Well I've grown tired of my setup. Everything is cludded and messy. I bought some new toys for my iBook and since my iBook is faster then my B&W im going to toss the B&W onto my other desk and use my iBook for prim use. I got a external video adapter for it and some speakers. I'll take some pics of the new layout. Also im going to order a adapter that will let me connect the iBook to a TV so I can use frontrow in my computer room's TV.

I hear you, my desk was so messy, I got a different one thats smaller. That should force me to keep it clean! It also made it impossible for dual crts and those speakers I just built. I got a 19" Samsung LCD to help out until ithe big boy comes. I now use two desks, lol, one for my workstation and one for working on stuff for this site. Maybe Ill post a couple of pics too.

-maestro

Well I got it all nice and setup but im kinda stuck facing a mess of cables all over the top of my desk. I wish the iBook was like a standard PC laptop setup so the ports for external devices are in the back. Also I had no idea that the external video adapter only works when the main LCD on the iBook is opened. I wonder if theres a way to make this work so the LCD can be closed and keep it from going into sleep mode.

There is a software hack you can use for that. Cant remember the name though. I will look for it or hopefully will post it.
-maestro

I believe it's actually a firware hack; search for it on Google.

http://www.rutemoeller.com/mp/ibook/ibook_e.html

The utility to enable external monitors to work with the lid closed and/or screen spanning is called "screen spanning doctor" (link above). I've been using it for a year on my 12" 1.2 iBook g4 and its fantastic, I normally hook my ibook to a 19" AG Nevo when I'm at home and use that as my primary monitor with the ibooks screen for stuff like docs I'm referring to, remote shells and IM windows. Sitting next to my other 19" tft hooked up to my G3 Mac and my XP/Gentoo/Solaris PC it works a treat. While you can use the ibook closed after the patch it might get a bit hot so keep an eye on it, plus once the patch is installed you get to use both monitors at once for different displays.

here was meant to be a pic of my setup, but for some reason it aint working either in firefox or safari (yes I have checked that its under the size requirements, not quite sure what I'm doing wrong)

Post edited by: burtman, at: 2005/12/28 22:58

Post edited by: burtman, at: 2005/12/28 23:01

Good call Burtman, heres a Karma point for you.

-maestro

Well I have found many was of making this work but none of it works for Mac OS X 10.4.3. They're mostly kernel tweaks made for Jag and Panther. I found though for the older Clamshell and PowerBooks that if you tap the power button you can close the lid while the external monitor is pluged in and the powerbook doesn't go into sleep mode.

I have also found some info that people claim when you hook up a external monitor to your iBook it cuts the Vram in half. Not ture when it's mirrored video, it's all shared as one chunk since it's showing the same output. Now if you use Screen Spaning then it will cut the vRam in half.

BTW, that Screen Spaning program is neat as heck.

When you span your screen it does cut vram in half. When you are working on you laptop you should be fine though, most apps dont need much. When your laptop is closed though, you should get the vrams full attention.
-maestro