed them separately below, hope it is ok else I'll split them into separate issues.

1) I can see expected resolution options in the nvidia-settings program but it only detected my laptop lcd (crt), i.e. no difference when hitting “Detect display” button. Should I expect that it detects the external display as well?

2) No matter which resolution I set there is no visual difference (i.e. smaller icons, letters, etc), neither on my laptop display or the external one. Will this only be valid for programs started through optirun or is it intended to serve as a general setting?

3) My external display is set to format auto-scale and typically scales and adjusts accordingly when connected to a computer (verified with other PC:s with various dists) but I get two separate behaviors on this particular computer with Ubuntu 11.10 (and Bumblebee 3.0). If the display is hard-plugged after boot then the display is scaled-up and fills the display but with a poor resolution, with no difference no matter which resolution I set in nvidia-settings. If the display is connected during boot the external display is mirrored with the same physical size as my laptop display, i.e. partial scaling, and no difference no matter which resolution I set here neither. Any ideas or suggestions?

4) I get the same problems both with HDMI and VGA.