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Enabling External Screen

Another slow week ~ parenting, employment, school holidays and academia do not mix well.

I have the hardware up and running how I want now. My initial build with the projector on the right and camera on the left had 2 problems. Firstly, as previously noted, its preferable to have the camera on the side of the users dominant hand since this will be used the most. Secondly...the PK301 has a small fan for cooling and having this on the right meant that the exhaust heat was blowing onto my neck and was hot enough to be very uncomfortable. So today I've switched things around, tied things off, added extra washers (oh, the technology!) for stability and, apart from the need for a more stable joint to hold the projector in a position so that it is level with the users view, I am reasonably satisfied with my budget implementation. Not $350...about £350 but then I could have bought a cheaper projector (and may well pick up a ShowWX for testing) and come under budget. I still need to add a reflector to allow for quick repositioning of the output, but getting close.

However I am rambling, I really wanted to just make a note of what I had to do to enable my laptops lid to be closed and still have the external screen function :

gconftool-2 --type string --set /apps/gnome-power-manager/buttons/lid_battery "nothing"


gconftool-2 --type string --set /apps/gnome-power-manager/buttons/lid_ac "nothing"

This is rather hackish since the laptop screen stays on when closed but I couldn't find any other way to do this - I'm reasonably sure I don't have this issue in windows - so if anyone can suggest an alternative.....

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