% Written by Saad Bin Javed <sbjaved@gmail.com>, irc nick: koogee
% Updated by Sayantan Das <sayantan13@gmail.com> for Oneiric and Precise changes
% edited 11/15/2011, Hannie (spell check, latex code check)
% Edited by Chris Woollard <cwoollard@gmail.com> for 12.04
\section{Displays}
\subsection{Hardware drivers}
\index{drivers|(}
A driver is a piece of software which tells your computer how to communicate with a piece of hardware. Every component in a computer requires a driver to function, whether it's the printer, \acronym{DVD} player, hard disk, or graphics card. 

\marginnote{Your graphics card is the component in your computer which outputs to the display. Whether you are watching videos on YouTube, viewing \acronym{DVD}s, or simply enjoying the smooth transition effects when you maximize/minimize your windows, your graphics device is doing the hard work behind the scenes.}
The majority of graphics cards are manufactured by three well-known companies: Intel, \acronym{AMD}/\acronym{ATI}, and \acronym{NVIDIA} Corp. You can find your video card manufacturer by referring to your computer's manual, by looking for the specifications of your computer's model on the Internet, or by using the command \userinput{lspci} in a terminal. The \application{Ubuntu Software Center} houses a number of applications that can tell you detailed system information. SysInfo is one such program that you can use to find relevant information about your System devices. Ubuntu comes with support for graphics devices manufactured by the above companies, and many others, out of the box. That means you don't have to find and install any drivers yourself, Ubuntu takes care of it all.

Keeping in line with Ubuntu's philosophy, the drivers that are used by default for powering graphics devices are open source. This means that the drivers can be modified by the Ubuntu developers and problems with them can be fixed. However, in some cases a proprietary driver (restricted driver) provided by the company may provide better performance or features that are not present in the open source driver. In other cases, your particular device may not be supported by any open source drivers yet. In those scenarios, you may want to install the restricted driver provided by the manufacturer.

For both philosophical and practical reasons, Ubuntu does not install restricted drivers by default but allows the user to make an informed choice. Remember that restricted drivers, unlike the open source drivers for your device, are not maintained by Ubuntu. Problems caused by those drivers will be resolved only when the manufacturer wishes to address them. To see if restricted drivers are available for your system, press the \keystroke{Super/Windows} key on your keyboard to show the Dash or click the Ubuntu icon on the Unity Launcher, and search for \userinput{Additional Drivers}. If a driver is provided by the company for your particular device, it will be listed there. You can simply click \button{Activate} to enable the driver. This process requires an active Internet connection and it will ask for your password. Once installation is complete you may have to reboot your computer to finish activating the driver.

The Ubuntu developers prefer open source drivers because they allow any problem to be identified and fixed by anyone with knowledge within the community. Ubuntu development is extremely fast and it is likely that your device will be supported by open source drivers. You can use the Ubuntu Live \acronym{CD} to check your device's compatibility with Ubuntu before installing, or go online to the Ubuntu forums or to \url{http://www.askubuntu.com} to ask about your particular device. 
\marginnote[-5\baselineskip]{Another useful resource is the official online documentation (\url{http://help.ubuntu.com}), which contains detailed information about various graphics drivers and known problems. This same documentation can be found by searching for \userinput{Yelp} in the Dash search bar or by pressing \keystroke{F1} on your keyboard.}
\index{drivers|)}

\subsection{Setting up your screen resolution}
\index{display!changing resolution|(}
One of the most common display related tasks is setting the correct screen resolution for your desktop monitor or laptop.

\marginnote{Displays are made up of thousands of tiny pixels. Each pixel displays a different color, and when combined they all display the image that you see. The native screen resolution is a measure of the amount of actual pixels on your display.}
Ubuntu correctly identifies your native screen resolution by itself and sets it for you. However, due to a wide variety of devices available, sometimes it can't properly identify your resolution.

To set or check your screen resolution, go to \menu{System Settings \then Displays}. The \window{Displays} window detects automatically the type of display and shows your display's name, size. The screen resolution and refresh rate is set to the recommended value by Ubuntu. If the recommended settings are not to your liking, you can change the same from the \dropdown{Resolution} drop-down to the resolution of your choice.
\index{display!changing resolution|)}

% I'm adding an extra section as I feel a lot of users may need this and is supported as well. Please edit as necessary - Sayantan Das <sayantan13@gmail.com>
\subsection{Adding an extra display}
\index{display!adding secondary|(}
Sometimes, you may want to add more than one display device to your desktop, or may want to add an external monitor to your laptop. Doing this is quite simple. Whether it's an extra monitor, LCD TV, or a projector, Ubuntu can handle it all.
Ubuntu supports the addition of multiple displays by default, which is as easy as plug and play. Ubuntu recognizes almost all the latest monitors, TVs and projectors by default. Sometimes it may happen that your additional display is not detected when you connect it to the machine. To resolve this, go to \menu{System Settings \then Displays} and click on \menu{Detect Displays}. This will detect the monitors connected to the machine. This menu can also be found from the \menu{Power Off} menu on the top panel. You can also search for Displays at the Dash search bar.
Now, there are two modes which you can enable for your displays. One option is to spread your desktop across two or more monitors. This is particularly useful if you are working on multiple projects and need to keep an eye on each of them at the same time. 
The second option is to mirror the desktop onto each of the displays. This is particularly useful when you are using a laptop to display something on a larger screen or a projector. To enable this option just check the box beside \checkbox{Mirror displays} and click \button{Apply} to save the settings. You will get a pop-up notification asking if you want to keep the current setting or revert to the previous setting. Click to keep the current setting. Starting from Ubuntu 12.04, you can also select whether you want the Unity Launcher in both the displays or only in the primary display.
\index{display!adding secondary|)}

