Lenovo t420 laptop, RedHat Enterprise Linux 6.3, 3rd monitor

T400/410/420 and T500/510/520 series specific matters only
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slurbus
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Joined: Thu Sep 06, 2012 5:43 pm
Location: Victoria, BC, Canada

Lenovo t420 laptop, RedHat Enterprise Linux 6.3, 3rd monitor

#1 Post by slurbus » Thu Sep 06, 2012 5:56 pm

Hello, I have looked all over the internet, the issue I am having is I need a 3rd monitor hooked up to my lenove t420 laptop. That is my laptop screen, and 2 external monitors. When I had windows, I was able to use an USB external video card to complete this task but now I am running RHEL 6.3 and the USB drivers for video cards are not working yet.
This is the best link I seen so far and it is great except it is way over my head:
http://nameq.wordpress.com/2011/09/21/d ... ux-fedora/
There was a suggestion about getting an ExpressCard 34 external video card but other than a nice idea, I can't seem to find anything like this at all.
I did find this link, it looks promising but ... I am not sure it would be good for a work type enviroment. I am also positive I do not need that much power,
http://www.techradar.com/news/computing ... tor-915616
I am looking to hook up a standard 22 inch monitor with just light duty images, not 3D games.
Has anyone seen anything like this at all?
Oh, I have also tried every combo of cables, I can hook up 2 external monitors but it kills my laptop monitor, the Key point here is I need 3 monitors.
I do not know if this will be able to be answered or not, seems like I am asking for way too much.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Slurbus

slurbus
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Sep 06, 2012 5:43 pm
Location: Victoria, BC, Canada

Re: Lenovo t420 laptop, RedHat Enterprise Linux 6.3, 3rd monitor

#2 Post by slurbus » Fri Sep 28, 2012 12:02 pm

WOW, I guess it can't be done,
Thanks to all who have looked at this issue. I have a potential solution,
If you get the docking station that has the ability to have 3 monitors, it will allow you to connect 3 monitors BUT only 2 can be used at the same time. If you get the docking station that has 5 monitors ($20 more) you can have 3 on at the same time.
Hope this helps.

wolfman
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Re: Lenovo t420 laptop, RedHat Enterprise Linux 6.3, 3rd monitor

#3 Post by wolfman » Fri Sep 28, 2012 2:26 pm

Thanks for posting back. I don't know how many folks have had the occasion to do the triple monitor set up with an external USB adapter. I have a Mini Dock Plus Series 3 for mobile workstations (has 5 video ports) and a Thinkpad with Intel HD graphics only and was able to drive 2 external monitors off of that (using DVI-D) until one of them died and I switched to a single 24 inch display on the display port. My graphics card limits me to two as I do not have a discrete graphics card in my T420 (nor in the previous T410).
Thinkpad T420 | Core i-5 2520M | 16gb RAM | 120gb Intel 520 SSD + 750gb 7200 RPM | 6300 N | Ubuntu 12.04 x64
Desktop: AMD FX-8350 (8 cores) | 32gb ECC RAM | 240gb Intel 530 SSD + 1tb 7200 RPM | Ubuntu 14.04 x64 | HP ZR24w
Previous Thinkpads: A21m, R40, X61, T410

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