How to disable monitor detection in 11.4?

English Hardware
#1

Hi guys,

I’ve just upgraded to 11.4 and found myself with the same problem that I posted in Available resolutions vary depending if monitor is on or off when starting the system

I’m using this pc as a server, and I acces to it most of the time via VNC, so the monitor is turned off almost all the time. If the pc boots while monitor is on, i have a resolution of 1280, if it’s off I get 1024.
In the previous post I fixed this using the option “CustomEDID” in my xorg.conf, but this time I have no xorg.conf file to put this option in, and even if I did, since I’m using the default drivers (Nouveau, i think) instead of Nvidia oficial ones, i have no clue about how to obtain edid.bin.

Any ideas on how to fix this without installing the propietary drivers? (since i don’t need ant fancy 3d effects, kde seems to work fine and performance is ok)

Thanks in advance,
Plaga

#2

In the previous post I fixed this using the option “CustomEDID” in my xorg.conf, but this time I have no xorg.conf file to put this option in, and even if I did, since I’m using the default drivers (Nouveau, i think) instead of Nvidia oficial ones, i have no clue about how to obtain edid.bin.

That option is specific to the nvidia driver, so if using the nouveau driver, using edid.bin is not possible.

#3

I don’t have nvidia hardware, and the nouveau driver has limited configuration options, but I had a quick read of

man xorg.conf

Specifying video modes is optional because the server will use the DDC or other information pro-
vided by the monitor to automatically configure the list of modes available. When modes are
specified explicitly in the Monitor section (with the Modes, ModeLine, or UseModes keywords),
built-in modes with the same names are not included. Built-in modes with different names are,
however, still implicitly included, when they meet the requirements of the monitor.

So, it may possible to edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-monitor.conf and include the desired modeline like this

Section "Monitor"
  Identifier "Default Monitor"

  ## If your monitor doesn't support DDC you may override the
  ## defaults here
  HorizSync 28-85
  VertRefresh 50-100

  ## Add your mode lines here, use e.g the cvt tool



EndSection

Use cvt to generate a suitable modeline for your system, eg:

~> cvt -r 1280 1024 60
# 1280x1024 59.79 Hz (CVT 1.31M4-R) hsync: 63.02 kHz; pclk: 90.75 MHz
Modeline "1280x1024R"   90.75  1280 1328 1360 1440  1024 1027 1034 1054 +hsync -vsync

YMMV

#4

Hi
IMHO, vnc is slow…, use something like NX (from nomachine it’s free for non commercial use). Install the 3 rpm’s on the remote machine and the client on you local machine. Set the system to boot to runlevel 3, ensure ssh is running and the port opened in the firewall and your good to go.

#5

Hi,

thanks for the idea, deano_ferrari, but it seems Xorg is ignoring my changes in 50-monitor.conf
first I tryed with

Section "Monitor"
  Identifier "Default Monitor"

  ## If your monitor doesn't support DDC you may override the
  ## defaults here
  HorizSync 28-85
  VertRefresh 50-100
  # 1280x1024 59.79 Hz (CVT 1.31M4-R) hsync: 63.02 kHz; pclk: 90.75 MHz
  Modeline "1280x1024R"   90.75  1280 1328 1360 1440  1024 1027 1034 1054 +hsync -vsync

EndSection

but it didn’t work, after searching in forums I also tryed with this version

Section "Monitor"
  Identifier "Default Monitor"

  ## If your monitor doesn't support DDC you may override the
  ## defaults here
  HorizSync 28-85
  VertRefresh 50-100
  Option       "PreferredMode" "1280x1024"
  UseModes     "Modes[0]"
  
EndSection

Section "Modes"
  Identifier   "Modes[0]"
  # 1280x1024 59.79 Hz (CVT 1.31M4-R) hsync: 63.02 kHz; pclk: 90.75 MHz
  Modeline "1280x1024R"   90.75  1280 1328 1360 1440  1024 1027 1034 1054 +hsync -vsync
  Modeline "1280x1024"   90.75  1280 1328 1360 1440  1024 1027 1034 1054 +hsync -vsync
EndSection

but the problem persists.

I’ve tryed installing the nvidia drivers (legacy ones, since the 6600 in this pc melted a while ago and now I’m using an older 4400. btw, I don’t even know if this ones will have the custom edid option), but looking at /var/log/Xorg.0.log it seems nouveau is still being used, even after blacklisting it (as it’s advised in the NVIDIA_the_hard_way page)

# echo "blacklist nouveau" >> /etc/modprobe.d/50-blacklist.conf

Also I’m having some stability problems, sometimes the system throws me out of the kde session and leaves me stuck at the login screen and since x11vnc is set up to autostart with kde, I’m forced to go log in again in that pc. I don’t know if it’s a x11vnc problem, a kde problem or an Xorg problem, it happened from time to time with suse11.3 but in just two days it happened at least a dozen of times with 11.4.

About NX, I’ve never used it, but I’ll guess it’s worth a try, thanks for the tip, malcolmlewis

#6

The nouveau driver appears to be very limited with config options, so without checking the Xorg.0.log for errors, its difficult to say what the problem(s) might be.

As far as using the nvidia driver is concerned, did you also do this (as explained in the guide):

Disable Kernel Mode Setting (KMS)

openSUSE 11.3 uses KMS by default, which is not supported by the proprietary Nvidia driver, therefore you have to disable it.

Add nomodeset to the boot options in /boot/grub/menu.lst

Also remove it from the initrd. Edit /etc/sysconfig/kernel and set NO-KMS-IN-INITRD = yes . Then run:

#7

Yep, you are right, disabling KMS fixed the driver problem, nv driver is loaded instead of nouveau.

Now, with monitor on, kde ends up in 1280x1024 (no bigger resolutions available), with monitor off, it gets up to 1792x1344.

I set 1280x960 (the biggest resolution offered by both modes) as default, and seems to be working for now.

Thanks for all the help!