the sony vaio Z505LS (all Z series except very recent, i think) have
a dongle for the external vga (+ parallel, serial, and extra usb and
fw ports).

to switch from the lcd to the vga, you hit Function-F7.  but, it does
not work on -current (as of today, never has worked afaik).  watching
with xev, the Function key does not generate an X event like Control
(etc) do.

would something be blocking this key?  seems odd.  any hints?

TIA!
-heas