HELP - can't read EDID from monitor - SOLVED

Moriah · Last edited by Moriah on Fri Aug 22, 2014 4:17 am; edited 1 time in total

I recently purchased a Dell P2815Q monitor that has very high resolution: 3840 x 2160. It must interface using displayport to achieve this resolution. My Lenovo w530 laptop has a minidisplayport that can connect to it via a minidisplayport to displayport cable, which I am using. The nvidia K100M discrete display controller in the laptop is capable of driving the display in the 3840 x 2160 mode. I have proved this by installing Windows-7 on a different boot disk and using the Dell display.

But under Gentoo, I can connect to the Dell external monitor, but it always comes up in 1024x768 mode.

After some investigation, I think the problem is that my Gentoo system cannot read the EDID information from the display.

creaker · l33t Joined: 14 Jul 2012 Posts: 651

I would try to
a) Configure laptop for switching to external monitor as early as it possible.
b) Retrieve EDID binary under Windows and save it to further use in Linux. Xorg.conf supports 'CustomEDID = /path/to/binary' option.
c) Contact Dell support for this file if it cannot be obtained from Windows.

Added:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/81370/how-to-create-extract-the-edid-for-from-a-monitor

Moriah · Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2014 11:25 am Post subject:

I have the external monitor configured to come up at boot, even while in the bios.

I used the get-edid and parse-edid programs you posted the link to in my original post.

How do I get the edid binary out of windows? I am not a windows person.
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creaker · l33t Joined: 14 Jul 2012 Posts: 651

krinn · Watchman Joined: 02 May 2003 Posts: 7470

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-894978.html
have a look on how i've done it.

Moriah · Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2014 3:11 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the good info. I will not be able to try any of this until 2014_08_18 Monday after 23:00 GMT, as my schedule is overloaded until then.

I will post what I find after that time.
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Moriah · Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2014 2:39 am Post subject:

I was able to connect my w530 to a 1920x1200 external monitor using the vga connector over the weekend. The vga connector on the w530 uses the discrete nvidia controller, whereas on my w500, the integrated intel controller is used on the vga connector. I observed the same inability to read the EDID information when using the VGA connector as I observed using the mini-displayport connector, so it seems to be nvidia related, not connector related. Just an observation...
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NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2014 11:58 am Post subject:

Moriah,

If you are using the nVidia binary blob driver, write a modeline and tell the nVidia driver to use it.
You can use the manual override for various parts of the EDID info or all of it.

Its a while since I've needed it so I'll need to refer you to the readme.
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Moriah · Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2014 3:02 pm Post subject:

Hi Neddy! Long time no correspond. :oops:

I am not sure which nvidia driver I am using, and its been 5 years since I had to cook up a modeline, so this will be a bit of a research project for me. I just emerged the nvidia driver and built the kernel for nvidia support. I also have the nvidia_fb module, as I needed the framebuffer for the integrated inteel driver, so I suspected I might need it for the nvidia driver as well.

I am travelling today, but maybe tonight I can look into it.

Thanks for the reply!

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krinn · Watchman Joined: 02 May 2003 Posts: 7470

You don't need to cook any modeline, if you look better at the link i gave you, you will see the modeline is just given when you read edid.

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2014 10:18 pm Post subject:

krinn,

Awww, you are spoiling Moriahs fun. There are lots of ways to get a mode line without resorting to paper and pencil and doing it from first principals.
I'm sure Moriah knows this too.

I was only trying to lead him in the right direction without giving the answer. :)
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Computer users fall into two groups:-
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Moriah · Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2014 3:14 am Post subject:

Problems are worse than I thought.

I had nvidia_fb as a module, which was why I got anything on my X display at all.

It seems that make menuconfig shows me that the nvidia droiver requires x86_32

Is that for real? I can't run my nvidia hardware on a 64 bit system? I can't believe that, but it does not show me any prompt for nvidia under AGP where it says it should, and when I search with slash (/), is says x86_32 is a required prerequisite.

I have a 32 GB 64 bit 8 core laptop, and I have a nice high performance nvidia display controller, and I have a super high resolution monitor, aND i CAN ONLY USE IT IN TOTALLY CRIPPLED 32 BIT MODE? That stinks! :evil:

Now please tell me I am wrong, and why.
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krinn · Watchman Joined: 02 May 2003 Posts: 7470

It's just drivers for the AGP part of nforce nvidia drivers, that are chipset.

Maybe all nforce supporting 64bits cpu were made with pci-e and some were made with AGP but not to drive any 64bits cpu.
So forcing them X86_32 is then logic and in this case should help 64bits users hinting them if they use a 64bit kernel, they don't have any nforce AGP chipset and should not use that driver.

From a long long time, nvidia blob drivers have in its readme the advise that using two drivers to handle the same card is a bad idea. So if you have any problem with your card, first disable framebuffer.

Anon-E-moose · Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2014 11:07 am Post subject:

You shouldn't be using nvidia fb, use the vesa one instead, then load nvidia only for X.
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Moriah · Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2014 1:25 pm Post subject:

Oh yeah, forgot to mention, I alsohad this whole setup running under win7-64 and everything worked, so it will work under 64 bit. Now I just need to figure out the magic drivr combination for gentoo.

I guess the first step is to get rid of nvidia_fb, which step I will take tonight.
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NeddySeagoon · Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2014 3:35 pm Post subject:

Moriah,

nvidia-drivers will not load at all when you have nvidiafb in the kernel.
The Xorg.0.log usually tells you.
Further, nvidia-drivers will tell you that you have invalidated your warranty :) if you use any framebuffer console at all but vesa seems to work here.

Lastly, I'm 64 bit /no-multilib and no 32 bit support in the kernel. nvidia-drivers works for me.
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NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
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those that have never had a hard drive fail.

Moriah · Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2014 3:48 pm Post subject:

Thanks, Neddy! I will be working on this again tonight. Of course by that time you will be asleep.
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Moriah · Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2014 3:23 am Post subject:

I took out the nvidia_fb driver, and still could not find an appropriate nvidia driver anywhere in make menuconfig.

I built the kernel anyway and booted it. It is apparently using the framebuffer driver (not the nvidia one), but it is able to display 3840x2160 on the external monitor after I run xrandr to select that mode.

I cannot, however, run more than a single X-server. I normally run 5 of them (I have my reasons; no need to explain here).

The /var/log/Xorg.0.log file shows some problems, as do the other 4 Xorg log files. I could post the Xorg.0.log file here, but it is pretty long.

If I knew what to choose for an nvidia driver, it might work better, but at least I have the display running in 3840x2160 mode now, which is a minor victory in itself.

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Anon-E-moose · Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2014 9:41 am Post subject:

There is no driver for nvidia (proprietary blob) in the kernel, use vesa.

This is what I had for the part of xorg.conf that deals with the nvidia blob (when I was running it)

Maffblaster · Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2014 12:09 am Post subject: Nvidia-Drivers Issues

Moriah,

I've having the same program as you. I've replied to a few of the forums you've recently started or commented on. Let me know if you get the drivers working. I'll let you know if I get mine working. I've been trying to get them working for a WHILE with little success. It's pretty frustrating. I'm sure you feel the same way. :roll:

I do know for a fact that the above posts are correct, you can't use nvidia-fb while using the nvidia-drivers proprietary package. They conflict. I was told to disable the nouveau driver and any nvidia framebuffer drivers in the kernel config...

Maffblaster
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Moriah · Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2014 12:37 am Post subject:

When I start X, it fails, saying "Module nvidia not found."

Where do I get module nvidia?
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Maffblaster · Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2014 2:33 am Post subject:

You should be able to get it by

Moriah · Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2014 1:18 pm Post subject:

Yes, I did that, but they don't show up. Is there something in the lernel build I am missing?
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Anon-E-moose · Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2014 2:11 pm Post subject:

Which nvidia chipset do you have and which nvidia drivers are built?
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Moriah · Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2014 2:57 pm Post subject:

It is a Lenovo w530 laptop. It has the K100M chipset. I am not at the machine in question now, so I can't say which drivers are being built. If you look back thru this thread, you will see where I at least got a hi-res picture on the monitor with nvidia_fb, but everyone says don't use that.

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Foghorn Leghorn is a Warner Bros. cartoon character.