I just tried another monitor (DVI) and it worked fine in all modes. So the problem seems to be that certain monitors are not recognized as a DVI device. The monitor which is not recognized is a Dell SE198WFP flat panel LCD monitor.
Another curious thing is that xrandr occasionally reports more information as if it is "trying" to detect the monitor as shown below: m...@dell64:~$ xrandr Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2880 x 900, maximum 4096 x 4096 VGA1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) LVDS1 connected 1440x900+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 367mm x 230mm 1440x900 59.9*+ 1360x768 59.8 1152x864 60.0 1024x768 60.0 800x600 60.3 640x480 59.9 DVI1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) TV1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 1440x900 (0x3f) 106.5MHz h: width 1440 start 1520 end 1672 total 1904 skew 0 clock 55.9KHz v: height 900 start 903 end 909 total 934 clock 59.9Hz Typing xrandr a second time does not show those last 3 lines. I do not know why those last 3 lines show up sometimes but I think it is more likely to happen just after I have plugged in the monitor. The monitor is a 1440X900, same as the laptop screen so it could be info about either screen. -- [i945] Macbook's DVI out doesn't work https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/420577 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs