Multiple Monitors for iBooks
nevershower writes "I found this while reading MacOSXHints. It's a firmware script for Radeon iBooks that allows them to use monitor spanning! DO NOT run this script if you have a Rage iBook. It might permanently bork your laptop." Borking is bad, especially if it is permanent.
Mmm Bork Bork Bork.
Funny for Muppets but not funny for your laptop
A quick search on Google returned this site.
All things in moderation; including moderation
I have a 14" 700Mhz iBook. Unfortunately it reports "ATY,RageM6" on the Apple System Profiler. Should I risk running the script?
This post says "RageM6" looks like what you're supposed to have to enable spanning.
This one tells you how to revert. Good luck!
Being as the instructions are fairly dangerous to your Mac, shouldn't the driver just be hacked with a Hex editor? Find the location were the firmware is referenced and then reroute it.
Does anyone have a mirror of macparts.de/ibook or post the firmware script? ye ol' German site is ka-poot.
I have a 700Mhz radion iBook, so as soon as I saw this story I rebooted and made the change (it's not so much a script as a list of firmware commands, you have to copy it out or look at them on another machine and enter them by hand). I'm now typing this in on my 21 inch Sony trinitron running at 1600x1200. Works great!
Gotta wonder, though. Apple really has limited the use of this radion chip. They disable this, and it only came with 16 megs of vram. Chip supports up to 64! If it only came with 16 more, it would be a pretty able 3d card (not that it's terrible now, just somewhat underpowered). How much would an extra 16 megs cost?
Narrative
In the same vein, does anyone know if it's possible to use the built in LCD panel on an iMac as a monitor for a different computer (i.e. a "video-in" for the iMac monitor)?
I realize that it is probably a hardware hack, but if anyone has ever done this I'd be interested to hear. One of my major reasons for not getting a Mac is that I can't justify (afford) a G4 standalone, but I don't want two monitors on my desk unless I can use both of them simultaneously.
I'm a lawyer with excellent karma. Something's gotta be wrong.
Since you tried this out, are there any side effects of the change. I read about this earlier today and before the site got /.ed, and followed a link to the previous hack. In it, they said something about DVD Player freaking out, but I don't know if that is in reference to the known problem of the TV out issue or something else. I didn't have a chance to run the commands this morning before work, and wanted to wait to here from other reports before doing it.
Anyway, if you have any anecdotal information regarding side effects, it'd help those of us who haven't done anything yet.
Thanks!
ALL HAIL BRAK!!!
I saw that this might work on the 17" iMacs, and wondered if they can get the GeForce2 in the eMac to do the same thing with it's external mirror port.
m.kelley
life is like a freeway, if you don't look you could miss it.
The term "Monitor spanning" does not apply to macintoshes since you are NOT spanning one screen to multiple monitors.
The correct term is "multiple monitor support" because the macintosh has been built with support for multiple monitors from day two.
Please use the correct terminology.
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
Was easily done, and now I have monitor spanning enabled and working fine. No obvious problems with apps yet.
I only have a 15" LCD so I can't try what happens when the external screen has higher res than the built-in one, but with both displays in the same res I'm quite happy.
(this is on my 700MHz iBook with Radeon chipset).
....and a girlfriend. Coincidence ?
....
Now if I had dual monitor support I wonder if she'd
The term "spanning" refers to extending one singular monitor space across 2 monitors. In essence, you double your desktop space. Mirroring is putting the same desktop across 2 monitors. These are BOTH forms of multiple monitor support. Get your own facts right before you spout off.
I would like to know what success ANYONE has had with this. I would usually dive right into this, but as I hold my iBook dear to my heart (also, when I heard reports of a 500 MHz version dying, the one that I have), I would like to know how well this "patch" works. If it doesn't, no biggie. I'll just keep on saving for my TiBook.
Ha ha
I've got a TiBook. Built in monitor spanning...
Na na na na na na na !
Does anyone really believe that a Mac could be permanently borked? Apple would never make such a crass design error. It would be almost as stupid as not having an eject hole in the CD drives.
(note: this is called irony, and it's a form of humour. I'm posting as AC because of some iDiot moderators that automatically mod down any message that doesn't kiss Apple's ass)
I tried hooking mine up to an old 17" Dell E770P crt monitor that I 'received' from my previous school. The first time I plugged it in, it worked but some pins must be different for macs because it was a purple color. Also, the ibook display wasn't redrawing the lcd properties window when I'd move it. I unplugged the monitor and tried different combinations of plugging it in, turning it on etc. and never got a picture on the crt again. I did however manage to get the purple extended desktop @ 1280x1024 on my new 600mhz ibook.
Does this allow for closed-lid* functionality as well? (That's what I'd kill for in on my iBook)
*Closed-lid mode is when a monitor is plugged into the 'Book, as well as a keyboard, the screen is closed, and machine uses them instead. PowerBooks do this, but iBooks do not.
When your life is no longer your own...
This article refers to TiPBs, but should work fine for enabling dual-head Quartz Extreme on any graphics chipset supported by Quartz Extreme, and should be especially applicable to hacked iBooks since they use the same graphics hardware as my TiPB.
3 0. shtml
http://www.macslash.org/articles/02/08/29/15412
This works like a dream :) Now I have both my little iBook and 21 inch monitor working side-by-side. I wonder if Apple will disable this hack in future versions of the OS, or if they will actually 'turn on' this functionality in the newer iBooks?
k-RAD!
Be aware that using spanning will disable QE. Assuming the iBook is like my (Rev A 667) TiBook, when display spanning is used the 16MB of VRAM on the chip is split into 8MB per display, which isn't enough for QE.
Since this seemingly insurmountable issue can't be solved by software, have you ever contemplated rewiring the keys? I have a soldering iron...do you?
anybody know a hack/workaround for this ? i thought my 2mX would be able to handle extended desktop as it has the two video ports AND nvidia's web site says that the pc version of the 2mx supports this. Apple's knowledge base is also pretty sketchy on the topic. One article seems to imply that it can be done, another seems to contradict it.. i can only get mirroring..what gives ?
A truly long-time Unix user (vs. a "my favorite vendor's Unix" user) would be used to adapting to different keyboards and would get on to truly important personal preference wars, like emacs vs. vi, X11 vs. WM, or the OTBS.
"It is our blasphemy which has made us great, and will sustain us, and which the gods secretly admire in us." - Zelazny
I'm not sure how I got it to do it, but one time when I plugged my PC's 17" monitor into my 700 MHz iBook w/ the Radeon, I got dual-head mode instead of mirroring mode, without a hack. It was really strange. I'd move an app's window off to the side to test it and sure enough it'd appear on the CRT. Must have been some sort of bug.
QE will still be enabled on the ibook's LCD, just not on the external display. i have first hand knowledge of this.
If this works on an iBook, can a similar trick work on the eMac? That's cheap AND has a G4... It's just a thought. (Can't imagine I didn't think of that before)
For the love of God would you shut up about this already!? Your ego is incredible. Do you really think that witholding your piddly $2000 will make Apple stop everything and listen to your moronic AC rantings about key placement on their laptops? Your the ONLY person that gives a rats ass about where the control key is placed and whether the keyboard is on an ADB bus or not. If Apple redesigned their laptops just for you they could gain another 0.000000000001% marketshare. WooHoo! But then you'd find some other infitessimally small detail to piss and moan about for the next 2 years. You are irrelevant.
You remind me of some *ucking 300lb. fat *uck that kept incessantly whining in the computer lab that it was too hot. Never mind that everybody else was comfortable and that he had about 180 lbs. of *ucking blubber insulating his sorry ass. I've never meant this more than now when I say get a *ucking life. At the least get a *ucking PC laptop, put Linux, Solaris or a BSD on it and go away.
ok... the http://www.rutemoeller.com/mp/ibook/ibook_e.html link is "kaputt". I keep getting "www.rutemoller.com could not be found" Can someone PLEASE post the firmware hack or a mirror of the rutemoller ibook page? Obviously a number of people have gotten through and grabbed it... share? :)
setenv use-nvramrc? false
I know this has been discussed for quite a while, but now it's finally a reality. I'm typing this on my 21" Sun (trinitron) monitor at 1600x1200 and have my mail window open and maximized on my 12.1" iBook display (700mhz). Thanks a ton!
Hence the term 'mirroring'. Separate resolutions are only available when mirroring is disabled.