After over a year in hibernation, I will attempt to jumpstart my blogging habit again. I’ll begin by rambling about Ubuntu and the latest release of Ubuntu which I recently upgraded to.
I now use Ubuntu as my main operating system and have done so for over a year. I’ve grown to love Unity and the increasing stability of this free operating system. One of my biggest annoyances about being on Ubuntu was the seeming fragility of the upgrade tool and for the longest time, an upgrade meant wiping my computer and installing a fresh copy.
I have been able to successfully upgrade my notebook from 12.04 to 12.10 and from 12.10 to 13.04 using the upgrade tool. Visually, 13.04 hasn’t changed much but a lot of changes were made under the hood. Importantly, don’t upgrade just yet if you rely on Chrome or Skype for your day job unless you understand the workarounds in the release notes.
Summary: This post details a relatively simple way I got my external monitor (ASUS VH242H) to work with Ubuntu-powered notebook (HP dv7-3080us). Check out my xorg.conf or see the gallery of images if you are having trouble getting your setup to work.
Update: A video of the experience has been uploaded to my YouTube channel! Did you know I had one?
I started my new year with a sick husband and installing Ubuntu 11.10 on my notebook. This isn’t my first time around this OS-switching rodeo but this time, there is more than just curiosity driving my switch i.e. *cough*grades*cough*. I’ve never really gone “all the way” with the Linux distributions I’ve tried for a host of reasons but with each version of my favorite distro (Ubuntu), a lot of my reasons for not staying have evaporated. One of those things is a pain-free external monitor setup. Well, I am here to report that, with a little trial-and-error, I now have my external monitor connected to my laptop!
Here are the steps I took to get my external monitor working on my Ubuntu laptop:
First, backup your xorg.conf file by typing this command into your terminal: sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.bak{add-a-date}. That way, if you accidentally screw things up, you can go back to a working xorg configuration file.
Next, connect your external monitor with the HDMI cable (I guess you can use whatever cord you have but I don’t know if these same instructions will apply). At your terminal prompt, type: sudo nvidia-settings. Ignore the bunch of messagesyou’ll get in the terminal.
Click “Detect Displays” and your new monitor should show up as “Disabled”. Then, click on the discovered monitor and select “TwinView”. Your screen should temporarily flicker and/or display garbled output. You will be prompted to save your new settings (save them). Click on “Save to X Configuration File” and back this configuration up like in step 1.
Settings after Ubuntu detects the external monitor
Nvidia X Server Setting for Disabled Monitor
You may have noticed that before you added the external monitor, your laptop’s monitor configuration was set to “Separate X Server”. However, after adding the new monitor and saving the new configuration, my laptop’s monitor was automatically set to TwinView as well.
Open terminal again (Ctrl-Alt-T) and type sudo nvidia-settings again to get back in to the Nvidia X Server Settings application. The formerly disabled monitor should now display the max. resolution of the new monitor. Click on the new monitor and make sure TwinView is still the configuration selection for both monitors.
New X Server settings for the laptop monitor
New settings for the external monitor
Click on the rectangle representing your laptop monitor and confirm that the position for your laptop monitor is now “Absolute” with the value of “+0+0″. Then, click on the newly added monitor’s rectangle and make sure that the position for that monitor is what you want it to be i.e. to the right of your laptop monitor, to the left, etc.
I’m a bit leery of messing around too much with my Nvidia X Server settings but I’m glad I finally discovered a combination that works for my laptop + external monitor set up (even after rebooting ). Check out my current xorg.conf file on Pastebin.
Now for the bad part, if you are like me and tried other options like Separate X server or whatnot, be prepared to restart your computer to find your computer unusable i.e. graphics gone wild. The good news is since the problems were brought about by editing xorg.conf, if you have a backup of xorg.conf that works, you can simply drop to the text console instead of graphically logging in. Then, you can overwrite the bad xorg.conf. I believe the command to drop to the text console is: Ctrl-Alt-F2.
Let me know your experiences and workarounds to getting an external monitor setup in the comments!
One thing I haven’t shared too publicly is that I worked as a part-time customer service agent for a telemarketing firm. It was a departure for any of the previous jobs I’ve held but I now hold a deeper appreciation for the work that telemarketers do. So, what has precipitated this change of subject matter? Several weeks ago, I was contacted about a nice lady (hi Lynn! ) about advertising on my site. (Yes, I accept advertising on this site. Hit me up!) I was (a) flattered at the attention and (b) intrigued because of my former job & just how big and surprisingly effective Global Response’s call center outsourcingis.
In plain English, that means companies like JC Penney, Puma, National Geographic, Blue Cross Blue Shield, David’s Bridal, MoMA, etc hire Global Response to handle things like customer service, sales, etc.
One of Global Response’s services is the provision of inbound call center services. An example of this could be if you’re having trouble buying an item on a website and there is a 1-800 number to call, chances are good that the party/person that picks up is a customer service agent working for a call center i.e. a center like Global Response. You know how you have to call a 1-8xx number to active your debit or credit card? Chances are you are calling into a call center much like Global Response. When you have trouble watching Netflix and that 1-866 number appears on the screen, Netflix can choose to hire people to handle those calls (in-house) or use an outfit much like Global Response (outsourcing). It is becoming increasingly popular for companies to outsource customer service to professional telemarketing organizations than handle them in-house.
In addition to providing customer service, they have fulfillment centers which means they help their clients with storing, selling and shipping goods to their clients’ customers. They also provide outbound calling services, one of the more recognizable duties of telemarketing agents. Global Response is able to be effective in their outbound calling services by providing training & quality assurance which is (to be fair) standard at call centers worth their salt.
In learning more about Global Response, I was really impressed at their client roster, case studies of their customers and their social media savvy. Let me count the ways:
Their website stands heads & shoulders above other call centers. The site is designed to be modern, loads fast and even makes use of simple & “pretty” URLs.
They put up case studies on their site which is something I haven’t seen on the other competitors that I’m used to. I like to read testimonials and these case studies provide prospective business some level of comfort that Global Response doesn’t trade in BS.
The first search I did was “Global Response call center sucks” and I was relieved to find that there weren’t any major negative issues either with clients or employees. Like my (former) employer does, they pay their employees weekly and here are 2 employee reviews of Global Response which are largely positive.
They have a blog written by several employees (David Cogan, Shane Slack, Bill Erickson, etc) which they use to put a personal touch on their company’s duties.
Global Response isn’t perfect; I did discover a typo on their site. Overall, I’ve been pretty impressed and while I haven’t had the pleasure of speaking with a Global Response call center agent, I’m fine with drawing attention to what appears to be a well-oiled operation that Global Response runs. Visit the Global Response website at http://www.globalresponse.com/
After over a year in hibernation, I will attempt to jumpstart my blogging habit again. I’ll begin by rambling about Ubuntu and the latest release of Ubuntu which I recently upgraded to.
). Check out 
Overall, I’ve been pretty impressed and while I haven’t had the pleasure of speaking with a Global Response call center agent, I’m fine with drawing attention to what appears to be a well-oiled operation that Global Response runs. Visit the Global Response website at
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