enabling RGB output

[Matthew Dillon]

:Last Saturday I brought my laptop to church to show someone the DVD (it's 
:about Bible translation and two people had tried to play it on their Windows 
:boxen without success - I'm going to ask them to try VLC). I put the laptop 
:on the table and he pulled a sound cable and a video cable and plugged them 
:into the laptop. The sound immediately came out of the room's speakers. He 
:then tried pressing function keys to get the video to come out, but nothing 
:happened. How can I tell the laptop to output to the video connector?
:
:Pierre
:-- 
:I believe in Yellow when I'm in Sweden and in Black when I'm in Wales.

    Usually X autodetects whether an external screen is connected
    when it starts up and disables the external port if there isn't.
    It doesn't usually autodetect state changes on the external port
    once it is up.

    I think there is a X utility that can be used to turn it on and
    off but I'm not sure how.  I haven't tried it myself yet.
    Maybe 'xrandr'.  'man xrandr'.  It's a pretty complex utility but
    I think that's your best bet for changing things on the fly.

    You may be able to google for more information.

					-Matt
					Matthew Dillon 
					<dillon at backplane.com>