My Dell Mini Forum

BernDog · **Possible very easy mirroring fix? -** 06-29-2009, 04:43 AM

First post from a satisfied lurker...Thanks to everyone on here for providing the knowledge and tools needed to get os x on my mini9 a few months back.

Shortly after my first install, I was frustrated with the mirroring issue and was mucking around trying to get it to go. Either I hadn't seen the more recent threads on the issue, or they didn't exist at the time. Somehow I managed to get mirroring working fine. I didn't know how. I was just happy because I couldn't get my mini to send a satisfactory resolution to my tv and I was annoyed with spanning trying to see what I was doing on the tv at almost 180 degrees to the side.

When I recently updated to .7, it undid whatever I did. In mucking around again, I fixed it, and I think I know what I did...someone who inevitibly knows more than me, please let me know if this is dumb and something else is at play. Once I turned on mirroring, I got the garbled displays. I unplugged the tv, opened terminal, pugged it back in and did "mirroring off". Typical problem solved. Once I had spanning going, I went back to terminal and did "mirroring on". Voila.

So, to recap (sorry for the longish post), is it possible that I fixed mirroring simply by turning it back on once I was spanning?

bmaltais · 06-29-2009, 11:56 AM

Not sure but possible... Others would have to confirm.

BernDog · 06-30-2009, 02:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bmaltais

Not sure but possible... Others would have to confirm.

I guess that's what I'm looking for. It worked for me. Something did, at least, and I didn't install any other hacks or anything else. I don't really understand the mechanics underneath it all. My experience is just anecdotal, but I was scientific in the manner I went about finding it. I'm 99 percent sure that's what did it. With all the work some have put into finding a workaround, I still have a hard time believing what I did worked. Stranger things have happened, though.

XCNuse · 06-30-2009, 05:59 AM

This has been posted before, it has only worked for a select few though, I couldn't get it to work myself, only some people could during the times before 10.5.6 when the mini 9 had just come out some could get it to work, but something has changed since then and others and myself have yet to get anything to work.

As far as mirroring goes, something plays a key role that is clearly important, and no one can figure out what it is yet.. but honestly I will take anything right now, sitting at a desk with a 9" screen isn't cutting it when I have a 19" screen sitting here for no reason half the time since I really don't use it that much with my 17" sitting here.

I just wish someone could figure it out!

SkyWriter · 01:08 AM

as far as i remember after installing 10.5.6/1.07/a04 i had external monitor support right out of the box - two such monitors supported 1280x1024, and 1600x1200 @70hz. all my problems however, were with a projector with 1024x768@60hz. for this i tried the mirroring fixes. none of which i could navigate successfully until i found the mirrordisplays2 application (tales of which are documented in many threads found via the link in my sig). after which i have been able to use the projector WITHOUT resorting to the initial execution flailing of the application. moreover i did not lose external monitor support either.

since then i have updated to 10.5.7/1.2a5 without issues.

one thing to note is that i don't have mirrored displays - just extended monitor that i use with power point.

i agree, something is missing. and until the recipe is found getting this functioning will continue to be a dark art.

bmaltais · 07-01-2009, 12:28 AM

Correct me if I am wrong but would't mirroring be useless any way since one would mirror the 1024x600 to an external monitor. Monitor extension work fine... so why mirroring?

SkyWriter · 07-01-2009, 01:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bmaltais

Monitor extension work fine... so why mirroring?

1) neither worked with a dell projector
2) lacking a reliable method to achieve #1 you need to try something
3) something in the process of mucking with mirroring worked for #1

BernDog · 07-02-2009, 12:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bmaltais

Correct me if I am wrong but would't mirroring be useless any way since one would mirror the 1024x600 to an external monitor. Monitor extension work fine... so why mirroring?

One major use of my mini is to watch video on my tv. Since I only watch SD, the mini's native resolution is fine. I also have my tv mounted in a recess above my fireplace and the cabling for the mini is run to a spot adjacent to the fireplace. If I'm using the remote, no problem, but if I need to do something else on the computer, it's much easier to have the main screen in front of me instead of 10 feet over facing out into the room. Also, regarding resolutions, I could send a higher res to the tv, but for some reason it would not fill the screen. By the time I zoomed in on it, it was fuzzier than the native res sent by mirroring. This may be due to the fact that I use a VGA>HDMI converter in my setup. All the wiring is already in the walls, and every other video source goes through my receiver through HDMI. I didn't really want to try to shoehorn a VGA cable through the conduit along with antenna, toslink (for OTA sound to my receiver), HDMI, and the cable for my xantech system.

My setup works really well...as long as I can keep mirroring going.

XCNuse · 07-02-2009, 02:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bmaltais

Correct me if I am wrong but would't mirroring be useless any way since one would mirror the 1024x600 to an external monitor. Monitor extension work fine... so why mirroring?

It doesn't work for me, and another thread from the past it only worked for a few random people but for majority no one can seem to get any of it to work.