Getting my IBM T43 to give presentations actually took a bit of manual configuration of the xorg.conf file automatically generated by Fedora Core 5. The T43 has a screen resolution of 1400x1050 which is a bit wider than the aspect ratios found in almost all data projectors. Consequently without the following tweaks, the edges of my presentations were cut off.
After installing the proprietry ATI drivers from the http://rpm.livna.org/ web page I editted the device and screen sections of the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. I got this information after a google search. Unfortunately I can no longer find the webpage that give me the clues to get this right so I'm blogging this to add to the general correctness of the web :-)
The key to all this is the "clone" paramter in the device section of the file. This literally makes a clone of your laptop display so what you see is what your audience gets. (WYSIWYAG) Which Is Normally What Is Wanted :-)
Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "fglrx"
VendorName "Videocard vendor"
BoardName "ATI Technologies Inc M22 [Radeon Mobility M300]"
Option "VideoOverlay" "on"
Option "MonitorLayout" "LVDS,CRT"
Option "MergedFB" "true"
Option "DDCMode" "on"
Option "RenderAccel" "on"
Option "MetaModes" "1400×1050-1400×1050 1280×1024-1280×1024 1024×768-1024×768"
Option "CRT2Position" "Clone"
Option "CRT2HSync" "32.4-90.0"
Option "CRT2VRefresh" "60.0-100.0"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 16
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Modes "1400x1050" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600"
EndSubSection
EndSection
Then when I make a presentation, I use randr to set the resolution to 1024x768.
There is one final trick to make it work. After pluging the external display into the laptop I have to logout and restart X.
If the lazyweb can tell me how to avoid this restart of X I'd be most appreciative :-)