Unable to read EDID for display device DFP-0

[enderandrew]

I am trying to install openSUSE 11.1 on a rather old laptop to make it useful again. I am also getting the:

(WW) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Unable to read EDID for display device DFP-0

warning in my /var/log/Xorg.0.log file. Anytime X starts, via kdm or sax, or whatever, I just get a black screen. I have attempted wiping my xorg.conf file, but I just can't seem to load X with the nvidia legacy driver. (I have a GeForce4 440 in this old beast).

The nv driver works fine, but with no 3D.

Everywhere I'm googling, it seems I need to try a custom edid file in xorg.conf, except I can't grab the edid with nvidia-settings, since I can't get the nvidia driver to load.

Is there another way to grab the edid file from the display on this laptop?

[enderandrew]

(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/local" does not exist.
(WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/PEX" does not exist.
(WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/latin2/misc" does not exist.
(WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/latin2/75dpi" does not exist.
(WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/latin2/100dpi" does not exist.
(WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/latin2/Type1" does not exist.
(WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/latin7/75dpi" does not exist.
(WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/baekmuk" does not exist.
(WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/japanese" does not exist.
(WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/kwintv" does not exist.
(WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/uni" does not exist.
(WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/CID" does not exist.
(WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/ucs/misc" does not exist.
(WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/ucs/75dpi" does not exist.
(WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/ucs/100dpi" does not exist.
(WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/hellas/misc" does not exist.
(WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/hellas/75dpi" does not exist.
(WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/hellas/100dpi" does not exist.
(WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/hellas/Type1" does not exist.
(WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/misc/sgi" does not exist.
(WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/xtest" does not exist.
(WW) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Unable to read EDID for display device CRT-0
(WW) NVIDIA(0): Unable to get display device CRT-0's EDID; cannot compute DPI
(WW) NVIDIA(0): from CRT-0's EDID.
(WW) NVIDIA(0): Option "CalcAlgorithm" is not used
(WW) NVIDIA(0): Option "PreferredMode" is not used

[enderandrew]

Well, the issue wasn't the EDID thing. sax2 didn't correctly set up Xorg to work with the nvidia legacy driver. I had to add:

Option "UseDisplayDevice" "DFP"

under Section "Device"

and then the driver would work. Amazingly enough, I can even get compiz to start and run, despite only having 32 MB of GPU memory. It doesn't run well, but it will start.